Canada

Colin Angus returns to Vancouver, 43,000 kilometres later

Colin Angus has returned home to Vancouver, the first person to circumnavigate the world under his own power.

So how would you describe 24 hours a day in a tiny rowboat, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with nobody but your fiancée beside you?

For Colin Angus, Vancouver's around-the-world, man-about-town, the answer is easy: "Five months in a rowboat is perfect marriage therapy."

Julie Wafaei apparently agrees. His fellow traveller for the past year or so plans on getting married sometime soon.

What is even more amazing is that they got home at all. Angus set off from his Vancouver home two years ago with one mission in mind: to become the first person to circumnavigate the world under his own power.

He has walked since then, and rowed, and skiied and cycled a total of 43,000 kilometres.

He lost a friend, Tim Harvey, way up in the North Pacific after crossing the Pacific Ocean, when the two had a disagreement that couldn’t be solved.But he picked up a fiancée instead, and brought her all the way home.

"It feels fantastic, but overwhelming just knowing it's coming to an end," he told CBC News.

It was a happy homecoming for the two as friends and family cheered their lazy amble for the last few kilometres to his home, where Angus's mother, Valerie Spentzo, greeted both with hugs and tears.

"Was I worried?" she said. "That's the understatement of the year."

The teamused human-powered travel to highlight global warming and inspire others to use non-motorized transportation.

The returning travellers will be staying home for a while. There's a book to write, a marriage to plan and a documentary to finish. So there are many more adventures just over the horizon.