2023-07-28 08:18:22
Returning to Danish soil after a journey of almost ten years, Torbjørn Pedersen arrived in Aarhus, western Denmark, on Wednesday after an unprecedented world tour in which he did not have to fly.
By train, bus, boat or on foot, “Thor”, 44, visited 203 countries from his departure from Denmark on October 10, 2013, until his arrival in the Maldives on May 24, his last destination. He was the first to accept the challenge, he says.
“I am so happy to be back at home in Denmark. I dreamed of this moment and it is today,” he told AFP upon his arrival, stressing that he was fighting “mixed feelings.”
“I’m looking forward to the future. Will I be able to start as a lecturer? Write a book?” he confided after getting off a container ship in the port of Aarhus.
Supported by private and corporate donations, this former shipping executive traveled through Western Europe, then the Americas, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, before arriving in Asia.
After Micronesia in January 2020, he went to Hong Kong, where he was stuck for two years due to the covid-19 pandemic. Once the borders were opened, he left again for the Republic of Palau, then for the countries of Oceania and the Pacific Islands.
Eager for meetings, this former blue helmet never rented a car and preferred to travel by bus and train.
And despite the geographical distance, Torbjørn Pedersen and his current wife have managed to maintain the flame of their relationship.
During this decade of travel, his then partner Le Gjerum, 40, visited him around the world 27 times.
The tenth time, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him, but with the restrictions of the pandemic, they had to get married online.
“I just want to have a daily life with him now,” she shared with AFP on Wednesday.
Thor, who documented his journey on social media and in a blog, was also a Red Cross ambassador.
According to Guinness World Records, the British Graham Hughes is the first to have circumnavigated the world without a plane, but his trip was interspersed with two trips to his home, which Thor did not.
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