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Community Corner

He's Been All Around this World

Bart Hackley has set foot in 320 countries.

Bart Hackley  will never forget Sunday Feb. 6, 2011.

That it was Super Bowl Sunday is just coincidence. Hackley wasn't in the game or at the game—or even watching it, for that matter.

As millions of people around the U.S. yelled at their TVs, drained beer cans and gorged on snacks, Hackley set foot in the 320th and last country of his 13-year odyssey. Finally, the Balboa Island resident had visited every country in the world (according to the Travelers’ Century Club list), becoming one of only a handful of people to accomplish such a world tour.

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"Actually for awhile I did not think I was going to finish and all of a sudden it came together,” he said.

Hackley joined the TCC in 1997. The membership requirement is having visited at least 100 countries. Prior to that, he had travelled for pleasure with his wife, Sally—a seasoned traveller, herself, who once owned a travel agency.

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The TCC allowed Hackley to combine his love of travel and his competitive nature. A 1989 Guinness World Record for number of triathlons (123) completed in a year; finishing six Ironman competitions; and winning, along with a friend, The Great Escape 2008, a global scavenger hunt are among his accomplishments.

So why not tackle the ultimate travel challenge?

When Hackley began, he didn’t really have a system other than to start in Africa. With 53 countries there, he could cover a lot of territory on a single continent. Throughout the adventure, there were many dangerous situations—things he usually didn't tell his wife about upon his return home. In some of those not-so-safe places—Somalia, Rwanda, Iraq and  Bangladesh, among them—he simply touched his foot on the ground and didn’t stick around to see the sites.

"The worst part of traveling is that I hate eating out, I ‘d rather cook; it makes me feel more like home," Hackley said.

Hackley's final trip required reservations to be made 1 ½ to 2 years in advance on a cargo ship that only had 100 passenger spaces. The journey was to St. Helena and Tristan Da Cunha, two remote volcanic islands under British possession in the South Atlantic. Tristan is considered the world’s most isolated settlement with a population of about 300. Saint Helena,  part of the group of remote islands, is well known because it was where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled.

On that trip, Hackley came home with only a backpack. His wife asked him where is laundry was. His reply, “I dumped it.” After 27 days of roughing it, the clothes were in pretty bad shape, so better to lighten the load.

When asked  if there was a country where he wanted to spend more time, Hackley said," Many of them, I would have spent more time in Maldives, China, Japan, Peru and about 30 more."

So, now that he's been to every country in the world, what's next for the retired CPA?

Space travel.

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