Garfors (L) and Butterworth in Caracas/photos courtesy Garfors.com
A common complaint when life gets a little hectic is that there are only 24 hours in a day.
A good solution? Make it so there are 28.
That's exactly what traveling duo Gunnar Garfors of Norway and documentary filmmaker Adrian Butterworth of the UK did recently. They actually used 28 hours, 25 minutes, but with that and some shrewd travel planning, they established a new world record for the most continents visited in one calendar day.
Departing Istanbul.
Starting in Istanbul on Monday morning, the pair ended up in Caracas the same night. Thanks to changing time zones along their journey, the globetrotters were able to enter and clear customs at each port of entry on the same date, even though more than 24 hours had passed in absolute time.
Their itinerary began on the eastern side of Istanbul, thus establishing their starting point in Asia. They then travelled to Casablanca to tick Africa off the list, before heading to Paris to earn Europe. A stop in the Dominican Republic's Punta Cana took care of North America. And when the men cleared customs in Caracas, their entry into Venezuela brought them to South America and continent No. 5.
All transport was conducted via scheduled public transit, as the duo was not permitted - for example - to use private jets or drive their own vehicles. As such, the two racked up ticket stubs on Arabia Air, Air France, and GOL.
Garfors recapped each stop on his record-breaking itinerary at his website. They departed Istanbul at 1:10 am, left Casablanca at 7:35 am, departed Paris at 1:30 pm, took off from Punta Cana at 9 pm, and finally landed in Caracas at 10:05 pm.
Using only vacation time from work and weekends, Garfors has visited all of the United Nations-recognized sovereign countries in the world. The documentary for this trip was produced for Adelia Television to follow the self-described hobbyist traveller.
"I am doing this as I love travelling," Garfors said in his initial record application. "I am adventurous and I do not think that this has ever been done by anyone. The documentary is not designed to be a bragging story. ...But equally about the small world we live in, the people, the cultures and all the contrasts."
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