I enjoying being in new and different places, I just don’t particularly enjoy the travel bit of getting there. This is rather unfortunate given that Australia is a long way from anywhere else. In my opinion faster planes, such as Concorde, are a much better idea than bigger ones, such as the A380, but that won’t make large profits for airlines.
I have a number of travel goals:
  • Visit all continents
  • Cross the equator by sea (King Neptune doesn't fly)
  • Go as far north and south as possible (but climbing Mt Everest isn't on the agenda)
  • Travel as fast as possible
  • Qualify for the Travelers Century Club (TCC), i.e. visit 100 countries/regions
So far I'm not going too bad
  • All seven continental landmasses (Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Antarctica)
  • Crossed the equator on P&O's Himalaya
  • 80.15N and 65.08S (and Mauna Kea's 4200 metres is probably high enough)
  • Mach 2 on British Airways Concorde, London to New York and vice versa (5 times in total)
  • 106 countries/regions so far according to the TCC rules (highlighted in red in the world map below) or 74 United Nations member states
I was using World66 but it doesn't have a https version so I can't get it to display inside my page however I've found a new online map at https://www.amcharts.com/visited_countries that works. Unfortunately like World66 it doesn't include Antarctica on its map (and the projection they use makes Greenland look enormous).
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This photograph was taken on my last flight on Concorde, BA 0001 from London (LHR) to New York (JFK) on 31 January 2003. I was in the aft cabin at 19C and clearly we were about to be served lunch.
I collected the information packs they gave out on Concorde but it would seem that I only got one of the flight certificates signed by the captain.
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While I’m not as dedicated as Alan Whinery to a goal of visiting all 50 US states I am not going too badly for someone on the other side of the planet. At the moment I’ve visited 34 (including DC and Puerto Rico). I’ve also been to 10 of the Canadian provinces.