Explorer / Speaker / Storyteller
I travel under my own power.
I bring the stories back.
A different perspective
From Cape Town to Cairo. Across Canada by bike. Along Lake Ontario by kayak. Every journey begins with curiosity and depends on people.
I bring that experience to the stage and the screen. For audiences ready to think differently. For brands with a story worth telling.
Selected recognition
Explorer-in-Residence
Royal Canadian Geographical SocietyAppointed 2023
MIPAD
Most Influential People of African Descent2018 honouree
King Charles III Coronation Medal
Recipient / Canadian honour
Explorers Club 50 (EC50)
Inaugural class, 2021
Perspective, earned in the field.01 / Speaking & education
Endurance. Decisions under pressure. A wider sense of what’s possible.
My talks draw on long human-powered journeys and the people who made them possible. I share the choices, setbacks and lessons behind the expedition.
Keeping going when the plan changes. Preparation, adaptation and the small decisions that carry a long journey.
Listening across cultures, questioning assumptions and opening the outdoors to more people.
Paying attention to the people and environments a journey touches, and taking responsibility for the choices we make.
02 / Partnerships & production
Brand films, on-camera storytelling, photography and outdoor content grounded in lived experience.
Ways to work togetherCorona Studios
A documentary profile in Corona’s series about lives closer to nature. Human-powered exploration and cultural connection, told through my journey.
My role: featured explorer & on-camera storyteller.
B&W Trailer Hitches
The Caicos Challenge: a human-powered journey across my home islands of Turks and Caicos. A Scenic Road film connecting endurance, personal history and the natural world.
My role: featured explorer & expedition participant.
Fjällräven Ambassador 2026
Fjällräven gear on real ground: a desert crossing in Algeria and a ridge line on Franconia. Two published reels, made as their 2026 ambassador.
My role: ambassador & content creator.
Start with the story, audience and purpose. Then we define my role, the production scope and the right deliverables.
03 / Journeys & field stories
Slow travel makes distance tangible.
It gives the world time to speak.
2015–2018. About 12,000 km on foot and by kayak through eight countries. The journey that started everything: the first human-powered traverse from Cape Town to Cairo.
Read about the journey
Coast to coast across Canada in 89 days.
Kayaking the length of Lake Ontario. An invitation to look closer to home and rethink how we travel.
Explore the journeys04 / Mario Rigby
I’m an explorer and storyteller from Turks and Caicos, based in Toronto.
I travel on foot, by bike and by kayak, moving slowly enough to listen to the people and places along the way. From Cape Town to Cairo and across Canada, those journeys have shaped how I think about endurance, belonging and our connection to the outdoors.
I bring the experience back through films, photographs, writing and conversations. My work on stage and with brands begins with the same curiosity: what can we learn when we venture beyond the familiar?
Who I am
My roots are in Turks and Caicos, and Toronto is where I’m based. I explore on foot, by paddle and by bike. Human-powered travel keeps me close to the landscape and creates time for the encounters that give a journey its meaning.
Crossing Africa from Cape Town to Cairo meant two years and 12,000 kilometres of walking and kayaking. Moving slowly gave me the chance to meet people, listen to their stories and question the assumptions I carried with me. The distance tested my endurance; the human connections changed how I saw the world.
Since then, I’ve cycled across Canada and kayaked the length of Lake Ontario. Each journey asks something different of me, but preparation, adaptation and curiosity run through them all. I’m interested in what happens between the milestones: the decisions, conversations and unexpected moments that become part of the story.
Read my RCGS profileWhat I do
I bring those experiences into paid keynotes, moderated conversations and workshops. I share the choices and setbacks behind an expedition, alongside the lessons in endurance, decisions under pressure, inclusion and responsibility. My aim is to give an audience something they can carry into their own work and lives.
My collaborations include Fjällräven (ambassador, 2026), Canada Goose (2024), Corona’s Free Range Humans film and the Son of the Soil expedition story with B&W Trailer Hitches and Scenic Road. Depending on the project, I work as a featured explorer, on-camera storyteller, ambassador or content creator. The starting point is always a real connection to the journey and a clear understanding of my role.
Writing is another way I bring the stories back. My memoir, African Odyssey, follows the Cape Town to Cairo journey through its human encounters as well as its physical challenges. The memoir is in revision.
05 / Upcoming book
A memoir from the journey.
About 12,000 kilometres. Two years. Eight countries.
From Cape Town to Cairo, on foot and by kayak. African Odyssey brings together the physical journey and the people who gave it meaning: encounters that challenged assumptions, moments of uncertainty, and the curiosity that kept me moving.
It is a story of endurance, belonging and seeing the world at a human pace.
The memoir is in revision. Publication details will follow.
About the book & reader updatesStart a conversation
Speaking. Brand stories.
Media and books.