After ten years, Torbjorn Pedersen has managed to stack his passport with a stamps from every country in the world, and he’s done it without ever setting foot on a plane. He claims that this has never been done before, and after seeing the time, money, and risk necessary to make it happen, it’s easy to see why. It probably wouldn’t have been possible if he weren’t from Denmark, which has one of the most accepted passports in the world.
During a 2018 interview with Al Jazeera Thor said he was on track to finish his journey in 2020. Sidelined due to the COVID-19 pandemic for 772 days in Hong Kong, his journey ended up taking ten years instead of seven. The whole trip was funded by a geothermal electric power company, which sent Thor a monthly stipend of $600. That stipend was enough to cover the $20 a day that Pedersen spent on average during his journey.
So if you aren’t traveling on planes, what are you using to get around? Pedersen says he took 351 bus trips, 67 minibuses, 219 taxis, 46 motorcycle taxis, 87 shared taxis, 4 shared motorcycle taxis, 28 overland journeys, 9 trucks, 158 trains, 19 tramps, 128 metros, 43 rickshaws or tuktuks, 40 container ships, 33 boats, 32 ferries, 3 sail boats, 2 cruise ships, a horse carriage, a police car, and a yacht to get where he needed to go.
Occasionally his travel plans were thrown into disruption with political turmoil or the breakout of war. For example, he was forced to use a container ship routed through Yemen and the UAE to reach Qatar from Saudi Arabia, as the Saudis had blockaded the land border with Qatar. Another difficult moment came on the border between Cameroon and the Congo, where he was held at gunpoint for over 45 minutes before being released without explanation.
His biggest piece of advice to anyone who wants to do what he did, however, is ‘Don’t’. He’s probably just saying that because he wants to be the only one to have completed this task. You should definitely risk financial stability, safety, and shelter to travel the world without planes for the next decade.
Image: Thor Pedersen / Once Upon A Saga