Toronto man spends more than 2 years walking across Africa

CTV National News: Man hikes through Africa 32-year-old Canadian Mario Rigby spent the last two years hiking across Africa and recorded his entire journey. John Vennavally-Rao reports.

A Toronto man is back in Canada after years of exploring Africa on foot.

Mario Rigby spent two and a half years walking from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt-- more than 12,000 kilometres in total.

"It was for me to feel something that I always wanted to have since I was a child which was to explore, to be an adventurer," Rigby told CTV Toronto.

Rigby’s designed the journey as a solo mission, but once he got there, he quickly realized he would rarely be alone. He said communities would often welcome him into their home.

"What surprised me the most actually was the hospitality of African people,” he said. “It was incredible. They just don’t allow you to sleep outside alone."

Things weren’t always easy however. Rigby says he was shot at by rebel tribes a few times, but luckily he was never struck.

To complete the journey, Rigby walked for 35 kilometres each day. He trained for this grueling task by walking from the CN Tower in Toronto to Mount Royal in Montreal--a distance of about 550 kilometres--in 15 days.

While Rigby is back in Toronto, he is already planning another big trip, this time to Europe.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Dana Levenson