TRAVEL blogger Johnny Ward may appear to have the best job in the world, but packing up your rucksack for the next stage of a never-ending trip is not just one long lounge on the beach, he'll have you know.
So far, the 33-year-old from Kilkeel, Co Down, has been arrested (twice in the same day while trying to get smuggled over the border in the Ivory Coast), ducked gunfire in various revolutions, avoided Ebola in Africa and been treated in more than 20 different hospitals during a 10-year global odyssey.
And, when we chatted down the line from his adopted home in Bangkok, he was nursing his latest injury after falling from a boat in Cambodia.
His hand was hurting from sea urchin spines embedded in his skin following the accident during a visit to a school in Battambang, Cambodia, which he was supporting through his 'Give Back' charity.
"It's a bit sore, but it's fine," he says dismissively, as if sea urchin spines in your hand were an everyday sort of injury and not much to worry about.
But then, when you've experienced nearly everything from every country (there were just three more to go – Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Norway – before Ward reaches his goal of 197 ) such incidents are minor occupational hazards; a few bumps in the road to the next horizon.
And there have been quite a few of those; he has seen it all – the most dazzling sunsets, the highest mountains, the roughest seas – so there is probably no-one better equipped to judge a new competition to find someone with the same passion for travel as himself.
An International Economics graduate who shunned the nine-to-five grind immediately after his final exam, the accidental traveller has since forged a million-dollar career through his blog site onestep4ward.com and is one of the judges in Royal Caribbean International's current search for their own 'Extraordinary Explorer'.
There have been over 78,000 entries across Ireland the UK for its Instagram 'intern-ship' to date, with the winner set to sail three oceans on three ships for three weeks this summer. All expenses will be covered by Royal Caribbean which is also throwing in £3,000 spending money.
So, what will the Johnny Ward, great explorer of our times, be looking for among the entries?
Well, definitely not the best writer or the most brilliant photographer, as, despite his mega success, he claims to be average in both, describing himself as "just a guy trying to live a cool life and writing about it online".
He will, though, be looking out for a "compelling story" above all else. "It's great to be involved as a judge," he says, "but when I was first approached about this, I asked if they could not make me the winner instead of a judge. They thought I was joking, but I don't think I was...
"I would have loved something like this when I was starting out on my travels – although the luxury end of travelling is not something I usually do, even now that I can afford it.
"The only time I have flown first class was when I took my mum on holiday, but generally I like to do it the hard way, go 'overlanding'... that's the cool way to have an adventure. It may not feel great sitting on a rickety bus for two days in a desert but you have a great story to tell afterwards."
He has something of a compelling story of his own to tell, having "fled" Galway (domestic reasons) with his mother and sister when growing up and arriving in Co Down to live on welfare payments – with no car, no central heating and definitely no holidays marked on the family calendar.
"After my last exam I decided to hit the road and I bought a one-way ticket to New York city," he recalls. "I worked my way across continents, whether it was in children's summer camps, teaching English, or testing new medical drugs, but sooner or later I always ran out of money.
"But no matter how poor I was, I was happy. I didn't realise how lucky I was though, until I had an epiphany in Thailand when travelling to work one morning on my battered old Honda scooter.
"It was raining and the sun was shining at the same time and I was driving through the old part of the city when I suddenly passed an elephant on the side of the road. I thought, 'Whoa, that's what this life is all about... rounding a corner and seeing an elephant just standing there.
"My friends at home were in high-paid jobs but were stressed and depressed. I was only 23 and I was really living – even if I didn't have much money."
His financial situation changed as dramatically as an African sunset once he started blogging about his experiences, but today he is careful to give something back via his charity which raises funds for a different community project in a different country each year.
Yet, despite rising from impoverished back-packer to influential blogger with various business interests, the career wanderer from Co Down says anybody can do it.
"That's the thing," he says, "I'm nothing special, but I think my blogs resonate with people precisely because of that. People look at celebrity blogs online and think, wow, what a lifestyle, that could never be me. But, with my blog, they know it could so easily be them.
"I'm not particularly good at writing and I'm average at taking photographs, so I tell people how to get blogging themselves.
"There's enough room online for us all and it's a great life. I hope to still be packing my rucksack when I'm in my 70s.
"One thing I'll never go without, though, is my MacBook. It keeps me connected to the outside world when I'm lost in some corner of the globe."
:: Applicants can apply for the internship before January 31 by sharing their most extraordinary photo on Instagram, tagging @RoyalCaribbeanUK and #ExtraordinaryExplorer
