After a bicycle accident in Berlin in October 2022 left him bedridden for nearly three months, David Bosek had nothing to do but lie down and reflect.
After recovering from a hip fracture and deep vein thrombosis in his leg, the now 35-year-old German videographer has taken time to reevaluate his life. He realized that he had been given the “unusual gift” of being able to press pause, and once he got back on his feet, he decided to finally pursue his dream of traveling around the world.
But Bosek, who was working in environmental science at the time, had no desire to simply fly from one tourist hotspot to another on a long-haul flight. Instead, we envisioned traveling mostly by land and sea, tracking our carbon footprint along the way, with the aim of compensating for our environmental impact.
Bosek, who set out from Germany in 2024, has since traveled more than 90,000 kilometers (more than 50,000 miles) across seven continents as part of the four-year ONE PLANET Expedition. This is a project he describes as a bio-environmental experiment. Traveling this way, he says, has completely changed his perception of what it means to move through the world.
“It allows you to connect with the people and places you meet, and the distance itself feels different,” he told CNN Travel via Zoom. “I feel like when you slow down, go to a place, and really experience it, its beauty comes through even more. Try to really connect with that place, and think about how you can leave a positive impact on the places you travel to.”
To track his journey, Bosek created a carbon calculator designed to measure, reduce and offset the emissions of his journey.
His first route took him through Europe to Estonia, then south to Gran Canaria and Tenerife, where he volunteered as a videographer at a local animal sanctuary. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean by yacht via Cape Verde and arriving in Brazil, we hitchhiked to Ushuaia, Argentina. He took part in an expedition from the southern tip of South America to Antarctica, and then gradually began charting his way north to Alaska.
This route had major obstacles, including being robbed in Brazil, and administrative hurdles, including an initial refusal to enter Panama. “Of course, there are many moments when I doubt myself,” Bosek says. “But this is also where growth happens.”
He acknowledged that German passports played a role in facilitating entry to some destinations, saying the level of visa-free access afforded them privileges not available to travelers from many other countries.
Over time, Bosek’s approach to offsetting carbon emissions has evolved. Rather than waiting until the expedition was over to calculate and address total emissions, he focused on contributing financially to climate change projects and donating his time and skills to local projects along the way. He works with huskies in Estonia, dogsleds in Alaska, volunteers on an organic farm in Australia, and organizes charity runs and group hikes.
“You don’t want the responsibility to start when the journey ends,” he says. His long-term goals include organizing reforestation efforts and eventually purchasing land to restore degraded ecosystems.
However, strict compliance with no-fly rules ultimately proved unfeasible. After two years of air-only travel, Bosek booked a flight from Anchorage, Alaska, to Baja California Sur, Mexico, in late 2025. Since traveling through Canada by land was not possible, and the seasonal ferry to Mexico (where I had two documentary projects waiting) had been closed for several months, I decided to fly.
“The circumstances explain my decision, but it doesn’t eliminate emissions,” he said, noting that just one flight wiped out a significant portion of the carbon savings he had accumulated. Since then, he has taken two flights and agreed to a compromise.
“Avoiding airplanes is one of the most important road trip guidelines,” he says. But “maintaining the perfect no-fly narrative” should not defeat the “scientific, documentary, and social purposes of the expedition.”
Bosek traveled from Mexico to Panama, via the Galapagos Islands, to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, and finally to Australia. So he hitchhiked through the outback to Alice Springs and Yuendumu, then secured a last-minute seat on a boat bound for Southeast Asia before catching a short flight to Cairns, a town in northern Australia.
“It’s no longer about the destination,” he says. “You also have time to explore, and it’s great to be able to spend that time, because in other vacations and scenarios, there would always be something or someone waiting for you. But that’s not the case for me.”
Bosek has been documenting his journey on Instagram and plans to launch a YouTube channel later this year that will feature documentary-style films about his journey and the initiatives he encountered along the way.
Looking to Asia and the Middle East, Bosek faces the new challenge of traveling to areas where he doesn’t speak the local language. (He is fluent in German, English, and Spanish, and speaks a little French and Estonian.)
“I’ve been able to communicate in every country I’ve ever traveled to,” he says. “So that’s very interesting and how well the infrastructure and systems that are there support my goal of traveling with as little footprint as possible.”
Despite his excitement for what lies ahead, Bosek says the nearly three-year journey has been mentally taxing. He admits to feeling increasingly homesick for family and friends and the simple comforts of familiar food and daily life.
“My mom is always worried,” he jokes. “If I need you to tell me what the problem is, I’ll call my mom.”
Despite this, he cannot imagine being able to “sit still” for long, stating that he will probably be ready to head to the next adventure as soon as he completes this one.
“It’s always been there, and I’ll always be someone who loves to explore,” he says. “That won’t change.”
Financially, this expedition operates on a very tight budget. Although he started with little savings, he says he doesn’t see this as a limitation and insists that travel should not be “surrounded by or defined by money.”
Bosek barely pays for accommodation, instead relying on tents, hitchhiking and working as a boat crew member. He traverses the terrain by bicycle and kayak, and has even built rafts to float along the Amazon River in Bolivia.
He hopes his expedition will inspire others to travel in a “more conscious, slower, more adventurous” way.
Bosek plans to return to Germany in 2028, but said there is no set deadline, leaving room for unexpected “side quests” and stories worth documenting along the way.
“If this trip has taught me anything, it’s how unpredictable this journey can be,” Bosek added, noting that things can change at any time due to “changes in weather forecasts, ships, borders, and political situations.”
“Direction is home. Exact route and timing still unknown.”
