Camels, yachts and poultry trucks: Inside one man’s no-fly journey around the world | CNN

As an unusual landmass appeared on the horizon, Egyptian tourist Omar Nok jumped from his narrow berth and climbed onto the deck of his 49-foot sailboat.

After weeks spent surrounded only by the ocean, he was frozen in awe at the sight of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, home to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Piton Mountains.

It was the 10th stop on a 31-year-old traveler’s ambitious quest to circumnavigate the globe without flying.

The yacht served as another vehicle to add to his list of unconventional transportation options.

Since setting out in October, Nock has been hopping on boats, riding camels and relying on the generosity of strangers to explore the world more deeply without flying.

“The no-fly portion makes it easier to see the world more broadly,” Nock told CNN. “There’s also a special sense of pride in arriving somewhere far away, because that distance reminds you of everything it took to get there.”

This philosophy has taken him across deserts, borders and oceans, to places few outsiders have seen.

Nock said her desire to explore began in childhood, but accelerated during a trip to the Balkans in 2018, when she booked a one-way ticket from Egypt to Romania and back from Montenegro two weeks later, leaving the rest of the route “unknown.”

He then quit his finance job at Amazon in 2022 to travel full-time and live frugally off his savings. Since then, Nok’s adventures have become even more daring, traveling overland from Egypt to East Asia.

Nok, who holds both an Egyptian passport and a European Union passport, came up with the idea of ​​traveling around the world without boarding a plane during a seven-month trip to Japan in 2024.

While staying in Shinshu Shinmachi’s Japanese town, Nok learned about ikigai, the Japanese philosophy about living a joyful life. He realized that his purpose in life was to make long journeys around the globe without using airplanes.

Just a few months later, Knock was on his way. He left Cairo in October 2025, crossing Egypt to Libya.

Nok has been documenting his travels on social media and has amassed an audience of nearly 1 million people on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and his movements are tracked live through the travel app Polarsteps.

His online supporters are already helpful. His first visa to cross the border into Libya required an invitation letter, and one of his Instagram fans helped him create one.

He hopes his adventures will inspire those who follow him.

“Some people told me that watching my journey restored their faith in humanity, and that was the best part,” Nok said. “That’s the biggest victory.”

Another early challenge was crossing northern Libya between Benghazi and Tripoli. This is a risky journey that most travelers would choose to travel by plane.

Before he knew it, Nok found himself in a shared van on a cramped and stressful overnight journey. The highway was dotted with checkpoints, and at one point his paperwork was denied, stalling his progress.

“I’m not someone who gets stressed easily, but at this point I was really stressed out,” he recalls.

Luckily, a local friend came to his aid and he was able to reach his next destination, Medenine, Tunisia.

They then visited France and Spain, took a 30-hour ferry ride to the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa, and then headed to the Caribbean.

bus, train, car

The various modes of transportation he used along the way ranged from buses, trains, vans, hitchhiking, horses, motorcycles, slow boats, sea barges, bicycles, and even a poultry truck.

After landing on St. Lucia, they began island hopping northwest and reached the Dominican Republic.

He had originally planned to reach the US East Coast from here, but says that is now unlikely due to problems with visa arrangements. Instead, he’s aiming for Latin America.

With the world currently facing increased instability, it is unclear whether or how the current Middle East crisis will impact his future travels. Nock remains hopeful and prefers not to focus too much on politics. What’s most important to him, he says, is the location, the food, and the people.

“The world can be polarized, but honestly, it’s more about governments than it is about everyday people. And most of the world is made up of people, not governments,” he explained.

Boarding a sailboat to St. Lucia in December was no easy task. Nock spent three weeks trying to find a boat to cross the Atlantic, trying to contact sailors at Las Palmas Marina on Gran Canaria, the third largest of the Canary Islands.

He faces the same challenges when trying to cross the Caribbean, but says he believes there’s always a way forward, as long as it doesn’t involve flying.