This would be not just my first time at the Extraordinary Travel Festival, but everyone’s – if it happened! Various events and speakers joined then left the programme, and a few months out the venue fell through… Armenia seems like a difficult place to do business (one of the organisers shared a blacklist of restaurants he’d had disagreements with), and inflation / currency shifts must have eroded the profitability of the $350 attendance fee. But I figured with this many extreme travellers descending upon Yerevan at the same time, something would happen - even if not quite as originally advertised...

Ultimately though it was a great debut for what I hope will be a repeating event. Even by flyertalk standards, the depth of experience of not just speakers but attendees was incredible. Dozens had already visited every UN country – two, twice – and considered this as a starting point, not the culmination, of their various personal quests to discover all the world has to offer.

It would be impossible to answer the question of who the most travelled person in the room was, but I think there’s an obvious candidate for least travelled: me! Nonetheless, I had a great time listening to tales of epic adventures and getting a glimpse into a community which seemed to be as much about the people as the places.

The final schedule offered plenty of interesting talks, and I find it impossible to choose a favourite between Tony Giles – born blind and now also 80% deaf, he’s nonetheless visited over 100 countries – and Thor Pedersen, who is nine years into an attempt to visit every country without flying or returning home to Denmark (with a handful of awkward pacific islands to go, he joined us via zoom from quarantine on a cargo ship off New Caledonia).

Other presentations offered practical advice – for a definition of practical which includes chasing 193 with children or visiting Sudan – and we also got to sample some local culture: from an opening performance on drums and duduk, an ancient instrument from the region; to a feast of barbecue, apparently the go-to for any group celebration in Armenia.

There won’t be an ETF23, for the simple reason that ETF22 took over a year to organise. But plans are taking shape for 2024, and it’s likely that the conference will, like its audience, roam from country to country. I’m definitely glad I attended this one, and look forward to seeing where it might lead me next!