It took retired Courtenay doctor Ron Perrier, now 72, 18 years to reach this milestone.
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It took 18 years, but Ron Perrier has now seen the world.
When he landed on October 24 in Funafuti, the capital of Tuvalu – a Polynesian island nation made up of nine atolls and reefs – the retired doctor could boast of having visited every United Nations mission. 193 member countries.
But it’s not so much where he’s traveled as how he travels.
“Unless there are no other options, I avoid tours, guides, hotels, restaurants and taxis,” Perrier said from his home in Courtenay.
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“I don't buy souvenirs, not even fridge magnets. I don't take photos but I look at things for my visual memory.
“I travel alone, without a fixed itinerary.”
Perrier has Asperger's syndromea form of autism that makes it difficult to socialize with others, so traveling alone suits him.
He had a medical practice in Castlegar, while also working in the Canadian Arctic. After his divorce in 1995, he had a relationship with a woman who encouraged him to travel with her to Patagonia.
“That planted a seed and I developed a cheap lifestyle and saved until I thought I would never have to work again,” Perrier said.
“And that’s what happened, I was 53 and I never had to work again.”
On the contrary, he added, because of his frugal lifestyle and wise investments, he is probably richer today than he was in 2006.
His travels are often geared towards visiting World Heritage sites, of which he has visited 896 out of 1,201, the sixth highest number of visits in the world according to The mania of nomadsa website for passionate travelers.
Choosing your favorite trips is like choosing a favorite among your children, but he lists among more than three dozen hikes in the American Southwest, covering 2,000 miles of the Way of Saint Jameswandering overland on the Silk Road from Xian in China to Israel, over 100 dives from Oceania to Indonesia, hiking from Morocco to Cape Town.
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“And two years in Europe and Western Asia, traveling 200,000 kilometers from Iceland to Azerbaijan,” he added.
For this trip, he bought a high-end van for about $100,000 (he got $85,000 for it when he sold it after two years), ate virtually all of his meals in the vehicle, and never had to pay for one night out of 700 for accommodation.
Oh yeah, and he travels almost exclusively in flip-flops.
All of this made Perrier, to his knowledge, the most traveled Canadian of all time.
His travels are recorded by Nomad Mania, which divides the world into 1,301 regions, 65,000 destinations and 60 categories (world heritage site, etc.), and verifies the travels of its 50,000 members.
“I am the only Canadian who has proven where he traveled,” Perrier said.
During his trip to Tuvalu, he had visited 941 of Travel Mania's 1,301 regions, making him number 42 in the world, and his trips to almost 18,000 destinations made him number 2 in the world.
“I avoid tours, they are restrictive and expensive,” explains Perrier. “Tourists would frustrate me.
“Dealing with a group of people easily overcomes my Asperger's syndrome. I do better alone.
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However, there are countries where travel is compulsory: North Korea, Tibet, Bhutan, Turkmenistan, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia. He found that joining a group of 17 people made the visa process much easier while visiting several African countries.
And he meets some interesting people on his tours, like his only traveling companion on a trip to Turkmenistan.
“She was 26 and on the selection committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, studying classical Greek philosophy in Greek and German. »
He's encountered his share of strange people, but overall he says people are good-hearted. He doesn't buy any travel insurance and only checks advisories issued by Travel Canada “for comic relief” before traveling to a country like Afghanistan or Yemen.
“Both of those places are safer than going to the Lower East Side of New York at midnight or going to Barcelona, where your chances of getting robbed are 100 percent if you're careless,” Perrier said. “The fact is, the world is actually an incredibly safe place.”
He wrote a long journey ebook this includes all kinds of advice as well as his thoughts and experiences.
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His next planned trip is to drive across Canada and see Newfoundland for the first time. If he drove non-stop the first day, he could reach Swift Current in 15 hours.
Ironically, that's how long it took him to get from Nanaimo to Courtenay after his last adventure.
He had flown from Shanghai via Tokyo to Vancouver, then taken a ferry to Nanaimo, arriving at 6 p.m. only to realize there had been an error in his journey.
“I hate staying in hotels and nothing came to mind except hitchhiking,” he said.
It took him an hour to make his first ride, and it only lasted as far as Parksville. Another 45 minutes and a ride to Bowser.
“It’s 10 p.m., I can sleep anywhere.”
He rolled out his sleeping bag and mattress, and settled into a gazebo in a public park, heading back onto the highway with his thumb at 6 a.m. for more hopscotch on the way home: Mud Bay, Fanny Bay, a public bus less than two blocks from her Courtenay home.
“It took me 15 hours to complete the last 110 kilometers, with all my experiences it was my most difficult journey,” he said with a laugh.
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