A Mulvihill resident who’s on a mission to see 100 countries will be edging closer to his target this month when he packs up and heads to South America.
Garry Steinthorson, who’s in his 60s, said his goal to see 100 countries doesn’t entail a quick visit and a few selfies, but extended stays to really get to know the world beyond Mulvihill.
“Since I was I young fellow, I’ve been wanting to travel. Reaching a goal of 100 countries got into my blood over the last 20 years,” said Steinthorson, who’s now been to 92 countries. “At one point in my life, I sold everything I owned and went travelling around the world for four years. I had pretty good jobs and I worked really hard. And it’s easy to do when you’re selfish and irresponsible!”
Steinthorson said he’s scaled mountains, travelled on cargo boats in the Amazon, sailed down the Nile River in Egypt, kipped in caves, biked around Mount Vesuvius (volcano) in Italy and visited some of the world’s ancient wonders along the way.
He has taken a bike with him on some of his trips in order to travel off the beaten path, and even took jobs for months at a time in places like Australia and Iceland to help fund his adventures.
“I mountain climbed on some of the highest mountains in Canada and other mountains such as in Ethiopia, which was over 15,000 feet. I skied in France for two seasons. I’ve been in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and sailed down the Nile River on a felucca [a riverboat with sails] for three nights back in the 1980s,” he said. “I cycled 2,000 kilometres across South America from Buenos Aires [Argentina] across the pampas and over the Andes to Chile and then down to the Pacific Ocean.”
On a seven-week bike trip to northern Europe, he cycled 3,700 kilometres from the Netherlands to Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway then jumped on a ferry to Iceland. From there he went to the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Scotland.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. He had his passport stolen at a bus station in Morocco – he got it back later but not his travellers’ cheques and money – and was rounded on by people in one town who objected to him and his friend staying for free with a local woman and her family.
“The hotel owners were angry. The police tried to get our passports but we wouldn’t hand them over. So they took the woman away for questioning. Then a group of kids started throwing rocks at us. It was a rough night.”
In Amsterdam he and a friend were confronted by muggers armed with knives and a hypodermic syringe.
“They were threatening to stab my buddy and I started talking a mile a minute. They had my buddy against the wall and I was pushing them back and telling them they’re going to get in trouble and that we had no money,” he said. “After a while they gave up. They probably decided they couldn’t listen to me anymore.”
When he hiked 120 kilometres up and down a mountainside in Ethiopia, he and a group of other hikers hired a mule driver and “two guys with guns” to protect them from bandits wandering around in the highlands.
“When we got up in the morning and got ready to leave, our two guards ran up to a stone wall and started popping off a couple of rounds up the mountain. That scared the hell out of us. Later on, we met a group of men armed with Russian Kalashnikovs [assault rifles] but our guards knew them,” he said. “Dangerous situations like these didn’t deter me from wanting to explore countries.”
In addition to seeing a lot of places around the globe and experiencing things most people haven’t, Steinthorson said he made friends with people who welcomed him back.
“I found a place to ski-bum in France for two seasons after I became friends with a Swedish group that were all ski-bumming up there,” he said. “I was able to ski for five months each season.”
His last trip took him 3,000 kilometres across southern Europe in 10 weeks. He biked from Paris to the Pyrenees where he dropped down into Spain and eventually made his way to Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, where French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born. Then he caught a ferry to the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, where he visited the town of Corleone that was made famous in the movie The Godfather.
Panama in Central America and Colombia and Peru in South America are next on his list.
When he reaches 100 countries does he plan to stop? Doesn’t sound like it.
“I’m going to go back to a few places I’ve been before. I won’t worry about getting another country after I reach 100,” said Steinthorson. “At first, I wanted to see every country in the world, but that would mean having to do all the island countries and see even more beaches. I eventually got bored with paradise.”
Express Photos Courtesy of Garry Steinthorson
