| Jun 15, 2016


When Dorothy Quattrocchi, who is originally from Sharbot Lake, made a presentation in February to elementary students at Granite Ridge Education Centre about her son Mark's two-year bicycle odyssey around the world, she promised she would ask him to stop by the school on his way through at the end of the trip.

Last Thursday, June 9, after peddling through the rain 150 kilometres from Peterborough the day before, Mark made good on the promise.

It helped that his mother had booked a room for him at the Sharbot Lake Country Inn - certainly a step up from the daily ritual of finding a place to stay or to pitch a tent in parts of the world he was visiting for the first time in his life.

In the past two years, Mark travelled north and east from the island of Hainan, in China, across China before turning south to go through India, and then north and east before crossing the Mediterranean from Italy. He then travelled due south through East Africa to Capetown, South Africa, after which he flew to Argentina and made his way northwards until he reached Rideau Ferry last Saturday, about 23 months and a shade under 35,000 kilometres after he set out on July 7, 2014.

Why did he do it? He describes it on his website oneadventureplease.com in this way: “A journey of grand proportions. One of personal designation and infatuation with our spinning world. To share and experience the road less travelled. One of the glorious unknown.”

It was not the first adventure for Mark, who had spent two years teaching English in Hainan but was looking for something different.

The trip was partly about adventure and self-discovery and partly a fund-raising campaign. The element of self-discovery was exemplified in Mark's periodic blogs from the diverse countries and communities he visited. When asked by the students at GREC which was his favourite country he did not hesitate, naming Kyrgyzstan, the second country he travelled through after a long cycle through China. He met some of the last of the world's nomadic peoples there, and was taken with the level of hospitality he received there.

“They welcome you in for ‘chai’ at any meeting and often ask you to spend the night in their home. The simple offerings mean more than just fresh bread, noodles, mutton and tea. Islamic teachings mixed with nomadic kindness is a vibrant combination. Pride and hospitality. It is the way of their world,” he wrote in his blog at the time.

The insights he gained from the Kyrgyzstanis was also captured: “Life can take us in a spaghetti bowl of lines. It is up to us to figure out which strands of life we connect with the most. To follow the lines that make ourselves and those around us feel the happiest. Life has no one set purpose, but is made up of a multitude of layers. The freedom of this reality is ours for taking. It is never too late. As terrifying as it may seem. Follow those dreams.”

The fund-raising element of the trip was based on Mark's determination to visit projects of Free the Children, a charity founded by Canadian's Craig and Marc Kielburger. He wanted to mark his visits to the projects by raising $50,000 to build schools for five different projects: in China, India, Kenya, Ecuador and Nicaragua. As his voyage was coming to an end, one of the schools was already built; three were under construction; and he was still working on raising the last few thousand dollars needed for the fifth school, in Nicaragua.

At GREC, Mark talked about his trip, what it taught him about himself and about the world, and then he asked the students if they had any questions.

Hands shot up. The questions were about the food he ate, the dangers he faced, the hardest day on his trip, the best day on his trip. There was not enough time to answer them all before he was scheduled to head over to St. James Catholic School to talk to students there.

His mother Dorothy was with him, happy to have him home safe and sound, and visibly proud of her renegade son as well.

What's next for Mark Quattrocchi?

Another adventure of one kind or another, no doubt.    

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