Mark Delval cycling the World

Rome Stop M&J Place Hostel
When he came up the stairs, he asked us if there was a place to park his bicycle. We, ofcourse thought it was simply just a bike and asked him to lock it upat the balcony near our reception desk, until he started bringing up the 2nd, 3rd and 4th heavy bags, we knew there was something more.

Mark Delval, an athletic man from france, one day decided to pick up his bicycle and give it a spin; not just around the neighborhood, but around planet earth. He waited all his life for this experience, and at age 53 he decided to make it come true.

This remarkable journey started in the south of cuba in the spring of 2003, where he found himself suffocating from the humidity right away on landing.

In a duration of 3 months, he had travelled 5500km of the caribbean solely on his bike. But this was just the begninning.
He has done 4043km of the United States over a period of two moths, Canada, 9721km in 5; from Mexico, to China, to Egypt. Having cycled a total of 41,000km by autumn 2010, he’s still got Asia and the Pacific on the list.

Expecting to end the journey roughly by 2013, he is still going, seeing his own face now and again on newspapers, as the colourful world of cultures and seasons pass him by with his feet pressed on the pedals, he found his way all to the way here to be with us, to the anceint city of Rome, sharing his stories and taking walks around the museum-like city, recharging his batteries on a coasy bed at M&J hostel in Rome.

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