By: Staff Writer
May 25, 2021
A self-styled eco-explorer/adventurer dishes on his latest adventure and what’s upcoming for him this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mario Rigby, a Canadian-Turks islander, who is a self-described “eco-explorer,” sat with Caribbean Magazine Plus and told us how he got into the adventure lifestyle and adventurism at an early age.
He said: “From travelling around to different parts of the world at a young age, I became adept to moving to a completely different environment. So that’s probably what helped me with being an adventurer today.”
Getting into exploring is a “wild” ride said Mario as he said, “To do something like this, you just have to kind of dive into it. You got to swallow a very large pill. You know like the Matrix, you see the red pill and then that one pill is going to change your entire life and know that the other pill will get you back to normal to normal life.”
Mario has lived in the Turks and Caicos where he was born, then his family moved to Germany where he lived for several years and then the family ended up in Ontario, Canada where some of his family still resides. He has a younger brother who is not as adventurous as he is, but shares similar experiences as they grew up together between the TCI to Canada.
Mario is also a former track and field athlete, having competed competitively for the Turks and Caicos in various IAAF and world class events, which was more than enough physical training for him to take his awe-inspiring two and a half year trek across Africa from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt from 2015 to 2018.
Yes, Mario walked from the southern tip of Cape Town, ending up in Cairo Egypt as his first world recognized iron man journey, something he said was more about navigating through people and different cultures than it was he physical aspect of the walk.
Mario said: “I was always inspired by Africa ever since I was a kid and I was curious, because we watch Discovery Channel, we’ll watch everything that’s going on in Africa. But we had the perspective of the colonizers. We have the perspective of people who, essentially enslaved as and our ancestors and whatnot and they’re the ones telling our stories.”
“I was always captivated by Africa. My brother and I, we used to watch the Black Panther TV show that used to come out on TV back in the day, nobody really knew about it at the time, he was probably the only black superhero,” said Mario
His trek through Africa has led him through some tough situations where being personable just won’t get you out of Mario explained time during his walk through war-torn Mozambique where he came under gunfire being trapped on the truck of the Mozambique army as they drove through rebel gunfire.
“So there was one time in Mozambique where I was crossing the border between the South Bay border, which is between North and South Mozambique and there’s a conflict happening there. I was forced to go into the back of a pickup truck with about eight soldiers in it and we’re driving about 100 miles per hour on this highway- It was a beautiful highway with the red soil on the side, coconut trees and orange trees everywhere.
“But then what was eerie about it was during the sunset time you could see smoke from the distance. And that’s because they were bombing cars and bombing homes.
“I didn’t really realize that until, because I just thought people were doing Barbecue or whatever. But then all of a sudden, we heard AK 47’s in our direction. And I thought to myself, Oh, my goodness, right now we get shot at. So the truck stops, the soldiers get out and start firing back. It was about 25 minutes of just hail fire, like just going back and forth.”
The rebel fighters were attached to the Mozambican militia, RENAMO. The army was able to “neutralize,” the threat and caught the three rebel gunmen hiding in the bushes, said Mario as he captured amazing footage of this ambush to share with his audience.
Everything got easier for Mario’s adventures after that it appears as after his record Africa trek, he cycled across Canada from East to West.
Mario recently completed a traverse of the Turks & Caicos Islands using only human-powered propulsion which included; swimming, cycling, kayaking, running and hiking. Something he said he was proud to do in order to show people the “other sides of Turks and Caicos” that many people don’t get to see.
The trip around the TCI, titled the “TCI Challenge,” is part of a movie that’s coming out later this year that Mario said will be available for the TCI Film Festival in November of this year with the trailer coming out in June.
African trek, Canada challenge, the TCI Challenge is not enough for Mario as he has his sight set on returning to South Africa next month for another adventure. He said: “So I’m actually heading out to Cape Town next month, June 28. I’m heading out there to dive with these filmmakers to basically record the largest gathering of sardine runs in the world.
“They always come to, to South Africa to Cape Town. It’s a significant event because sharks, whales, dolphins, birds, fishermen, everyone comes there to catch these fish. While they’re there in the millions because they’re there to spawn.”
Mario is a courageous spirit who cannot even begin to be tamed. His exploits have been getting worldwide recognition and his possibilities are endless for this very small world which he has chosen to see in all of its magnificence.