Red Cross goodwill ambassador visits Seychelles |27 July 2016

Mr Pedersen addressing members of the Seychelles Red Cross yesterday

A goodwill ambassador of the Danish Red Cross, Torbjørn C. Pedersen, who has been touring the world without taking flight at any point, is in Seychelles as a guest of the Seychelles Red Cross Society.

The tour is under the project titled ‘Once upon a saga’.

The aim of his visit is to promote the uniqueness of the Red Cross/Red Crescent network which links together 190 national societies as well as have discussions with national society personnel and local media.

Seychelles is the 115th country and national society that Mr Pedersen has visited since the start on his quest.

Travelling on a budget of just $20 USD per day, Mr Pedersen is undertaking his journey without the convenience of air travel, something no one has ever achieved.

He informed that since he started the project, he always wanted to come to Seychelles, and witness the beauty of the islands.

“I am very happy to be here in Seychelles. Reaching Seychelles was very hard. I have been travelling for quite a while and this is a project called ‘Once upon a saga’. I am travelling to every single country in the world in a single unbroken journey without flight. I will visit every country in the world and I will do it all without flying at any point and I will do it without returning home until I reach the last country,” he said.

He added that the journey started in Denmark in 2013.

“I started my journey in Denmark on the 10th of October 2013 and I began by visiting the National Red Cross Societies throughout Europe. Then I crossed the North Atlantic with seven different ships – some are fishing boats, container carriers and basically anything that floats – and I travelled all the way across up to Iceland, Greenland and over to Canada and I reached North America,” he said.

He informed that he started the Africa tour in Morocco and through Western Sahara to Mauritania, Senegal, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and from Bissau to The Gambia, adding that he spends an average of seven days in each country in the world. It will take him four years before he would go back home. From The Gambia, he continued his journey to Mali until he reached Seychelles this week.

Since he arrived in Seychelles, he has visited Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve among other tourist sites.

“Seychelles has got many wonderful tourist sites, and an amazing nice population. It was the first time since a long time I did not spend any money upon my arrival,” he said.

Interestingly, his aim has been to undertake this mission without flying and has been on the move continuously for the past two and a half years, hence his travel to Seychelles on board Cape Moss, a container ship and he will be leaving on July 28 (tomorrow) on board another ship City of Xiamen.

Through this journey he hopes to promote humanity, universality and neutrality, which are parts of the seven basic principles of Red Cross and that the experience has been good so far meeting different people including Red Cross volunteers in different parts of the world.

The ‘Once upon a saga’ project will end in 2019, and Mr Pedersen has planned to build a family.

“I have an amazing girlfriend that is waiting for me at home; we have both the same opinion about the amazing project I am undertaking. When I reach home, I plan to build a family with her. And I want to write a book, to describe my entire journey since the beginning in 2013,” he added.

Mr Pedersen has got 84 countries to visit still before completing his journey. If he takes the plane only once, it will be the end of such an amazing journey.