One Man. Every Country. No Flights: Graham Hughes at TEDxSheffield

On New Years Day 2009 Graham Hughes, set off on an epic journey from his hometown of Liverpool. His plan was to travel to every country in the world without the use of a plane. He used buses, taxis, trains and his own two feet to travel 160,000 miles and 201 countries in exactly 1,426 days - all on a shoestring of just $100 a week.

Nearly fours after he set off, Graham finally made his way to South Sudan, a country that was actually created whilst he was on his Odyssey, to end his adventure in November 2012. Along the way Graham shot an 8-part TV show for Lonely Planet and wrote about his adventures on his award-winning blog, theodysseyexpedition.com. And while there were many high points along the way, he reached his lowest point when his sister, Nicola, died of cancer just over two years ago in the middle of his quest. Returning back to Liverpool to see her, he considered ending the Odyssey then, "but with only 17 countries left to visit, she wanted me to finish the journey, no matter what." And so he did.

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