With 171 countries ticked off, sports reporter Alistair McMurran set off last year to add a few more to his list. Today, he visits the Seychelles.
The Seychelles has that magic quality from which myths are made.
It has become a tourist Mecca popular with Europeans and South Africans.
It only has a population of 84,000, but the country owns three planes and four ships.
There was no sign of poverty, housing was of a high standard and there were a few luxury yachts in the harbour.
There is no unemployment.
"There are jobs for those who want to work," Hervee, our guide, said.
"We have to bring in labour from India on two-year contracts to do all the work that needs to be done.
"The Government built a Hindu temple for the Indian workers, who are very religious."
Taxes are low in the Seychelles for ordinary people, but businesses and the tourists pay.
"We are like a family here and everyone knows each other," Hervee said.
"There is free medical treatment.
"If someone needs a big operation, they are flown to India or Singapore and the Government pays for it."
The Seychelles gained independence from Britain in 1976.
"The British didn't treat us well," Hervee said.
"We had very poor houses and many were made from palm leaves.
"They took all the resources out of the country."
In the mid-1850s, Britain and France had abolished slavery and sent ships to stop Arab traders who were still dealing in slaves.
A thousand slaves were intercepted and set free on the Seychelles in 1853.
It is a country where diverse ethnic groups joined together as one people.
There were also immigrants from India and China.
Hervee's family tree has several strains attached to it from these sources.
Hervee grew up on the offshore Praslin Island and had a year away as a steward on the Seychelles airline.
But he found it too cold when he flew to Europe, especially in Manchester, which is a sister city of Victoria in the Seychelles.
"I tried living overseas, but I always wanted to come back to my island," he said.
Hervee's parents came from big families.
His father was one of 13 children and his mother one of eight.
His grandmother on one side of the family died at the age of 93 and both grandparents on the other side are still alive in their 80s.
Before electricity was introduced to Praslin Island in 1981, people used oil and kerosene lamps for lighting, and wood and gasoline for cooking.
A routine developed in Hervee's family with dinner at 6pm, storytime at 7pm and lights out at 8pm.
"We got up at 5am and started work at daybreak at 6am," Hervee said.
"My grandmother still keeps to this pattern."
Hervee said he enjoyed listening to stories told by his grandmother and still went over to hear them, even when television started on the island.
The big problem on the island before the introduction of electricity was the lack of refrigeration.
In the hot weather, food would go off quickly.
There are many hotels and guest houses and car-hire firms on the Seychelles.
Dunedin's David Horne and I hired a blue Hyundai rental car at the airport and travelled around the main island of Mahe.
At the capital, Victoria, we saw flash yachts at anchor and photographed the little clock tower and the Hindu temple.
We stayed at the Coral Strand Hotel on the other side of the island.
It lines the beach, has a central swimming pool and three restaurants.
From our window, we could see a tortoise enclosure that contained several small tortoises and one very big older one.
We had the only serious rain of our trip in the Seychelles, when were soaked on a mountain walk during our visit to the spice gardens of Le Jardin du Roi.
Le Roi was actually Louis XVII, the uncrowned pretender to the throne of France, who is supposed to have visited these islands.
According to the story, these gardens were started by Louis XVII, who went under another name.
It was made into a tourist attraction by Micheluire Green, who was born in 1936.
She is the great-granddaughter of William Green (born in London in 1812), who established herbal trees on the property.
We saw many spice and fruit trees and climbed up through the forest to L'Infocement at 390m.
We needed to be careful of the Lantanier (prickly) palms that had nasty black spikes on their trunks.
The track was marked with orange tags and white dots and there were ropes on which to hold.
At the top, we had a good view of the island, including the market gardens on the other side at Anse á la Mouche.
On the way back, a heavy downpour occurred and we sheltered under a chicken run, but we got soaked as we made a run for it.
Back at the hotel, we encountered a platoon of noisy American soldiers who were having a break from a war zone.
We took the 60-minute boat trip to the island of Praslin that is 11km by 4km with a population of 6000.
Tourism is the main industry, backed by agriculture and fishing.
Some food needs to be imported.
About two-thirds of the 100,000 tourists who visit the Seychelles each year visit Praslin Island, with some spending up to five days there.
To retain the natural state of the island, roofs of houses must be painted a neutral colour like green, brown or straw.
No houses are allowed to be more than 50m tall.
Hervee said that the 2004 tsunami affected the Seychelles.
Water came over the road and into the houses.
"The tide went out and you could see the reef.
"The sea then came back with force," he said.
"No lives were lost but there was a lot of damage to houses, cars and boats."
The Vallée de Mai is a Unesco World Heritage Park.
The quiet, secluded valley forms the heart of the Praslin National Park and is home to the famous coco de mer palm.
The Vallée de Mai palm forest is a remarkable living remnant of the prehistoric forests which existed when the Seychelles granite islands were still part of the continent of Lemuria that sank into the sea.
Only the mountain tops remained.
Lemuria included Madagascar, India, Australia and New Zealand and stretched to South America. Millions of years of isolation enabled a unique community of plants and animals to develop and some species are found nowhere else.
Up to about 1930, the Vallée de Mai was more or less virgin forest, little affected by man, unlike much of the rest of Praslin Island.
In the 1930s, a new landowner decided to beautify the valley, creating a restful retreat and botanical gardens.
Many ornamentals and fruit trees were introduced.
In 1948, the Vallée de Mai was acquired by the Government, as part of a major water catchment area for the island and, in 1966, it became a nature reserve.
It was made a United Nations Heritage site in 1983.
It is a prehistoric park that dates back several million years.
The granite rock has been dated as 765 million years old.
The coco de mer palm is surrounded by myths and legends.
This is because the strange bi-lobed nuts were discovered long before the palm itself and the suggestive shapes of both male and female structures that occur on separate coco de mer palms.
Male palms grow to about 30m while female palms grow to about 24m high.
The female palm produces the largest seed in the world and it can weigh more than 20kg.
The seed is inside a husk and the fruit takes six to seven years to ripen, After germination, the first leaf appears about one year later.
It is a journey back to the past where you get an impression of how the tropical world looked millions of years ago when palms predominated, and flowering trees, birds and mammals did not exist.
• The Seychelles brought the number of countries visited by Alistair McMurran to 177.
His travelling companion, David Horne, has notched up 227.
Seychelles
Population: 84,000
Capital: Victoria
Government: Republic
President: James Michel
Independence: June 29, 1976, from United Kingdom
Area: 451sq km
Currency: Seychellois rupee
Religion: Christianity
Official languages: Seychellois Creole, English and French
