100 not out - globetrotter about to become 'international centurion'

Intrepid Alwyn Hill is determined to become an ‘international centurion’ before his 60th birthday in July......and he has just four countries to go.
The semi-retired insurance broker and father of two grown-up children has suitcases full of memories, but won’t be satisfied until he plants the Welsh flag and the Union Jack on April 11 on Albanian soil.
Then, he said, “I plan to have a lot to drink to celebrate!”
The other three countries he will travel through on the last leg of his epic adventures are Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
Mr Hill got a taste for overseas adventure as a child growing up in Woolhampton. He said: “My parents were both teachers; Dad was a geography teacher and there were always atlases and travel books lying around.”
Mr Hill travelled across western Europe with his parents during school holidays and carried on travelling as a student, once journeying on the legendary Magic Bus.
He added: “Then, when I married Karen in 1980 we went on package holidays.”
Mr Hill has also lived in Poland for 18 months and in Thailand for five years.
Highlights of his travels include “flying around Everest at dawn on a sunday morning in 2005 and watching the breathtaking sunrise,” having lunch with cricket legend
Sir Viv Richards in Antigua and being one of only 18,000 annual visitors to be allowed into Bhutan in the Himalayas.
There have been some hair raising moments, too.
Mr Hill recalled: “Karen and I were on a train with a gang of smugglers going over the border from Belarus into Poland and they were hiding contraband all over the train, in the seats and the roof panels.
“It was quite unnerving since we could have been blamed if the carriage was searched. However, we got out of it unscathed.”
On another occasion, said Mr Hill, “I took a wrong turn driving in Nogales, Mexico . I got out of the car to ask this woman for directions . She screamed at me: ‘Don't you know where you are? Get in that car, lock you doors and get out of here, while you’re still alive.
At one particularly alarming moment, Mr Hill had a gun pointed at him.
He explained: “It was in Northern Ireland during the troubles, because I have short hair and looked like a detective. I really had to convince people that I was not part of the British establishment.”
Mr Hill went on: “When I get to a country, I often know more than the local people through research before the event . The obvious things I go to are the national museum and the national art gallery; the less obvious destinations are always the biggest waterfalls or the largest sports stadia in the country.”
Mr Hill said he had met two other people on his travels who shared his obsession with becoming an ‘international centuration’ and added: “One had been to 93 countries and the other to 98. Both strange characters, but there you go.”
He is currently planning the itinerary for the last leg of his globe-trotting mission.
HERE are the countries that Mr Hill has visited so far: Antigua, Dominica, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Trinidad, Venezuela, Kenya, Tanzania, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palau, Panama, Pataguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vanuatu, the Vatican, Vietnam, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Serbia, Finland, Jordan, the Maldives, China, India, South Korea, Argentina, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Laos, Iceland, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Jamaica, Mexico, Grenada, Ireland, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Monaco, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Belize, the USA, Slovenia, Italy and the United Arab Emirates.