Seeing a large number of World Heritage Sites was always one of my primary goals for the World2 Tour, but, unlike my goal for new bird sightings, I never really had a specific target for the number of Sites I wanted to see. Indeed, when finalizing my original route plans, I emphasized quality over quantity when it came to WHS visits. Even on a List such at this, which is intended to consist entirely of superlatives, there are Sites which stand out, each of those being essentially guaranteed to provide an exceptional visit. Exactly which Sites those are is largely a matter of personal tastes, of course. Accordingly, I took that into account when devising my original route plans, and, in a few instances, included entire countries on my route solely for the purposes of experiencing their top-level Sites. Of course, if my route brought me anywhere close to any other WHSs, even ones that were only mildly interesting to me, I intended to make stops at those locations as well, a policy which always adds a significant distance to any potential Tour route. Therefore, had I actually been able to complete my intended route for the Tour, I would have potentially been able to visit one hundred fifty Sites for the first time. However, as will have been abundantly obvious by now, the travel restrictions that came into place in early 2020, when I had only completed one third of the Tour’s intended distance, essentially nullified all of my original plans. Nevertheless, with a significant amount of persistence, but also due to the fact that I was, for all intents and purposes, indefinitely trapped in a mode of disjointed international travel, I eventually, little by little, tallied up a reasonable fraction of that total. Many of those hoped-for top-level Site visits could not be salvaged, unfortunately, and it is unlikely that I will ever have another opportunity to see them in the future, which is a true disappointment. Overall, however, I have to be exceedingly satisfied with my result for the World2 Tour, and many of the World Heritage Sites that I did manage to visit provided me with truly unforgettable experiences.

The North American section of the Tour was, in all respects, the only portion that went off without a hitch, as long as the weather was ignored, at least, and my set of Site visits during that section was no exception. I accomplished generally unrushed visits to almost every Site that I had planned to see, with only two Miguasha, in New Brunswick, and Red Bay, in Labrador, being inadequate visits due to seasonal closures. Of course, as my original home continent, there were fewer unvisited Sites available for me to see, no matter how I designed the route. While that did lead to a lower frequency of visits, it also produced a feeling of satisfaction from closing in on having made visits to all the Sites on the continent. Sadly, I only got close to completing that collection, and there are still a small number of Sites in North America that I haven’t, and probably will never, see. The outstanding Sites in that section included the two Sites in the Southwest USA, Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, which also happened to be the first two Sites of the Tour. Additionally, the three Sites I saw in Greenland, Kujataa, Aasivissuit-Nipisat, and Ilulissat Icefjord, and the wonderful Icelandic island of Surtsey, fit that description nicely, primarily thanks to their unique and remote locations.

The Neotropics section was also destined to be fairly light in terms of interesting Sites. South America, of course, is graced by a large number of really extraordinary Sites. However, most of those are located on the opposite side of the continent from where I expected to be, and I had previously visited many of them on my earlier Tour. The remainder were rather sparse, and widely spaced, but, once again, I managed to see every one of the Sites I had planned on visiting during that section. A couple of my visits in the Caribbean region felt a little rushed, which is sometimes an unwelcome, but necessary, occurrence on a long cycling tour. Probably the most enjoyable experiences were the beautiful rock-art Site at Serra da Capivara, and the Atlantic Islands, both in Brazil. The only negative in this section was that I ran out of time to visit two places, also in Brazil, that were proposed additions to the List at the time. One of those has already been inscribed and the other probably will be in the next year or two. Had I been slightly more determined, I could have added those two Tentative Sites, but I can admit to being a little too worn out at the time to make the effort.

Europe was always going to be the section with the highest density of Sites along my route, with portions holding as many as one Site per day, and also the section with the greatest fraction of top-level Sites. As I have mentioned before, everything got off to an excellent start, as I made enjoyable visits to every Site that I had planned to see in the United Kingdom and France. Then, of course, to use a metaphor that is terrifying to every cyclist, the wheels came off. Suddenly. Probably my most depressing activity of the first half of the Tour was sitting around Berlin, thinking, “Well, if things open up soon, I will still be able to go there, there, and there.” Followed by the even less enjoyable activity of sequentially crossing those places, and more, off of my future route. With some welcome flexibility later that summer, I was able to compensate partially by seeing several Sites in Sweden, Poland, and Ukraine, some of which were extremely beautiful, most notably Krakow and Kyiv. My hastily added, but otherwise somewhat dreary, tour in Türkiye, was also made more enjoyable by my visits to six excellent Sites. Though I am still disappointed by missing numerous incredible Sites, I was pleased that I was able to make the best of a bad situation. Now I am also saddened by thoughts that the amazing Sites I had the good fortune to visit in Ukraine may have been damaged, or may be soon, by a incredibly senseless turn to violence.

The continent of Africa is woefully under represented on the List and my unplanned and scatter-shot section of the Tour there was, therefore, always unlikely to significantly add to my total of Site visits. Fortunately, I was able to redirect my attention to birds while I was there which, as I have said elsewhere, was hugely successful and nicely distracted my thoughts. Still, the Sites that I did manage to see were always enjoyable, especially a place like Bwindi in Uganda, where I finally corrected and earlier blunder from my previous Tour, and was able to visit a family of Mountain Gorillas.

The Asia-Pacific section was another example of a route that was a withered husk, relative to what I had originally intended. It was really only South Korea, which added a satisfying thirteen Sites to my total, actually a few more that had been a part of my original route plan, which eventually allowed me to start to catch up to my initial expectations. Like Europe, however, I missed out on seeing a great number of high-quality Sites, most of which I will also not be able to see in the future. As always, the Sites that I did see were wonderfully enjoyable, especially the several of the Korean Sites, and the beautiful South Pacific natural Sites of Palau’s Rock Islands, and New Caledonia’s Lagoons. The latter Site was visited on the final cycling day of the World2 Tour which was, I felt, nicely appropriate.

I couldn’t let things rest there, however. My total number of Sites seen was still annoyingly low, and, since I was going to need to get myself moving back in a direction towards the Prime Meridian, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to create the Coda section, a non-cycling part of the Tour dedicated to World Heritage Site visits. That started slowly, with two Sites in Borneo and two in Mongolia, but picked up the pace with another four in Uzbekistan. Finally, a blitz of eleven Sites in Italy finished the Tour off in a more satisfying way. Nineteen Sites in the Coda helped lift my spirits tremendously, even though the lack of cycling was still a big disappointment. With that windfall at the end, my total number of World Heritage Sites seen during the Tour was a somewhat surprising one hundred thirty. Considering the circumstances, twenty shy of my original plans was almost astounding, and I certainly can’t complain about that. Granted, a significant number of my visits were less than ideal, with occasional restrictions preventing entering certain buildings, or similar annoyances, but in this case, I think we can all agree to look the other way. Also quite satisfying was the fact that the total was essentially equivalent to my tally from the much longer, and faster-paced, Tour of Gondwana, accomplished during my younger years, and I can definitely be proud of that! Including both of my Grand Tours, and numerous other trips, my lifetime total of World Heritage Sites seen rests at three hundred one Sites, not even one-third of the entire List, but another value I am certainly pleased with.

All of the images on this page show various representatives of our beautiful planet, and such depictions fan the embers of passion within a cartophile, like me. In addition to wanting to see specific Sites, as a whole, during the Tour, there was an even smaller number of individual objects within those Sites that I distinctly wanted to see as well. One example was a pair of giant globes in the Doge’s Palace in Venice. For the better part of two years it looked like I would never make it to Venice at all, which felt like a personal tragedy. Then, when I finally determined that Venice would be the last Site of the Coda, and therefore the final Site if the entire Tour, I was energized by the idea that those beautiful objects would among the last things I saw. However, in a circumstance, that I could not now describe as surprising, when I finally arrived there, I was dismayed that the globes were off-display, hidden behind some temporary walls erected to house an annual art exhibit. What an absolutely fitting end to a Global Tour that never actually made it around the Globe.