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I'm Johnny from Ireland. I visited every country, climbed the 7 Summits, & reach North and South Pole. I made $4m blogging as I went, & donated $300k+. How?

Becoming the first person to complete the Ultimate Explorer's Grand Slam! Follow me to know more I'm Johnny, from Ireland. My story is quite simple. I grew up with no father, on social welfare for over a decade, with just my mum and my sister. With no holidays, and no money, I decided at a young age I wanted to be 'free'. Whatever that meant. Fast forward to the day I finished university, I went to teach English in Thailand and I never returned to the UK and Ireland. I started to blog, decided to try to become the first person to visit EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD from Ireland and the rest just followed. I learned how to monetize my blog, made more than $2m from that, visited every country and now I'm trying to be the 1st person in history to visit every country, north pole, south pole and climb the 7 summits. I'm nearly there! I try to use my socia media platforms to give back to travel, after travel gave me everything. I started a non-profit, MuditaAdventures.com, where we build clinics, playgrounds, schools etc in developing countries and bring my followers along for the experience. You can read the full story at my blog: onestep4ward.com, and check my instagram.com/onestep4ward but that's the main gist! Oh, and I live in Thailand where I'm currently building my dream home.

11/09/2026

The hottest place on planet earth, Death Valley, California, USA.

Death Valley once recorded a record high 134 degrees (56 Celsius), although we only managed to reach a sweltering 121 (49C) during our summer visit this week 🥵

In a beautiful, never-ending quest to experience the every extreme of what our gorgeous world has to offer Jaime Aleman and I concocted this plan together after our winter Siberia visit in February this year to Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited spot on earth. There we hit -60 Fahrenheit (-51C), which means a ridiculous 181 degree difference (100C!) since I last hung out with Jaime. That’s gotta be a record for a calendar year surely?! Can anyone beat that?

Death Valley has been nothing short of spectacular. Absolute empty (probably none stupid enough to visit during peak heat season, fair enough), perfect silence, and completely untouched. We spent 3 days exploring the park. Sunrise starts, peak heat shoots and evenings under the stars. Not much sleep but a whole lot of adventure.

All the while the super talented filmmaker Abner Benaim and his team are filming a feature length documentary about Jaime, to tell his life story. Culminating in every country, both poles, hottest and coldest spots and… SPACE! If anyone warrants a movie about their life it’s Jaime. Watch this space for the release next year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it ending up on Netflix to be honest, I might even make a cameo!

Huge, huge thanks to Jaime, Abner and Mauro for the most amazing week. Last minute plans to come here, schedule clashes, super hot and long days but we made it work and what a life we’re living gents. Thank you for the memories. Until the next time ❤️

06/09/2026

Do you know where the hottest place on earth is?

Because I’ve been slightly cheating on my own life’s work 😂

You guys know I’m obsessed with this concept I created called 'the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam'

The traditional Explorers Grand Slam is climbing the Seven Summits and reaching the North and South Poles.

I wanted to create the ultimate version. A challenge that combines travel, mountaineering, polar exploration, expeditions and the geographical extremes of our planet:

🌍 Every Country++

🏔️ Seven Summits++

🧭 North Pole + South Pole

🌡️ Hottest + coldest places on Earth

⬆️⬇️ Highest + lowest places on Earth

Basically, my life’s work!

Now, for the hottest place on Earth, I’ve always counted the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia. And I think I had a pretty good argument.
These photos are from Dallol, deep in the Danakil near the Eritrean border. It’s one of the most insane places I’ve ever been below sea level (2nd lowest place on earth no less!), endless salt flats, sulphur springs, volcanic landscapes and temperatures that barely seem to let up.

Dallol became famous for recording an average annual temperature of around 34.6°C, making it the hottest place on Earth by sustained heat across a calendar year.

BUT…

That's kinda cheating and I know it. There’s another, more definite, definition.

If “hottest place on Earth” means the highest officially recorded air temperature, there’s a clear winner:
Death Valley, California, USA.

Furnace Creek recorded 56.7°C / 134°F, which remains the official world record according to the World Meteorological Organization. World Meteorological Organization

So tomorrow I’m flying into Las Vegas and heading out to Death Valley with my mate, and irish blooded living legend Jaime Aleman. They're making a well deserved movie about his life, and I might make a (sweaty death valley) cameo!

I’ve already done Danakil. But I created this challenge, so I don’t want an asterisk beside one of the boxes.

I want to stand in BOTH legitimate contenders for the hottest place on Earth and know I’ve done it properly.

And when I do, I can finally feel like I’ve genuinely completed my Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam.

Every country.
Seven Summits.
Everest.
North Pole.
South Pole.
The highest, lowest, hottest and coldest extremes of our planet.
It has taken a huge chunk of my adult life.

And now that I’m reaching the end of it, I’d absolutely love to see some other people have a crack. Who’s next?

Also, what do you think about this concept 'Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam', I'm thinking I should also add the most northern and most southern places on earth too eh? Something to work on!

17/08/2026

The top of Europe 🇪🇺

Just spent the last 12 days or so with 8 friends climbing Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain and one of the 7 summits. And we had 8/8 of us reach the top. Legends everywhere! Summit day though? Oooooph. Not an easy one 🥱

Sitting on the Georgian/Russian border, Elbrus tops out at 5,642m (18,510ft). I had never put together a group for a big mountain before so didn’t know what to expect but it was like a wild family. So much fun. 3 girls, 5 guys. Irish, US, Canadian, Italian, English wedged together and we did it! 💪🏻💪🏻

Huge thanks to my friends Sergei and Micha for helping me out this together and dragging us to the top! Now though…. How about ticking off the 7 VOLCANIC summits around the world. 2 down, 5 to go 👀 Iran next, anyone fancy it?!

13/08/2026

NEW VIDEO: I SPENT 4 NIGHTS S IN 2 COUNTRIES TRAVELLING WITHOUT BOOKING A SINGLE HOTEL.

Dubai + Doha.

No hotels. No proper restaurants. I basically lived like a well-dressed homeless man inside airport lounges.

Food? Lounges.
Booze? Lounges.
Sleep? Pods.
Showers? Lounges.
Questionable life decisions? Obviously.

The challenge was simple: can my genuinely replace hotels and restaurants for an entire trip without the whole thing turning pear shaped? Turns out… sort of. At least with some proper planning!

Red eye in from Thailand, lounge. Sight see. Lounge for dinner. Lounge for drinks. Sleep pod lounge for sleep. Wakeup lounge for brekkie and shower. Fly to Doha.
Repeat the same in Doha. And fly back to Thailand!

Watch me put airport luxury to the test 👇

Would you do it?

TravelChallenge

13/08/2026

✈️ NEW VIDEO: 2 DAYS, 2 COUNTRIES, NO HOTELS OR RESTAURANTS!

I travelled through Dubai and Doha without booking a single hotel or eating at a conventional restaurant.

Instead, I used airport lounges and sleep pods (accessible through my Priority Pass membership) or my meals, rest and overnight accommodation.

Red eye in from Thailand, lounge. Sight see. Lounge for dinner. Lounge for drinks. Sleep pod lounge for sleep. Wakeup lounge for brekkie and shower. Fly to Doha.

Repeat the same in Doha. And fly back to Thailand!

Could airport lounges genuinely replace hotels and restaurants for an entire trip? Perhaps not. But it's fun to do anyway! And how luxurious was the experience really?

Watch the full adventure here 👇

Would you try this challenge?!

30/07/2026

Im going back to Turkmenistan before the Gates of Hell CLOSE FOREVER! JOIN ME IN OCTOBER!

I’m the worst salesperson ever, but I promise I run epic group tours in person 😂 Join me October 5-10 in Turkmenistan on my 3rd tour to the famous gates of hell, including an oldskool soviet sleeper train across the whole country to the Caspian Sea and a flight back.

The whole thing is pretty cool, I promise. 10 spots gone, 4 left! DM me if you want to join ❤️

09/07/2026

Komodo Dragons and East Timor (one of the least visited countries on earth)! JOIN US AUGUST 23-30, 2026. NEXT MONTH!

My Mudita Adventures foundation is going back, to give back!

We’ll visit the Komodo dragons of course, but also fly into the jungle of West Timor and overland into East Timor (a great chance of any country counters out there), 10 spots gone - just 4 left.

All the info is in my IG stories, or if you’d like to join, DM us. We’re here 👋

These pics are when I brought my 70-something mum there, and I’ve wanted to organise a group trip ever since, even more so because they talk about closing the Komodo island to tourists 😮

05/07/2026

3 days, 3 flights, 2 countries, NO HOTELS + RESTAURANTS. Only airport lounges accessible with my Priority Pass

We did it! Total cost about $100 on taxis, 130,000 airmiles for the flights from Thailand to Dubai on day 1, and Qatar back to Thailand on day 3, and $0 on hotels, meals and booze!

I wanted to meet my buddy Selim Bayraktar, he’s based in Türkiye so UAE and Qatar is a perfect mid point for our reunion. I’m obsessed with Priority Pass for more than 10 years, and I LOVE doing ‘lounge crawls’ around airports when I have layovers (anyone else?!).

I now know they have more than just a generic lounge. They have places with gyms, with pools, lounges for when you arrive, lounges with cocktails baristas, and they have full on sleep pods/airport hotels that you can use.

Armed with this knowledge I choose a destination with the sleep pods we can use (Doha and Dubai airports both have Airport Sleepover beds that you can use Priority Pass with.

Then we just planned a fun trip around Dubai and Doha, met some friends, and checked out 2 cities together. And with that, took my red eye flight back to Thailand (used avios for Qatar first class - amazing experience!)

Selim is a wizard with a camera, so he’ll be putting together a cool video of it so you guys can copy if you want!

01/07/2026

The (not-so) detailed plan for my Dubai and Doha 72 hour city break with no hotels, just using Priority Pass airport lounges for all food, booze and sleep!

JULY 1: Red eye flight Thailand to Dubai, BKK-DXB (via DOHA)
- LOUNGES: Miracle First lounge in Bangkok, Al Maha lounge in Doha, sleeping pods with Airport Sleepover on arrival in Dubai airport

JULY 2: Reunion with my mate Selim! Then together, sight see all day in Dubai - Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, the Palm, the Marina, maybe see some friends if I have time
- LOUNGES: Brekkie at Ahlan business lounge, then back to airport that night for drinks at Marhaba lounge, then sleeping pods at Airport Sleepover again

JULY 3: Morning flight from Dubai to Doha, sightsee in Doha all day.
- LOUNGES: Back to Doha aiport for dinner at Al Maha, then the same brand sleep pods (they also have them in Doha, and also accessible by Priority Pass!)

JULY 4: Red-eye flight, Doha back to Bangkok (I used airmiles for First class!)

WHY?!
Because it's fun! I haven't seen my mate Selim Bayraktar in 6 months, he lives in Turkey, and Doha and Dubai is half way between us both. PERFECT! We did something similar on our last reunion in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore with the lounges and it was a big success, so I hatched a plan for this one!

COST?
I used 37,500 avios airmiles to fly economy from Thailand to Dubai, and 99,000 avios airmiles to fly from Dubai-Doha-Bangkok (in FIRST CLASS - can't wait!) so that was all free minus taxes.
Hotels: $0
Restaurants: $0
Accommodation: $0
- All of that is with my Priority Pass!
I'll prob spend a bit on ubers, and maybe entrances if I go to any museums etc. All in maybe a $100 or so?!

30/06/2026

3 day city break in Dubai and Doha - NO HOTELS OR RESTAURANTS, Only AIRPORT LOUNGES accessible with my I’ll fly in and out on a red-eye from Thailand! Let’s go round 2!

I’ve been waiting for this crazy USA/Iran thing to end, and it’s finally looking good. SO LET’S GO!

THE BACKGROUND?
One of my best mates, , has some busy family stuff going on in the next year so I’m running out of time to see him before it all kicks off. He lives in Turkiye, and I’m in Thailand so we decided to have a bit of a reunion and meet in the middle. That’s Dubai and Doha!

HOW MUCH IT’S GONNA COST?!
- 134,000 avios airmiles + $100 or so fees
- Some Ubers? Maybe $100 or so?
- I’m trying to save to build this villa, so I burned some airmiles on Qatar Air (35,000Avios Bangkok to Dubai, economy!) and we arranged to meet in Dubai airport, sleep there in the sleep pods. Spend the day in Dubai. Back to DXB airport, drinks and dinner in some lounges, sleep in the pods again, then fly to Doha, Qatar. Spend the day sightseeing again, and then back to Doha airport for sleep pods and red-eye back to Thiland (99,000Avios, first class with Qatar!).

I DID THIS ONCE BEFORE! We did this last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore - only priority pass lounges, no hotels/restaurants and it was so much fun!

Here’s a recap of the last time we did it. Tomorrow i’ll fly to Dubai to start round two!

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