A backpacker has become the first person to travel around the world twice - now, he's challenged himself to travel the Antarctic circle.

Gunnar Garfors, 48, has travelled to every single country around the world - including war-torn areas like Eritrea and North Korea.

He says his highlights include going snorkeling in the Marshall Islands, seeing lions in Botswana and eating sushi for breakfast in Tokyo.

He used his job as a broadcast journalist to fund his initial challenge from 2008 to 2013, sacrificing family life, a car and a comfortable home in order to visit different countries.

Then, in 2018, he challenged himself to do it all over again.

Gunnar, a journalist from Oslo, said: "Becoming the first person to travel the world twice has been humbling... there are just too many incredible places and experiences in the world. "

"I just became competitive with myself - the more I travelled, the more I wanted to travel."

"I couldn’t quit my job - so I did it using my holidays, weekends and long weekends."

"I’d fly out somewhere on the Tuesday after work, fly back into Oslo on Sunday night and go to work Monday morning." "

Gunnar says he was always fascinated by travelling when he was little - his dad, Reidar, now 83, was a cruise ship doctor in the 1970s and sailed around the world for a living.

He’d record cassette tapes for Gunnar and his six siblings, talking all about the different countries he’d visit - like Brunei, Canada and the Philippines.

He said: "I always wanted to travel when I was a small kid. Our dad was a doctor on a cruise ship. "

"He sailed the Pacific - and went to Philippines, Canada, Brunei and Malaysia. "

"We couldn’t read - so he’d send us cassette tapes instead of letters. He told us these incredible stories from distant countries - it was very inspiring."

At the age of 29, Gunnar set himself a challenge to travel to seven countries with the suffix "-stan" - Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. "

He started in October 2004, and completed it in October 2009 - which was when he decided to travel to every country around the world.

Gunnar said: "I didn’t have a plan, I just wanted another go at travelling to different countries. "

"I was very curious - I wanted to see new places, meet locals and have new experiences. I’d been invited to two weddings in India - and planned to go to China with friends. "

"The trouble is, when I started visiting more countries, I began to keep count. "

"And once you start keeping count, you have to finish." "

The challenge became Gunnar’s top priority - and he had to sacrifice a lot to complete it.

He couldn't see his family at weekends, he couldn’t afford a car, "fancy" clothes or a nice home. "

But he didn't feel he had to sacrifice his dating life - often taking ex-girlfriends on his travels.

In the space of five years, Gunnar visited 198 countries - including North Korea, Cape Verde and Yemen.

"There were so many highlights," he added. "The last one I went to was Cape Verde. I realised this was actually going to work - and I wanted to have a party for all my family and friends. "

"It was legendary - so many people close to me came to this party. When I saw them there, my body was covered in goosebumps."

"I experienced the mayhem at the Tokyo fish market early in the morning when the fish came in - and stayed to have world-class sashimi (raw fish) and sushi for breakfast. "

"There was also Eritrea - which was such a hard country to even get to, due to the politics there."

"But the country is incredible - the people there are so hospitable. They invite you home for dinner, take you on trips, without knowing who you are."

"North Korea stood out for the wrong reasons - you can really see the difference between the city and countryside residents."

"The city elite have lots of food and money to go around - country people can’t even afford tractors. They live in dire conditions." "

In May 2013, Gunnar completed his trip - and vowed he’d "never do something so stupid again."

In the three years afterwards, Gunnar tried to "fill the travelling hole" with work and research into war-torn countries. "

In "late" 2016, he began researching for a book about the least-visited countries in the world. He realised there were only "around 25" countries he hadn’t been to, twice. "

He "filled in the blanks" and made a plan to return to them within the next two years. "

Gunnar travelled to Yemen, Mo’orea, Tuvalu and back to Turkmenistan - visiting "beautiful beaches", eating their cuisines and living with the locals."



"I wouldn’t usually travel to war-torn countries like those, because I don’t want to encourage tourists to already-struggling places," he added. "It can also be quite hard to get a Visa."

"But it’s the people who make them - with locals come stories, different cuisines and their warmth and generosity."

"I was visiting a friend in Afghanistan, who took me to meet his family. They were preparing chicken - and his family had prepared their only chicken and gave it to me."

Gunnar believes tourists can become "quite arrogant" when travelling to different countries - and it’s better to chat to locals for a better experience. "

He said: "It’s easy to be quite arrogant - sitting on a bus full of locals, you don’t talk to them and you just sit consulting your Lonely Planet guidebook."

"You may be in a country for a week - but by participating and talking to people, you’ll get an essential experience."

Gunnar quit his job three years ago to focus on being a travel author full-time. He's currently researching for a book on the Antarctic circle.

He said: "I'm focusing on writing a book on the equator, the Arctic circle and the Antarctic circle - so I'm still on the road a lot."

"I have no plans to go around the world a third time - unless, of course, a filthy rich sponsor gets in touch!"