Thor Pedersen took a whole decade to complete his ambitious mission
A Danish man, named Thor Pedersen has travelled to every country in the world by foot, car, bus, train, boat and container ship. The 44-year-old man took a whole decade to complete his ambitious mission. He started his journey to travel in 2013, according to BBC.
He told the media outlet that it took him 3,512 days to go through every country in the world without flying. While the official UN list of countries is 195, Thor says he's visited 203 countries as he's also included disputed territories in his list.
>In another interview with Kennedy News, Mr Pederson said, "I got wind that no one in history has gone to every country in the world completely without flying, and I was caught up in the idea that I might have my shot at doing something remarkable."
He also visited India towards the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019.
The 44-year-old man took 351 buses, 158 trains, 43 tuk-tuks, 37 container ships, 33 boats, nine trucks, three sailboats, two cruise ships, one police car, one yacht and a horse carriage.
He arrived at his 203rd and final country - the Maldives - on board a container ship on Tuesday, marking the end of a 3,512-day adventure. "In a way, this has just been a huge sociological experiment and a success at that," Mr Pedersen told the ABC.
"Because I cannot remember a country I've gotten to where I did not receive some sort of kindness or support from people," he added.
Mr Pederson spent 24 hours in each country.
He rang among the 150 most travelled people in the world. The project - dubbed Once Upon A Saga - has been tested by bureaucratic and logistical issues, civil unrest and unexpected hurdles like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
"This is something which has never been done before, so it has been hard to foresee everything that would be coming my way," Mr Pedersen said. He added, "I am proud that I never gave up throughout all of this. I am proud that I was able to show the strength that was required."
During the pandemic, Mr Pederson was stuck in Hong Kong for 2 years and even considered abandoning the mission.
"This was before we had the vaccines, we didn't know where it was heading, we didn't know how dangerous it was. And it was just taking up more and more time," he said.
He decided to marry his long-time girlfriend, Le, who visited him 27 times throughout the project.
Once the restrictions were lifted, he travelled to Australia by taking a ship in April 2022. He stayed there for 2 months.
His budget for the project was $20 a day, financed through personal savings, corporate sponsorships and crowdfunding, ABC reported.
"Every time I look at a world map now or a spinning globe, I'll look at it and I'll think, there's someone kind and helpful in each and every one of those countries, and I came across them - and what are the odds of that?" he said.
"Although there has been a lot of pain and disappointment, there has just been a great deal of knowledge and beauty and great experiences throughout all of this," he said.
He believes that travelling to each country without flying might never be done again.