Family set to return from two-wheeled odyssey
Calgarians rode 15,000 km while gaining insights into various countries, cultures
Ever wondered what it would be like to travel around the world using two wheels and a bit of legwork? A bike-loving Calgary family is coming home with 15,000 kilometres of first-hand experience.
The McFerrins, a family of five, set off on their bike tour last July — a trip about five years in the making.
“(The trip) was just inspired by our desire to travel and see new places and do things like that,” said Rick McFerrin.
“My oldest boy is going into Grade 12 now and he said, ‘Well, if we’re going to do it, I want to be back for my Grade 12 year. So that kind of set the tone for, ‘let’s look at this year to travel and start the planning.’”
The excursion began in Norway and took the McFerrins through 18 countries, including Finland, Sweden, India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Japan, until they landed back in Canada a few weeks ago.
The family travelled with four bikes, including a tandem for Rick to use with his 13-year-old son Tarn, and cycled more than 15,000 kilometres with a few flights in between.
“When you’re travelling for a year and with gear and various road conditions, it can be pretty tricky,” said Rick.
“I wouldn’t say it’s overly challenging but you have to adapt your days to only going 50 to 70 kilometres or taking care of just the basic needs like shopping for food and finding a place to camp.”
Luckily for the McFerrins, the hospitality of strangers throughout their travels was in abundance.
“We met someone in a town in India who came up to us and invited us to her house. She wondered why we were in this small town, south of Mumbai, and we told her our story and she was inspired by it,” said Rick, who was joined on the adventure by his wife, Tanya.
“She loved the story and she shared it with her friends. For the next two or three weeks she put us in contact with friends of her friends and friends of their friends, so for almost every night for three weeks, we were invited into someone else’s home along the route.”
While taking in the sights and sounds of different cultures, the three boys, Sampson, 17, Markos, 15 and Tarn, still had to get their schoolwork done through Alberta Distance Learning. Sampson said all three had to be very determined and diligent in getting assignments completed.
“The actual schoolwork, once we were doing it, it was actually quite easy because we could go on our own pace. If we had any questions, our teachers were very responsive and so that was fairly easy,” said Sampson.
“I think it was more just when we would rather be doing other things. If we were gonna go biking or swimming, we’d end up doing schoolwork on the beach because we’d rather be spending time on the beach, but you still have to do school.”
The family is on track to arrive back in Calgary from B.C. on July 31. Unfortunately for Sampson, he has to complete his English diploma exam the very next day.
“Honestly, I’m just looking forward to getting that done with,” said Sampson.
“Although we’re in summer, I still have to study for this exam and it’s worth 30 per cent of my final mark that will be used on university applications.”
He added that while on the road, he learned a lot more than just his regular education through the distance learning.
“Over the year, I’ve really learned you can’t judge a book by its cover. If you start looking at somebody and assuming something or relating something you know and contrasting it to what they do, it starts to create a limiting factor in what you can appreciate or learn from somebody,” said Sampson.
“So when we were travelling, I became a very adaptable and flexible and accepting person. The more cultures you see, there are so many different things you stop relating them to what you know, and you just start accepting them for what they are.”