Thor Pedersen visits Rohlig Australia, Sydney office after his 9-Years Journey Without Flying talking about mental, physical and social wellbeing.  

Sydney,  April 2022 

“The world is not what most of us believe”, Mr Torbjørn Pedersen 

Yesterday, Rohlig Australia was very honoured, and felt extremely privileged to have Mr Torbjørn Pedersen speaking to us about his 9-Years Journey Without Flying as a part of our well-being framework which is focusing on mental, physical and social wellbeing. We were lucky to host a face to face interview in our Sydney office as well as broadcast live to all the branches in Australia.

Mr. Pedersen, an explorer and modern day adventurer, who has visited 195 countries in an unbroken journey completely without flying.  Thor ventures the world full time and has not been home to Denmark since 2013.

Mr Pedersen arrived in Townsville, Australia on the 1st of April after more than two weeks onboard a cargo ship from Hong Kong where he spent last 2 years (due to pandemic). He will stay for about a month in Australia before visiting the final seven countries on his list.

"About 200 people have successfully managed to reach every country in the world, but then I worked out that no-one's been able to do it completely without flying," he said.

Thor has crossed off 195 countries from his list already and arrived to Australia, his 196th destination.  The next stop will be New Zealand, then stops in Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, before travelling to Sri Lanka and then on to the final destination in ambitious journey - the Maldives.

Thor travels by using buses, container ships, trains, vans and cars.  He describes his journey on his social media accounts and website, Once Upon a Saga, which took twice longer than expected (the initial plan was to complete it within 4 years).  Thor has set up the budget of $20 per day and the goal to visit (with minimum stay of 24 hours) 203 counties.

Being our industry colleague in the past, with 12 years of logistics background, Thor was able to plan his journey precisely and navigate well through the logistics and visa challenges. However, despite his detailed planning, he didn’t expect a pandemic to happen which ruined his initial schedule and delayed the achievement of the goal for additional 2 years.

 “I often wonder if it’s still worthwhile to continue.  As time passes on, my wife and I see our chance of starting a family diminish. Also, my friends and family have children I’ve never met..”

As the Red Cross ambassador, Mr. Pedersen planned to visit the Red Cross organisation wherever the movement operates to spread awareness about their local initiatives.

“I have been given the honor of traveling as goodwill ambassador for the Danish Red Cross. As such I get to represent and promote the Red Cross in 195 countries in the world. That means that the Red Cross is basically in every country in the world. Like most people, I knew very little about the movement when I left home. But from interviewing and listening to volunteers all over the world I have been amazed. I am on my knees for the millions of volunteers that make a difference in the lives of further more millions of people every day. And most people have no clue what the Red Cross does. It seems that people only learn about it when they need it. It is an adventure within it self to learn about this old organization which was founded in 1863. And it is certainly an honor to promote it publicly. “

Thor kindly agreed to talk not only about “fun” parts of his journey, but also about Physical & Mental Health and Social Wellbeing and share with us the obstacles and challenges he experienced during his journey.   

“The following day I got into an Uber taxi which Röhlig Logistics had organized for me. A solid company which specializes in freight forwarding and logistics services. People I feel at home amongst :). I was introduced to the office, had a brief tour of the warehouse, and then we were set for my presentation before the curious employees. The office was at about 50% capacity and my talk also went online to those who couldn’t attend in person. It was a real pleasure to speak in front of an audience again after so many online sessions. I had some real good response from the Röhlig team afterwards while we enjoyed a BBQ together”, wrote Thor in his blog after the event.

Thank you Thor for being such an outstanding, inspiring and motivational speaker to the Rohlig Australia. We wish you all the very best and successful accomplishment of your set goal.

Learn more about Once Upon a Saga Project