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Calgary man completes 23-year voyage around the world

Mike Spencer Brown while travelling around the world. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Mike Spencer Brown)

Mike Spencer Bown hasn't been "home" in a while. He left Calgary at the age of 21 to see the world.

Now 44, Bown is finally ready to return home after travelling to every country and region on the planet. And he didn't just step foot in each country — he intentionally spent significant time everywhere he visited and immersed himself in each culture.

He visited a blue-whale graveyard in Antarctica. He learned to drive a reindeer sleigh in Russia. He lived with a Bambuti pygmy tribe in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

His epic quest to become the world's most-traveled man took him 23 years to complete.

"Some of the least travelled people I've ever met have been to 100 countries, or even as high as 170 countries — what they do is fly between major cities and especially capital cities, stop off in the airport or take a hotel for the night, and then say that they've 'done' such and such country," said Bown, speaking with the Calgary Sun via Facebook.

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"To my view, such people are passengers, not travellers."

Bown funded his travels "by selling off his export business in Indonesia many years ago," Postmedia News reported.

Bown made international headlines two years ago when his travels took him to Mogadishu, Somalia, making him the first recreational visitor in the nation's capital in more than two decades.

"They tried four times to put me back on the plane to get rid of me but I shouted and played tricks until the plane left without me," Bown told AFP at the time.

He celebrated his final passport stamp with his first Guinness in Ireland.

And while Bown is going home with endless tales of adventure to share — "I've had no 'down time' — every day of my adult life has been adventure, and for this I feel very grateful," he said — there is one thing he wants everyone to know:

"People are basically good and worth knowing whatever the race or culture they hail from."