When an unusual sight of land appeared, Egyptian traveler Omar Nok jumped out of his narrow seat and onto the deck of the 49-foot boat he was traveling on.
After weeks of being surrounded by nothing but sea, the view of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, home to the UNESCO-listed Piton mountains, left him frozen in awe.
It was the tenth time that the 31-year-old traveler tried hard to go around the world without flying.
The sailboat served as another vehicle to add to his unusual list of modes of transportation.
Since leaving in October, Nok has been hopping boats, riding camels and relying on the generosity of strangers as he continues his non-flying journey to see the world in depth.
“The non-flying part makes it easier to see more of the world,” Nok told CNN. There is also a sense of pride in reaching some faraway place, because the faraway place reminds you of everything you need to get there.
This philosophy has taken him across deserts, land borders and seas – and places few people have ever seen.
Nok says his desire to explore began in childhood but intensified during a 2018 trip to the Balkans, when he boarded a flight to Romania from Egypt and returned from Montenegro two weeks later, leaving the other route “unknown.”
He later quit his finance job at Amazon in 2022 to work full-time, living off his savings while spending money frugally. Since then, Nok tourism has been on the rise, with tours from Egypt to East Asia.
Nok, who holds an Egyptian and European Union passport, came up with the idea of going around the world without flying on a seven-month trip to Japan in 2024.
While living in the Japanese city of Shinshushinmachi, Nok was introduced to “Ikigai,” the Japanese philosophy of living a happy life. He realized that his Ikigai had to take a long journey, not fly around the world.
A few months later, Nok was on his way. He left Cairo in October 2025, traveling through Egypt to Libya.
Nok has been documenting his journey on social media, building an audience of around one million across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and his movements are being tracked on the Polarsteps travel app.
His online supporters have already proved useful. His first border crossing visa, to Libya, required an invitation letter, which one of his Instagram followers helped arrange.
He hopes his adventures will inspire those who follow him.
“Some people have told me that their faith in humanity has been restored by watching my journey, and that’s the best part,” Nok said. “That’s a big win.”
Another early challenge was crossing northern Libya between Benghazi and Tripoli – a dangerous journey that many travelers would choose to take by air.
Nok found himself in the van he was sharing on a night journey that was cramped and difficult. Checkpoints were on the highway and at one point, his documents were rejected, halting his progress.
He says: “I don’t get stressed easily, but at this time I was very stressed.”
Fortunately, a local friend came to his aid, and he was able to reach his next destination, Medenine, Tunisia.
He then headed for France and Spain, arriving in the Canary Islands, far northwest of Africa, a 30-hour boat ride, before sailing to the Caribbean.
Buses, trains and cars
His various modes of transportation on the road have ranged from buses, trains, vans, ride-hailing, horses, motorcycles, speedboats, ocean liners, bicycles and even a chicken truck.
After he arrived in St. Lucia, has started to go to the northwest island, arriving in the Dominican Republic.
From here, he originally planned to make it to the East Coast of the US, but he says visa processing problems mean that’s now impossible. Instead, he intends to go to Latin America.
With the world now facing increasing uncertainty, it is unclear how the current crisis in the Middle East will affect his journey forward. Nok is still optimistic, preferring not to give too much weight to politics. He says what is most important to him are places, food and people.
He explained: “It may be a separate world, but in reality, it has more to do with the government than the everyday people have to do with people. And most of the world is made up of people, not governments.
The boat ride to St. Lucia in December was not an easy task – Nok spent three weeks trying to contact the sailors of the Las Palmas marina in Gran Canaria, the third largest in the Canary Islands, in search of a ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
He faced similar challenges when trying to cross the Caribbean Sea but says he’s hopeful there’s always a way forward – as long as it doesn’t involve airplanes.
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