A globe-trotting duo are waiting to be told if their whistle-stop round-the-world adventure has landed them a place in the record books.
...the preparations did not take into account the potential setbacks that were to pepper the journey − including being threatened with arrest outside a mosque in Casablanca
Friends Adrian Butterworth and Gunnar Garfors visited five countries on different continents in a single day during their unique international trip.
The epic adventure saw the pair – who met at university in Falmouth, Cornwall, 15 years ago – start at Istanbul in Turkey (Asia) before heading to Morocco in Casablanca (Africa), Paris in France (Europe) and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic (North America) before finishing in Caracas , Venezuela (South America) shortly before midnight, local time, the same day.
They are now waiting for their world record attempt for the most continents visited in one day to be ratified by the Guinness World Records.
Mr Butterworth, 40, who runs Bournemouth-based film company Adelia TV and documented their trans-world adventure on camera, said months of planning had gone into researching the precise schedule.
But the preparations did not take into account the potential setbacks that were to pepper the journey − including being threatened with arrest outside a mosque in Casablanca.
Mr Butterworth said: “It wasn’t enough to simply fly to five airports, we had to spend some time in each location and capture the spirit of the place by talking to local people and seeing the sights.
“However, this included a rather unhappy police officer during a brief stay in Casablanca, as he was not too keen on us filming outside a mosque.
“It was perhaps something we ought to have thought about, as the police officer told us we’d be arrested if we didn’t stop what we were doing immediately.
“Gunnar is an experienced traveller though and was quite relaxed about everything.
“He’s visited more than 170 countries and he says he hasn’t achieved that without spending the odd night in a cell.”
The adventure, which began at 1.10 a.m. on June 18, actually took 30 hours because the duo were following the time zones. They then re-traced their steps over the course of the next few days to carry out more extensive filming.
Mr Garfors, 37, a company executive from Oslo,Norway, said he wanted to complete the self-funded trip to highlight “how the world as we know it is getting smaller”.
He added: “We had a few delays, which put us under a little bit of pressure, but the hardest part of the whole thing was getting the French customs officials to stamp our passport and prove we’d been through Europe.
“We practically had to beg them to do it, otherwise there was a risk of Guinness not accepting our world record attempt.
“Once we receive confirmation of this record, the next step is to plan visiting all seven continents in one day. That is possible, but I think we’re going to need a faster plane.”
A documentary following the trip will be shown on Norwegian TV, while an English version is also due to be made.
The duo expect to hear if their feat has been recognised as a new world record later this month.