A man who visited every country in the world without boarding a plane (2023)

Summary

Torbjørn Pedersen has always dreamed of being a famous adventurer. He spent his childhood building dens in the woods, pretending to be his hero, Indiana Jones. Even as an adult, he couldn’t shake the sense that he was destined for greatness.There was just one problem. “I was born at least 100 years too late,” he tells me over video call from his home in Copenhagen. “I had a profound feeling that everything had been done. The great adventures took place in the past. It was all over.”Things reached a tipping point in 2013. He was 34 and had a successful career in shipping and logistics. He had just bought a flat and started a serious relationship. It was time to give up his childish dreams. Then his dad sent him an article about people who had travelled to every country in the world. “I didn’t know you could do that,” he says. “Certainly you would have to be a millionaire.”But here were ordinary people walking, cycling and hitchhiking around the globe on shoestring budgets. Then came his eureka moment: “I discovered that no one had ever gone to every country in the world completely without flying [in one unbroken trip].” (A British man, Graham Hughes, has set foot in every country without flying, but took two breaks from the journey for personal reasons.)‘The high from entering a new country was the best feeling in the world’ … Pedersen in Ethiopia in 2017. Photograph: Supplied imagePedersen was already obsessed with world firsts: “The first to go to the north pole, the south pole, the deepest sea, the highest mountain, the longest river.” Now he had a chance to set a world record himself. “It was right in front of me,” he says, eyes gleaming. “It could be Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo … Thor Pedersen! I could do something of significance with my life, something worth putting in a book, something worth remembering. And it would be a great adventure!”Pedersen spent the next 10 months planning the journey – the route, budget, what to pack – without ever making a conscious dec...