4 minute read
Travel
TRAVEL WELL with Kate Springer
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Torbjørn “Thor” Pedersen is set to become the first person to visit every country in the world on a continuous journey without flying. Having left Denmark on October 10th, 2013, the 41-year-old has been to 194 countries so far, with just nine to go.
He stopped in Hong Kong at the end of January to catch a cargo ship to Palau - just as COVID-19 rocked the region. Now he’s stuck in coronavirus limbo, waiting for the world to reopen. I met up with him in between ambitious hikes, motivational speaking gigs, updating his blog (Once Upon a Saga), and doing charity work as a Goodwill Ambassador of the Danish Red Cross. Here’s a snapshot of his story.
Q What inspired you in the first place? Thor Pedersen: I actually didn't even realise you could travel to every country in the world until my dad sent me an article about it. Once I discovered it had already been done many times, I wanted to push that barrier even farther. No one in history has ever gone to every country in the world completely without flying [on one continuous journey], so that became the mission.
Q How did you prepare? TP: I had worked in the shipping and logistics industry for 12 years, so that experience and mindset prepared me well for the immense scale of this project. I’m used to having a lot of things in the air at the same time, finding solutions and making everything more efficient.
I spent 10 months planning every aspect of the trip, from deciding what to pack to defining the purpose, setting up the blog, approaching sponsors and, of course, plotting the route. I also set a few cardinal rules for myself: obviously, no flights. But also, I have to spend at least 24 hours in every country and I can’t go home until I’m finished.
I set off on October 10th, 2013. I haven’t been home in six and a half years.
Q What has been the scariest moment so far? TP: Cerebral malaria was pretty heavy. I most likely contracted it while sleeping in an abandoned gas station in Liberia. But the symptoms started a couple
of weeks later while I was in Ghana. Luckily, my fiancé, who is a medical doctor, was visiting at the time and got me to a clinic immediately. I was very sick for 12 days, then it took me at least another week to get my strength back.
Q The most heartwarming? TP: In the Solomon Islands, I had a few extra days because my container ship was delayed. So I went to the Western Province. While riding a ferry alone, an elderly man invited me to sit with him. It turns out he was a village elder, and he invited me to go and stay on his island, Vori Vori, where about 100 people live without electricity or running water. One night, they asked me to set up my laptop because they wanted to watch a movie. So they powered up the generator, and nearly 80 people crowded around my laptop – it was incredible.
Q You’ve travelled aboard 25 container ships so
far. What’s it like?
TP: Coordination, networking, timing... it takes a lot of effort to get on the ship in the first place. They don’t just let anyone on. You need to go through the company to get permissions, then make sure you don’t miss the ship because it will definitely leave without you. And if the ship gets delayed, you might have to wait at the port for a few days. Once you are on the ship, you will have a pretty basic cabin, meals and no WiFi. It’s not luxurious, but you have everything you need. You have lots of time to read, watch movies and relax.
Q What’s the bigger purpose of this project? TP: At the heart of it, this is really a people project. No matter where you are, people are the same in so many ways. We care about our families, jobs, children, safety, education, the latest Netflix series. We like barbecues. We like good fun. We like music. We like dancing. We like to laugh. And that's just universal.
• 194 out of 203 countries • 189 Red Cross,
Crescent or Crystal societies visited • 307,686 kilometres traveled • 7 times around the
BY THE NUMBERS
world in distance • 11.4 days on average per country • 94 days in Hong Kong (and counting) • 25 container ships • 336 buses • 158 trains
• Palau • Vanuatu • Tonga • Samoa • Tuvalu
REMAINING COUNTRIES
• New Zealand • Australia • Sri Lanka • The Maldives
