On October 10, 2013, Torbjørn “Thor” Pedersen left her job, friend and circle of family in Denmark to embark on an epic journey.
Their goal? To all countries of the global without flying.
Pedersen has set some rules for himself. I would spend at least 24 hours in each country and going home until I finished.
He would also do his thing to keep prices low and live on a budget of about $20 a day.
May 24 came that day in spite of everything. After nearly ten years of travel, Pedersen effectively visited his 203rd and final country, the Maldives, and began his long-awaited adventure back to Denmark.
It would have been less difficult to fly, of course, but Pedersen sought to close the loop on the project.
“There’s a historical feeling of going from home via boat — other people can see it on the horizon and stand up and greet me as I walk across the bridge,” Pedersen, who traveled as a goodwill ambassador for the Danish Red Cross, told CNN. “And that turns out to be an appropriate way to carry out the project. “
After celebrating in the Maldives, the 44-year-old returned to Malaysia, Sri Lanka, to board the large MV Milan Maersk, a container about 1,310 feet long, or about the length of 3. 6 football fields, for the 33-day journey. House.
“In my cabin, I looked out the window at Malaysia and learned that every day the sight would gradually be replaced until, despite everything, it became Denmark,” says Pedersen.
“Even if I broke my leg at that time, I would go home. No more snakes, wild dogs, malaria or visas to get, I just had to fall overboard!
On July 26, Pedersen walked through the gateway to the port of Aarhus on Denmark’s east coast, where another 150 people were waiting to celebrate.
Among the enthusiastic crowds, his wife Le (Pedersen proposed to the summit of Mount Kenya in 2016 and they married in 2021), his father, siblings, friends, co-workers and many followers who followed his blog, Once Upon a Saga, and social media. canals
“I’ve noticed a lot of watery eyes since I came back; other people came to hug me crying,” Pedersen said. other people who followed my social networks from Colombia, Australia, Norway . . . It’s incredible. “
Here Pedersen is seen arriving at the port of Aarhus, greeted by friends and fans. (Port of Aarhus)
While responding to a flood of calls, messages and interview requests, Pedersen stayed with his circle of relatives at his father’s house.
He also savors all the little things, like clean, new Danish air, morning runs with Le and frozen Danish milk at every opportunity.
“My circle of relatives is proud. There’s a lot of love,” he says. “Coming home is something I focus on, anything I’ve sought to materialize for a long time. But I’m still realizing that the adventure is over and what’s next.
Before taking off in 2013, Pedersen worked in shipping and logistics, which proved to be invaluable experience when planning complex steering and adapting to the road.
In fact, it didn’t deviate much from its original plan, apart from a few surprises. For example, he has bypassed Equatorial Guinea, one of the hardest-to-reach countries in the world. After 4 months and many failed attempts, Pedersen was nevertheless granted a visa. Although the land borders were closed at the time, he was able to cross thanks to a possible encounter with an unknown person who worked in Equatorial Guinea and showed up to accompany him.
Later, Pedersen thought he could get a Chinese visa at the Mongolian border and then to Pakistan. But due to the long processing time, he had to travel almost 7500 miles through various countries to reach Pakistan before his visa expired.
All this time, time began to accumulate. He had planned that it would take 4 years to succeed in 203 countries (the UN recognizes 195 sovereign states, but Pedersen also included partially identified states), but the global one had other plans.
During his years on the road, Pedersen endured months-long visa delays in places like Syria, Iran, Nauru and Angola.
He also overcame a severe episode of cerebral malaria in Ghana, survived an intense four-day typhoon that crossed the Atlantic from Iceland to Canada, navigated closed land borders in conflict zones, and had to reschedule many crossings due to damaged or exhausted ships. bureaucracy.
The largest are enduring the COVID-19 pandemic.
In early 2020, the intrepid traveler found himself stuck in Hong Kong for two years with only nine countries remaining.
“I see Hong Kong and it’s a bit paradoxical. It was the worst moment of my life and the most productive time of my life, in a way. I had to deal with the scenario: it was very complicated to know whether to abandon this allocation of nine countries before completing it,” recalls Pedersen.
“I had to ask myself: How much of my life am I going to devote to this?But while waiting for the world to open up, I made my life in Hong Kong and forged many special relationships.
Pedersen stayed sane by cooking dinner with friends, walking the city’s many trails, running with the Red Cross, giving motivational speeches and running in the Church of the Danish Sailors.
After obtaining a work and residency visa in Hong Kong, Pedersen married her fiancé, Le, who returned to Denmark, through a U. S. -based virtual wedding service. U. S.
This was not how the couple imagined their big day, but the resolution allowed Le to reside and stop in Pedersen (Hong Kong prohibited foreign travelers at the time).
“We spent a hundred days together, how wonderful,” he recalls, adding that it’s the longest time together since Pedersen left Denmark in 2013. “He was able to meet my friends and perceive my life. We love hiking in Hong Kong and I hiked the MacLehose trail, which is a hundred kilometers long at more than a part of the altitude of Mount Everest, side to side in one go.
On January 5, 2022, Pedersen was nevertheless able to leave Hong Kong and continue across the Pacific.
Behind the scenes, it took six months of negotiations with Palau to let it arrive via a container ship, he says.
After 15 days at sea, Pedersen spent 8 of his 14 days in Palau quarantined due to an outbreak on the island.
Then comes a 16-day trip to Hong Kong, where he returns to hotel quarantine for another two weeks.
About a month later, he continued on to Australia, then New Zealand, Samoa, and Tonga, but without much effort.
“I had to plead with almost every single government. For Tonga, we were in contact with the Ministry of Health, the Navy and the Army. No one wanted to say yes and go against the prime minister [because the country is in a state of emergency because of COVID],” Pedersen says.
Pedersen appears here in Hong Kong, where he spent two unforeseen years during the pandemic. (Maxime Champigneulle)
“Finally, one night, I got an email from the minister saying, ‘Okay, let him in. ‘”
After Tonga, Pedersen went to Vanuatu, where Le joined him so they could marry in person.
Her wedding planner invited all visitors and resort staff, who made decorations with palm leaves and drew huge hearts adorned with shells in the sand.
“He was just adorable — the staff were adorable and stunned, and they made him special,” says Pedersen.
Pedersen left for the last Pacific country of logistics, Tuvalu.
Home to nine islands and 11,600 inhabitants, Tuvalu is one of the smallest and most remote countries in the world, so it can be tricky to get spare portions for ships.
“It’s lovely. The surf is amazing, the sky is lovely and the other people were great and helpful,” he says. “But I didn’t expect to be there for two months. “
“The ships kept breaking down. One of them had a leak in his helmet. I tried to board the ship, but it never took off.
Eventually, Pedersen controlled returning to Fiji in a tugboat. From there, a 24-day journey in a container took him to Singapore, where Le joined him to consume food at hawker centers, explore the National Museum, hike the MacRitchie Nature Trail. and runs along the Singapore River.
After returning to Denmark, Pedersen crossed the land border into Malaysia and took a boat to Sri Lanka before sailing to the last country: the Maldives.
When Pedersen arrived at the port of Malé, the capital, he saw an organization of other people waving small Danish flags alongside one of their sponsors, Ross Energy, and friends like record-breaking Norwegian traveler Gunnar Garfors (the first user to call at each). and every country in the world twice), which came to help him celebrate.
“When I was in the Maldives, it was incredibly busy and I didn’t have time to think,” he says. “I was mentally exhausted, it was a rollercoaster of emotions.
“There is uncertainty while traveling, but I have been in operational mode for so long that now I feel a little safe. There’s a kind of uncertainty when I get home. I’ll be free to do whatever I want, to move anywhere. “or go nowhere.
From start to finish, Pedersen racked up incredible statistics from his trips: 3,576 days, 37 container ships, 158 trains, 351 buses, 219 taxis, 33 boats and 43 rickshaws.
He traveled 223,000 miles, the amount of nine trips around the Earth, and that doesn’t come with the long adventure back home.
But it’s not about numbers, Pedersen says.
It’s about celebrating the goodness of people and sharing a vision of the world.
“I embarked on this adventure with a motto, ‘A stranger is a friend you’ve never met before,’ and I’ve been proven time and time again that it’s true,” he says. “If you interact with people, everyone agrees. “
Pedersen says he met other warm, friendly and helpful people around the world, many of whom offered him tea, meals, introductions, translation assistance or simply gave him instructions.
“I have stayed in the homes of many, many foreigners in my travels, and I have crossed each and every country in the world, those experiencing armed conflict, those experiencing virus outbreaks, unscathed,” he said.
“Either I’m the luckiest guy on the planet, or the world is in a much better position than most other people through the scary, dramatic news on social media and news channels. “
This also testifies to Pedersen’s perseverance. He almost gave up several times, but refused to throw in the towel.
“Someone wrote to me today that I won the first, moment and third prize for stubbornness,” laughs Pedersen. “There has been a solution. He just had to look really hard sometimes.
His tenacious determination mentality comes from a preference for showing enthusiasts that they can do what they want.
“I had the craziest goals. And if I can do that, you can lose weight or be informed to play an instrument, learn a language, study, find a job. . . whatever you want.
His last sailing aboard the MV Milan Maersk crossed the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, the English Channel, Germany and, despite everything, Denmark.
“I still haven’t realized that this task is finished. They say that if you want to incorporate a new habit into life, you want to repeat it for 30 days. I have been doing this for over 3500 days. So that’s who I am now,” Pedersen says.
After having time to rest and recover, Pedersen plans to dedicate his life in perpetuity and move forward in other ways.
For starters, he is willing to spend more time with his wife and start a circle of relatives together.
“We have a lot to celebrate. While traveling, he completed so much: he graduated from medical school, finished his PhD, started running in a pharmaceutical company, got a promotion, finished two full Ironman [triathlons]. . . She is a superwoman.
As he embarks on a new chapter, Pedersen is working with Canadian filmmaker Mike Douglas to wrap up “The Impossible Journey,” a documentary about the project, and plans to write an e-book about travel.
Looking ahead, he hopes to channel his reports into conversational engagements, a skill he’s honed over the past 10 years.
“I learned that it wasn’t easy to get level when I left the house. But now I can pass level in front of three hundred smiling people,” he says.
“The adventure helped me identify my strengths, and relating to other people is one of them. I hope that through conversational engagements, I can make a living making other people laugh, learning and inspiring them to never give up.