Jessica Nabongo, first black woman to visit every country in the world
The Travel Diaries
Holly Rubenstein
4.5 • 813 Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2021
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jessica Nabongo is the first black woman in history to have visited all 195 countries in the world. On top of that, she travelled to 89 of these countries solo. All by the age of 35. She’s an influencer, photographer and businesswoman, and shares with us what she learnt throughout this epic journey.
From Tuvalu and Eritrea to Turkmenistan and Djibouti, Jessica’s travel diaries literally take us all over the world.
Destination Recap:
- Punta Mita, Mexico
- Uganda
- Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda,
- Lamu, Kenya
- Japan
- Mt Fuji, Japan
- Hiroshima, Japan
- Bali, Indonesia
- Namibia
- Islamabad, Pakistan
- Lahore, Pakistan
- Iran especially Isfahan
- Colombia
- Cuba
- Merowe, Sudan
- Senegal
- Eritrea
- Masawa, Eritrea
- Tuvalu
- Lake Assal, Djibouti
- The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan
- South Sudan
- Moldova
- Belarus
- Tashkent, Samarkand & Termez, Uzbekistan
- Venice, Italy
- Greenland
- Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
For more of Jessica’s adventures you can pre-order her first book on Amazon. It will be published by National Geographic and is out in May 2022. In the meantime, you can follow her on Instagram @jessicanabongo. Jessica's new project, The Nabongo List: is a new luxury, travel membership that gives you the best in local, luxury and unique experiences all around the world, curated by Jessica
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Travel Diaries podcast. |
| 0:09.2 | I'm Holly Rubinstein. I'm a travel and entertainment journalist. |
| 0:13.1 | And here each week I'll be speaking to a very special guest about the seven chapters in their life's travel diaries. |
| 0:20.0 | From their earliest childhood travel memory and the first place they fell in love with |
| 0:24.7 | to their hidden gem and what's at the top of their travel bucket list, |
| 0:28.9 | we'll be uncovering their adventures around the world |
| 0:31.5 | and the travel experiences and destinations that have shaped their lives. |
| 0:37.1 | Thank you so much to everyone who tuned in to last week's episode with Claire Bolding. |
| 0:41.6 | And a big welcome to my new listeners, Stateside. |
| 0:44.9 | The podcast really took flight in the US over the last couple of weeks. |
| 0:47.9 | So thank you so much for being here. |
| 0:49.6 | I think you'll like today's episode. |
| 0:52.1 | As a travel lover, this week's guest is someone I have been |
| 0:55.9 | really looking forward to you all hearing from. She's achieved something that no one else |
| 1:01.4 | on the podcast has done before. In October 2019, Jessica Nabongo completed the final stretch |
| 1:07.9 | of an epic two and a half year journey where she traveled to every |
| 1:12.2 | country in the world, all 195 UN member states becoming the first black woman in history to do so. |
| 1:20.9 | On top of that, 89 of these countries she traveled to Solo. |
| 1:24.8 | And by the way, Jessica is still in her mid-30s. So where do you start with |
| 1:29.6 | someone who has been everywhere? How do you get going with their travel diaries? These were the |
| 1:34.3 | questions I was asking myself when I was preparing. So the episode starts with us getting to know |
| 1:38.7 | a bit more about Jessica, her background, what motivated her to take on this challenge. And then |
... |
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