The man who walked from Cape Town to Cairo

Posted on 12 December 2018

For many of us, traversing Africa is only a dream, but explorer Mario Rigby made it a reality. His solo journey called ‘Crossing through Africa’ took two years to complete and he covered over 12,000km from Cape Town to Cairo on foot, with a bit of kayaking in between.

In this short video Mario speaks a little about his journey and the incredible hospitality he experienced across the continent.

I was told that the Cape of Good Hope was not the most southern tip of Africa so I took a 2 trek detour to get to Cape Agulhas which geographically is the most southern tip of Africa. #capeagulhas #southerntipofafrica #walking

A post shared by Mario Rigby | Explorer (@mariorigby) on


Mario covered a total of eight countries, including South Africa, Egypt, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan. Kind strangers supplied him with food, water and shelter.

I walked into a random town in Mozambique and made friends with a local guy who had a few too many drinks. But things ended up working really well because I completely trusted a random drunk stranger to take me to his family to have a place to sleep and eat. It was such a beautiful experience to be with them. I was taken in like their own family. The point is, at this time I was able to quickly read whether someone is out to do you harm or out to help you. You can just tell, and your detection skill develops over time. I’m currently posting highlights from the beginning of my expedition till the end. Stay tuned and enjoy!

A post shared by Mario Rigby | Explorer (@mariorigby) on

We chatted to Mario about his travels and he said “I decided to travel in an unconventional way to find challenges that keep me motivated to continue discovering the rawness of humanity and world. It is all too common to sit back and take the easy route but I wanted to explore in a unique way that forces me to sit and have conversations with tribal people, from this I’ve learnt a great deal.”

Mario will embark on his next expedition early next year of driving through Africa with an electric car equipped with foldable solar panels, to promote the use of renewable and sustainable energy throughout the continent. The project is called EVA (Electric Vehicle Africa) He will be the first person ever to drive an electric vehicle around the African continent.

Find out more of Mario’s travel adventures here






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