He was in a different time, right. Lets call it a different dimension for now.
Then there is every possibility that the landscape has changed. Also, it is unlikely he is actually somewhere that exists on the game, because the "desert" / "plain" / etc. shrinks as he walks across it. I suggest that it is a psychological thing. Maybe he was losing it a bit (call it stress.) this kind of thing happens so there is little evidence to suggest that he was in a physical place.