Sao Paulo
It doesn’t take long until you realize during the interview that the Dane Torbjörn Pedersen likes numbers. Look at the rules you imposed on yourself when you began your plan to travel the world ten years ago. He would visit 203 countries, 195 of which are recognized by the UN; I would spend at least seven days in each of them; and spent an average of US$20 (about R$100) per day during the trip, initially through sponsorship from a sustainable energy company in his country, Ross Energy.
“I pay attention to things like that,” explains Pedersen. For example, from the beginning to the end of his trip around the world, he recorded that he made 351 trips by bus, 158 by train, 40 by cargo ship and 33 by boat the main requirement of the project was never to travel by plane.
He was also responsible for the sixyear delay from the original deadline he set for completing the initiative. And two marriages, both to the same woman, who spent the equivalent of a year with him around the world and with whom he now lives in the Danish capital.
He returned to his home country at the end of July via the port of Aarhus. If that Sheet interviewed him via video conference, a few days after his arrival he was already in Copenhagen, but still getting his bearings. “I have to land, not just physically but mentally. It’s a process.”
Pedersen says he started planning the trip a year before he left. At that point, nothing in his life pointed to the journey. He had an established career in logistics. I had been in a serious relationship for a year. He just bought a property or rather, he and the bank, he adds with a laugh.
At the same time, he has felt a thirst for adventure since his childhood. When he was little, his idols were characters like Indiana Jones, and he was fascinated by the explorers of past centuries: the first man to walk on the moon, climb to the top of the highest mountain, and swim in the deepest ocean.
However, as he grew up, he realized that all the major milestones had already been achieved. And a hundred years ago, he adds. “I was born too late, all the great adventures had already been accomplished.”
Until his father sent him a report about people who had been to every country in the world. “I didn’t know that was possible. I thought you had to be a millionaire or spend your whole life traveling to achieve something like that,” says the Dane, who was by far the most traveled of his friends at the time, having visited 50 countries.
The desire increased when he discovered that, contrary to his imagination, he could still be a pioneer in something. According to his research, no one has ever traveled around the world in one go without using an airplane as a means of transportation.
Pedersen admits that today, at age 44, he finds it harder to explain why the unprecedented nature of that achievement was so important to him. He said the only thing he thought about was that this would be his great adventure, an opportunity to meet incredible people and places and experience unforgettable stories. “I wasn’t aware of the level of difficulty and the risks involved,” he says.
And the dangers were not small. At least three of the boats Pedersen later traveled on sank. He had guns pointed at his face more than once, and once, at a military checkpoint in the middle of the jungle, he was sure he was going to die. At another time, he contracted cerebral malaria and was saved only because his wife, a doctor, visited and took him to a hospital when she recognized the symptoms of the disease. It took months before he recovered and was able to continue his journey.
But none of the challenges he faced were comparable to those posed by Covid19. When he left Denmark in October 2013, he had the idea of staying on the streets for four years, maybe three and a half years. Logistical and financial difficulties, including the loss of Ross Energy’s sponsorship for a period of time, eventually led to the deadline being gradually extended.
Until 2020, he was en route to Hong Kong, where he changed ships to visit the nine remaining countries on his list when the island closed its borders after registering the first cases of the new coronavirus. Pedersen would remain there for the next 23 months.
The pandemic was also the event that most negatively affected the Dane’s perspective during the trip. Without them, the Dane says he would probably have returned home with more hope for humanity and its ability to work together.
“We went there and bought all the toilet paper, and we did that two months before the rest of the world. But no one learned. Nobody looked at what China was doing, for example. Everyone was trying to reinvent the wheel.”
After finally completing the journey, Pedersen notes that the balance of his imaginary equation is still positive for humanity. “I often say that dealing with people anywhere in the world is like a reverse lottery. It’s very hard to lose,” he says, adding that residents are sometimes even more receptive to visitors, especially in countries considered more dangerous. “In Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria, they are even more happy to meet someone who has not been sent by the army, who is not a member of the Red Cross or another NGO.”
Pedersen says he initially had no intention of having his achievement enshrined in the record books due to the bureaucracy of the review process. “A record can be broken, you know? But what I did was historic, and for me history is more important than any record.” He says, however, that he was recently contacted by Guinness, which could make registration easier.
Now the Dane plans to work with a professional author to write a memoir, in which several publishers have already shown interest, and to establish himself as a motivational speaker. A documentary about his trip around the world, which has been in production for four years, is scheduled to be released on streaming platforms next year. And he continues his activities as a Red Cross ambassador in his home country, helping to raise funds for the organization and encouraging others to become donors.
In addition to the challenges Pedersen personally faced, his project’s records for posterity also promise to reflect the changes the world experienced over the decade he was away from home. And they were huge, said the Dane.
When he left, there were virtually no discussions about gender or the environment, he says. Shortly after starting his trip, some people asked him whether his project had ecological motives. “That wasn’t the goal, but I’m very proud of having such a low carbon footprint,” he says.
At the same time, Europe was at peace when he left his country, while upon his return he was faced with the Ukrainian War, the largest conflict on his continent since World War II. Not to mention the pandemic.
Perhaps the most noticeable change in everyday life has been the one that has resulted from the advancement of technology. “When I came to Africa in 2015, I was intimidated every time I met someone wearing a uniform,” he remembers. When he came out in 2017, those same people virtually didn’t notice him when he walked past them. “They were staring at their phones, lost in Candy Crush or YouTube.”