Mark Boyle was a man with a dream. He was so convinced that a world without the evils of money is possible that he set out to walk from Britain to India without spending a penny in order to prove it.

But Mr Boyle, who hoped to reach Gandhi’s birthplace within two-and-a-half years, had reckoned without one sizeable stumbling block: the French.

Specifically, the 28-year-old businessman and his two travelling companions had failed to consider the likely reaction when they arrived in Calais and attempted to blag their way across the proud Gallic nation without being able to speak French.

Stranded in the port town just a month into his journey with little more than an extra pair of sandals to his name, Mr Boyle turned tail and returned home to England. Adding insult to injury, he had to "touch money" in making the trip.

The former head of an organic food company is part of the Freeconomy movement, which wants to rid the world of money altogether.

Explaining the motives behind his 9,000-mile trip before he set off, he said: "For 28 years I’ve been part of a world where money means security. That’s 28 years of knowing where my next meal is going to come from, 28 years of knowing I can have a roof over my head. But it’s also been 28 years of insecurity, fear, complacency and non-momentary living."

And so, in late January, he began his "pilgrimage" to India’s west coast, hoping that it would demonstrate his faith in humanity.

But this noble plan hit the buffers almost as soon as he and two companions had crossed the Channel.

Writing on his blog, Mr Boyle said that the optimistic philosophy behind his project had somehow got lost in translation: "Not only did no one...speak the language, they also see us as just a bunch of freeloading backpackers, which is the complete opposite of what the pilgrimage is really about."

"That really scared us, and given that we now were pretty much out of food, hadn’t slept in days and were really cold, we had to reassess the whole situation."

It soon became clear that not learning the local lingo was a fairly major mistake: "We spoke to a few people who were willing to talk and they said that France would not go for this unless we could speak fluent French, which none of us could.

"The advice was to make a beeline for Belgium as folk said they would be more likely to want to speak some English."

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