Chris Ball travels on $3 a day from Seattle to San Francisco for charity

HE’S visited 60 countries, but this man’s latest adventure is like none he’s ever experienced before. Find out why — and how — he’s travelling on just $3 a day.

Aussie travels on $3 a day

HE’S a travel guru who’s explored 60 countries, but Australian Chris Ball’s latest adventure is unlike anything he’s ever experienced before.

Ball, 33, the founder and CEO of adventure travel company AdventureHoney, is cycling 1300 kilometres from Seattle to San Francisco. But there’s a twist — he has a budget of just $3 a day.

The gruelling challenge is part of a broader mission to help the more than one billion people living in extreme poverty around the world, through the Australian not-for-profit company Spark International.

The company enlists the help of entrepreneurs such as Ball to give locals in poverty-stricken countries the tools they need to improve their circumstances. It’s financed via crowd-funding, so Ball is hoping his US trip will help raise enough money to bring the next Spark mission to Papua New Guinea.

Ball has chosen to live on $3 a day, as this is the amount millions of people around the world survive on each day.

He spoke with news.com.au about his journey so far, which kicked off on August 25, and is due to wrap up this Saturday.

Why did you decide to do this?

I was inspired by the people I met in some of the poorest parts of the planet.

How challenging has the trip been so far?

Riding over 100km a day on $3 a day is not impossible, but you have to be a guru to pull it off. It’s safe to say that I drastically underestimated the weight of this challenge!

Ball has waved goodbye to many luxuries on his latest trip.

There are two reasons why it’s so hard. The first is my calorie requirements. I’m burning through 3000-4000 (12552-16736 kilojoules) calories a day, so I need a lot of food to fuel my engine. Without the help of strangers, I would literally conk out.

The second challenge is morale. This is hard work! You can climb hills reaching almost a kilometre in a day, and sometimes you feel close to vomiting. Even worse, it rained non-stop for 18 hours at one point.

Basically, your butt hurts. Your quads burn. You’re sweating bullets, then the sun disappears and you’re cold.

Ball has been lucky to receive food gifts from strangers.

How have you used your money so far?

All of my budget has been spent on food. I’m a little over budget at the moment, so I’m going to need to find creative ways to source food.

Tell us more about what you’re eating

Food is a reward for this extreme journey. If I was a hamster running through a maze, the maze is Highway 101, the pellet (reward) is the BBQ ribs and beer or clam chowder with crusty bread. But I have to ride past temptation. Instead, I munch on pita bread with peanut butter, which was given to me by a couple of young Americans.

This is dinner ...

I have at least one treat a day, and hope that locals will give me something. Bicycle tourers are the best, they are the easiest to approach. I traded one energy bar with a local who gave me a huge bag of raisins (which is still going four days later!) and a big wrap with peanut butter and raisins in return. Sweet!

I did manage to buy giant-sized pasta packets and pasta sauce, for just $3. It was my dinner for my first five nights in a row! And energy bars have been phenomenal.

Occasionally I’ll treat myself to something on the dollar menu at McDonalds.

It’s really tough.

The route.

Where have you been staying?

I camp everywhere. The first night was the toughest, I left Seattle late and had to push on in the dark to make up lost ground. Fifty kilometres west of Seattle I turned off the highway and, while trying desperately to find a place to crash, inadvertently veered into someone’s private property. They stormed out and threatened me, which was a little hairy just after I’d ridden past a massive gun shop with Guns are Freedom as its motto!

I also spent the night camping solo in the woods next to a highway, imagining bears near my tent. Not ideal!

But it has gotten better as I’ve progressed. The highlight so far has been Waldport, Oregon where I camped on the beach. Stunning.

It’s not all hard work!

You can help Spark’s bid to end poverty by visiting seattle2sanfran.com before September 30.

Ball on top of the world.

Climbing an ice waterfall.