World travel records for visiting every country were within their grasp – then the pandemic struck
- Torbjorn Pedersen vowed to visit every country in the world without flying or returning home, but he’s stranded in Hong Kong, nine countries short of his goal
- Daniel Herszberg was aiming to be the youngest Australian to visit every country
Torbjorn “Thor” Pedersen and Daniel Herszberg were closing in on world travel records when the coronavirus hit.
Pedersen was nine countries shy of visiting every one in the world without flying and Herszberg had just another 14 to go before claiming the title of the youngest Australian to visit every country. They expected to be celebrating by now; instead, their travel is on hold and they’re reassessing their next moves.
The pair had not met, but they’d heard of each other thanks to their social media followers. Having interviewed them both, and with Herszberg passing through Hong Kong, I thought that now might be a good time to orchestrate that meeting.
We all meet in the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Central – masked and socially distanced. There are elbow bumps and as we get down to the nitty gritty of what it’s like to have a Covid-19 spanner thrown into your plans, the difference between the challenges becomes apparent.
Pedersen left his native Denmark almost seven years ago and one of his “cardinal rules” is that if he goes home before the challenge is completed, the game is over. Herszberg is completing his challenge piecemeal, with the longest stretch having been less than a year on the road. But they bond over the challenges of social media and the tick-tock of looming deadlines.