Torbjorn Pedersen has done something remarkable. After ten years of some of the most grueling travel imaginable, he has successfully visited every country on earth—never once stepping foot on an airplane. The Dane’s advice for would-be globetrotters looking to recreate his feat? “Don’t do it.”
From a brush with death at the hands of wayward soldiers in Cameroon to spending just 24 hours in Vatican City to holing up in Hong Kong for two years riding out the global pandemic, Pedersen managed to set foot on new sovereign soil 203 times by finally reaching the Maldives earlier this year. Along the way, his travels averaged approximately $20 per day, and he racked up over 237,000 miles in twenty different modes of travel, including:
- 351 buses
- 67 minibuses
- 219 taxis
- 46 motorcycle taxis
- 87 shared taxis
- 4 shared motorcycle taxis
- 28 four-wheel drive vehicles
- 9 trucks
- 158 trains
- 19 trams
- 128 metros or subways
- 43 rickshaws or tuktuks
- 40 container ships
- 33 boats
- 32 ferries
- 3 sailboats
- 2 cruise ships
- 1 horse carriage
- 1 police car
- 1 high-performance yacht
His determination often waned as he struggled to find passage to remote island nations in the Pacific and encountered shuttered land borders in West Africa, but by the time he found himself stuck in Hong Kong in 2020, he had only nine countries left to go. Pedersen told CNN,
“I look back at Hong Kong, and it’s a bit of a paradox. It was the worst time of my life and the best time of my life, somehow. I had to cope with the situation—it was such a struggle to work out if I should abandon this project nine countries short of completion.”
He also married his fiancée via Zoom while living in Hong Kong and mapped out his final expeditions. While Pedersen acknowledges that he has accomplished something truly historic, he is also philosophical about the time, money, and energy spent pursuing this unique achievement. “It has come at a very, very high cost and has taken a huge chunk of my life. I spent a lot of resources getting to the end. And it’s simply too much and too hard,” Pedersen said. “Do something that’s more sensible. Do something that’s fun and enjoyable.”
Regardless of the less-than-sanguine assessment of his journeys, his commitment to the project is inspiring, and the things he learned along the way have much to teach us. Pedersen’s interview on the Far from Home podcast is well worth a listen.
Pedersen in Ethiopia
Images: Torbjorn Pedersen
Listen more: Brian McVickers on Saying Yes to a Life of Adventure
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