這帥照 ─ 實在像極了 「班艾佛列克」！
Brit becomes first to visit every country in the world without flying
November 27, 2012 8:38 am
Graham Hughes, a British adventurer, has become the first person in the world to visit all 201 sovereign states without flying. Early Monday, he ended a near four-year journey to travel to all the states with his arrival in South Sudan, the newest nation in the world. The 33-year-old used buses, trains, taxis, boats and other means of transport, including walking, to travel 160,000 miles in 1,426 days without setting foot on a plane. His adventure only cost him an average of less than £10 a day.
Hughes started this adventure on 1 January 2009 from his home in Liverpool. He has visited every United Nations member state (of which there are 193), as well as the four home nations of the UK, Taiwan, Western Sahara, Palestine, Vatican City and Kosovo. He filmed the journey for a documentary and has been raising money for the Water Aid charity. Some of the highlights he has made of the adventure include watching one of the last Space Shuttle launches for NASA, swimming in a Palau lake of jellyfish and dancing with tribes in the Papua New Guinea jungle.
Talking to Monitor Monday from South Sudan, Hughes said that he loves travelling. He thinks his reason for doing this was to see if it could be done by one person travelling with little funds. He thinks he also wanted to demonstrate that the world isn’t a big, scary place. In fact, it’s full of people who want to help, even if the person they are helping is a stranger.
He continued that he feels intense gratitude to everyone who helped him set this record and get to where he is today. They gave him a lift, let him sleep on their couch or just pointed him in the right direction. He thought about why he was doing this at times – when he was riding in an awful truck on bad roads or sitting in a Cambodia bus station at 1am. There was always a reason that kept him going.
Some people asked him how he would get into North Korea, Afghanistan or Iraq, Hughes went on, but those were the easy countries to visit. He explained that a visa isn’t needed to get into Iraq, as anyone can just walk across the Turkish border. The tough places to visit were Seychelles, Nauru and the Maldives. These island nations also have the threat of pirates. The adventurer hitched rides on cargo ships to cross oceans and spent four days travelling from Senegal to Cape Verde in an open fishing canoe, but he was arrested upon arrival. He was also jailed for six days by Democratic Republic of Congo officials on suspicion of being a spy. However, he says these things just made him more determined to succeed.
Hughes did recall the hardest part of his journey, when he just wanted to give up. This happened when Nicola, his older sister, passed away at the age of 39 from cancer in 2010. He hurried home, and was able to see her before she passed on. He recalls her telling him not to stop the trip, but he was in a really low place. He had been to 184 countries with only 17 left and considered leaving it at that. However, his sister’s memory kept him going, along with the people he met on the way and the money he raised for Water Aid, a charity that works to bring developing countries clean water.
Hughes is planning to stay two days in South Sudan, but he won’t fly home. He will keep the spirit of his adventure and travel through Africa and across Europe on buses and boats. His goal is to reach Liverpool on a ferry from Ireland by Christmas.
Guinness World Records has confirmed that Hughes is the first person to do this without flying. He also holds the record for visiting the most nations in one year on scheduled ground transport, with 133 countries in 2009.
環遊世界不搭飛機 英探險家創紀錄
作者： 李長勳 | 台灣醒報 – 2012年11月28日 下午12:24
行遍全球，可以不坐飛機？這個聽起來誇張至極的不可能任務，卻讓來自英國的探險家做到了！當格雷姆休斯踏上南蘇丹領土時，正式寫下歷史新猷，成了走遍全球201個國家而未乘坐飛機的紀錄先河。
據英國《每日電郵》報導指出，數天前抵達非洲南蘇丹共和國的休斯，成為世界上首位未利用飛機這項交通工具，而能旅行201個國家的人士。在1426天的漫長旅途中，修斯乘坐過難以計數的公車、火車及輪船，甚至還經歷了1次失戀。
在整個旅程中，休斯平均每天花費10英鎊，並藉由乘坐火車、公車、計程車及輪船旅行，過程中完全沒有搭乘過任何一次飛機。休斯在未搭乘飛機情況下行遍201國家的壯舉，讓他可望成為新任金氏紀錄保持人。在成就這項紀錄後，休斯仍希望以乘坐公車與輪船的方式穿越非洲與歐洲，返抵英國利物浦。
有人問起他如何行經烽火連天與動盪不安的阿富汗與伊拉克，休斯表示，這沒眾人想像中的困難，「其實並不複雜，只要穿過土耳其邊境，就可以不需要簽證而進入伊拉克。」另外，休斯也分享了旅程中最讓人「步步驚魂」的國家，「我覺得最麻煩的是馬爾地夫、塞席爾等島國，因為這些地方有海盜出沒！」
當修斯必須越海前往他國時，他以輪船或大型貨船替代搭乘飛機。旅行期間，休斯也數度被捕，遭受無妄之災，「我花了4天坐捕魚用的獨木舟，從塞內加爾到維德角，但卻在當地被逮捕，還有，我在剛果時也曾被誤認為間諜而遭拘留6天。」
這項歷史新猷中最讓人動容的篇章，為2年前的旅程中，姊姊罹癌過世讓他萬念俱灰，很想放棄直奔老家，但他想起姊姊曾對她說，「不要停下，也不要放棄！」這時已行經184個國家的休斯重燃熊熊鬥志，走完剩餘17個國家，締造了如今的驚人成就。
圖說：英國冒險家以搭輪渡海、乘坐車輛等方式，完成行遍全球201個國家而未乘坐飛機的驚人紀錄。
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