Sudbury's Vivian Ip finally made it home Friday evening after more than a month of travelling across the country on her bicycle.
The 27-year-old departed Vancouver on May 5 and seven weeks later she rolled into her parents' Chop Stix restaurant in Val Caron with stories of self-discovery and adventure to share.
Vivian's trip is far from over though, as she will wrap up her fundraising journey in St. John's, Newfoundland on July 22.
Ip is raising money on her trip through a GoFundMe campaign to help send her grandparents to Hong Kong, mainly for her grandfather, who was diagnosed with vascular dementia two years ago.
Her grandparents currently live in Toronto, but first moved to Northern Ontario in 1975 when they settled in Timmins.
The appropriately named fundraiser “Remember Your Roots” is dedicated to her grandfather and helping him reconnect, as well as bringing some normalcy to her grandmother's day to day life.
“My grandmother still cooks for her kids and takes care of my grandpa, but he's not comfortable going to get assistance somewhere here, it's a bit too unfamiliar for him,” said Ip.
“I want to be able to send him to Hong Kong for his care and hopefully some familiar surroundings from when he was younger will be good for him. I'm also hoping he can connect with his brother while he's there because they haven't seen each other in more than 30 years.”
While her grandfather is having his battle with the disorder, Vivian has been overcoming many of her own obstacles during her travels, and learning more about herself.
“I've never been on a bike for more than an hour at a time and now I'm riding 100 to 130 km per day,” said Ip. “When I first started out in BC it was really hard, the weather was still chilly and there was a lot of crying, it was just really difficult, camping isn't exactly second nature for me.”
Ip has been “stealth camping” at Husky stations and parking lots to save money, but has had the help of some friendly strangers along the way.
“In Manitoba I was really not feeling fell and was having some health issues and I flagged down a police officer and it turned out to be Brian Boyd, who was a contestant on one of my favourite shows, The Amazing Race,” said Ip. “He was so nice and really helpful.”
Though she's lived in Northern Ontario since 1999, this journey has also introduced Vivian to a wide array of wildlife that has opened her eyes to how vulnerable humans really are when they're out in the wild on their own.
“I've seen bears, coyotes, foxes, wolves, but what I was most worried about was cougars,” said Ip. “In BC I had some other cyclists tell me to be careful because there were cougars in the area so that made me really nervous. I didn't get a lot of sleep in BC, I was in my tent wondering if my bear spray would be enough to get rid of a cougar so I was in there with the spray in one hand and a knife in the other. It's been pretty challenging to try to break out of my city girl habits.”
Ip finished her real estate course before she left on her trip but wanted to make this journey before she went back into the work force.
“I have some free time right now and this trip has really opened my eyes that you can't always just be working to buy things, I wanted to do this for my grandma and grandpa, they really deserve this,” said Ip.
“They would never have been able to afford to do this on their own, so I'm really happy that I took this trip.”
To make a donation to Vivian's GoFundMe click here.
