Well, the first question I get is “Why”?
Why would you want to travel with six armed military through Somalia, sailing around Papua New Guinea, climbing Everest, bicycling over Bolivia or kite surfing across Greenland? There has been many questionable situations in my quest to visit all 196 countries. The reason why I started this odyssey was to learn about cultures and nature and to see how I can better understand judgemental rumours and get an insight in the philosophies of different countries. When I was a teenager, I heard people discussing how different everyone was. So I was surprised when driving from Cairo to Cape Town, only to realise that they have the same everyday problems as I do. They also fall in love, fight for a better life and argue about the latest sports event.
Visiting every country gave me two important insights:
1. Every place is beautiful.
Mother Nature, the superior being, Universe, nature or whatever you are calling it – did not create “ugly”. If we lift a stone and find disgusting worms and bugs, then we must understand that these worms are like a birthday cake to some rats, and the horrible rats are food for mammal etc. Everything that’s “ugly” to us is beautiful to someone else. So when we look around, we should appreciate everything and welcome it with love.
2. Every person is interesting. It all comes down to what questions you ask. If you ask most people on the planet about their jobs, they will unfortunately answer something boring since their job is a tool to feed their family. But if you would ask them about their dreams, goals, hobbies or future plans – then you get a very interesting conversation going.
During my travel around the world, I’ve done research for charity organisations, philanthropy projects and try to understand how we can help out.
I have been told that I’m the only person who has visited all 196 countries, climbed Seven Summits and skid both North and South Pole. That’s great, but it doesn’t change the planet. So let’s hope that my insights and experiences can in some way help to create a better world.
#johanernst#adventureactivist@rewild#everycountryintheworld
