World Heritage Site

2024 was my third year of full-time travel (read here about Day 0, Year 1 and Year 2). It was a busy year with mainly visits to large countries that I had been to before (China, India, Japan, Argentina, Chile). I managed to ‘complete’ the latter 3. 

There were memorable trips to Sangha Trinational in the Central African Republic (photo 1 is at Dzanga Bai), Patagonia (photo 3 is at Torres del Paine) and Japan’s Ogasawara Islands (photo 2 shows the fruit of the endemic pandan tree). I was also very pleased with spotting a Saiga in Saryarka.

You can find my updated Trip Planner here, including the actual ‘results’ of 2024. With an added total of 61 (54 new + 7 from the WHC), I am still right on track.

The focus now is on reaching 1,000

Reaching 1,000 has become a subgoal as it is such a nice, round number! If all goes to plan, this will happen in late November or early December 2025.

Factors that come into play are:

• Although I somewhat started to dislike them in 2024 (as there invariably are a couple of poor WHS in each cluster), I still need those clusters of 10+ WHS to maintain the necessary speed. I have 3 of those trips planned for 2025: to West Africa, the Middle East and Asia/Pacific.
• My low number of European WHS still to visit (excluding Russia, Turkey and Israel) makes getting the numbers up more difficult and more costly. I have only 12 left (7 already a WHS + 5 2025 nominations), including St. Kilda, Odesa and Chernivtsi which are unsure to reach at best.
• The harvest from the WHC 2025 – I have been quite lucky over the past years and 2026 with 15 is also looking good, but 2025 is a poor batch for me. I have been to 8 of the nominations, but even 2 of those are questionable: I probably haven’t visited the right location for the Huichol Route and the nomination of the Olive Grove Landscapes of Andalusia is likely to be withdrawn due to lack of local support.

Targeting #1,000

Also, I am encountering a First World problem within this already privileged context: exactly hitting the right one, the extra-special one at #1,000! This is a puzzle because:

• You can never be sure to actually reach every WHS you plan because of sudden closures, transport strikes, etc. Fortunately, my track record is that I have reached every WHS I planned for over the last couple of years.
• You also cannot predict the exact number of armchair ticks you will get from a WHC – every year there are surprises, sites withdrawn at the last moment etc. Uncertain also this year is whether Bulgaria will get its present for hosting the session, as they haven’t nominated anything (but if they get one, I will likely have been there). The picture becomes clearer only 6 weeks before the session, in late May when I have done already most of my travelling for 2025. So I keep 3 European WHS up my sleeve to compensate in September/October.
• Even in the final approach, the last 10 or so, one can fall out due to unforeseen circumstances. I therefore actually have 2 potential candidates for #1000, not too far from each other. The second one is earmarked #1001 now, but can easily serve as #1000 as well if needed.

And after 1,000?

I will surely slow down a bit. Not so much measured in time spent travelling, but I want to focus more on natural WHS and on one country or region at a time. My itineraries need to become less logistically complicated, that was the main lesson learned from 2024 (That Miami-to-Patagonia trip! What was I thinking?). Still, 1100 WHS in 2028 seems doable.