Exploring With A Legend As Guide

Queens Library customers had the chance to meet and hear explorers Francis O’Donnell (at left) and Denis Belliveau (at right) at the Hillcrest Library. The Queens residents spent two years retracing Marco Polo’s journey from Venice to China and back. Their adventures are chronicled in the Emmynominated film, In the Footsteps of Marco Polo, as well as the book that serves as a companion to the documentary. O’Donnell and Belliveau are pictured wth Leslie Dann, community library manager of the Hillcrest Library. (photo: Bill Mitchell) For most people learning about the 13th century adventures of Marco Polo, it’s enough to read his book. But two friends from Queens went far more than the extra mile by following in the legendary explorer’s footsteps.

It may sound like the stuff of a Jules Verne adventure novel—or a Jeff Probst-hosted reality-TV show —but the two-year, 25,000-mile journey of Denis Belliveau and Francis O’Donnell realized their own incredible dream.

Looking a long way from their Queens homes, explorers Francis O’Donnell (at left) and Denis Belliveau are pictured as they traced Marco Polo’s journey. They are shown standing in front of the ruins of Rawak Vihara, a Buddhist Stupa in Central Asia. (photo: Denis Belliveau) “They were just two ordinary guys who set out to do an extraordinary thing,” states the narrator in the 90-minute Emmy-nominated film, In the Footsteps of Marco Polo, that has premiered on public television.

It chronicles the pair’s trek that began in March 1993 from Italy to China and back, as they moved through Israel, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan before reaching Beijing.

The video entertains and enlightens in giving armchair adventurers the chance to come along with them.

In addition, O’Donnell and Belliveau have produced a book that serves as a fine companion to the film.

Making library appearances

Best of all for area residents, however, the Queens Library has made it possible to hear the two explorers and view clips from the documentary.

The first such lecture took place on Nov. 6 at the Hillcrest Library, where O’Donnell and Belliveau also fielded questions and held a book signing.

The event was well-received and will be repeated on Monday evening, Nov. 23, when Belliveau and O’Donnell appear at the Richmond Hill Library, 118-14 Hillside Ave., at 6 p.m.

Big shoes to fill and follow

As the explorers noted, one of the questions raised was fundamental: Did Marco Polo himslf actually make such a journey?

For them, there was only one way to find out, as In the Footsteps of Marco Polo shows.

Early in the film, its narrator talks about the account of Polo’s travels, written at the end of the 13th century, which “would change the course of human history.”

The book’s prologue, in depicting Polo as the world’s most traveled man, advises one and all, from emperors and kings to common townsfolk, to give the book a reading, “for here you will find all the great wonders and curiosities of Persia and the land of the Tartars, and of India and many other countries, as related by Marco Polo, noble citizen of Venice, who has seen them with his own eyes.”

Several centuries later, the book would serve as a guide for two young men from Queens—O’Donnell from College Point and Belliveau, a Whitestone native who now resides with his family in Douglaston.

Who they were

At the time of their extended trip, Belliveau was a wedding photographer and O’Donnell was an artist and Marine veteran. While students at Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts, they met during an archeology dig in France in 1984.

Later, they traveled together to some other countries, including Mexico; most of Latin America; Europe; and Nepal.

Besides the desire to travel, they shared certain interests—art, history, culture and adventure—that further fueled the passion that led them to pursue Polo’s entire route, the one taken with his father and uncle over mountain ranges, across burning deserts and through strange cities and some dangerous war zones.

Two basic rules

Early on, they set down two basic rules for themselves that they vowed not to break, as part of the effort to replicate the experience as closely as they could to Polo’s own odyssey. For one, they would travel only by land or sea—not by air. While Venice has an airport in his name, flying was unknown to Marco Polo.

The other was that no matter what, there would be no turning back.

As O’Donnell put it, “We were only coming back to the United States two ways—either dead or successful.”

Sponsors donated cameras, film and video equipment, which made it possible to document their experiences.

Because of the priceless images it contained, each exposed roll of film—they did not have digital cameras— was more valuable than the equipment used.

But there were other things that they did without.

During their talk, Belliveau pointed out that the journey had predated some of today’s technological advances. In appearing at schools, they have found that students are usually amazed that the journey was conducted without the benefit of e-mail or cell phones.

“To us, it doesn’t seem so long ago, but to school kids, it’s like the Dark Ages,” Belliveau observed. “In a way, thank God—because I wouldn’t want to make trip only to go into the mountains and send an e-mail. It would take something away from the journey.”

A disappointing start

Just as Polo did, Belliveau and O’Donnell started the journey from Venice, Italy, where they had hoped to begin by viewing what Belliveau called their “holy grail”—the last will and testament of Marco Polo, which is in the archives of the city library. Since it represents the one existing document that they know Polo touched, they had wanted to touch it, too.

When the request was denied, Belliveau and O’Donnell were “devastated.” But they simply used it to their advantage, as further motivation to return two years later, with the accomplishment of having successfully completed the journey of Marco Polo.

From Venice, they made their way to Israel, which served as the entry point to Polo’s travels.

From there, they moved into lands and experienced cultures, thinking that despite the gap of centuries, it must have been very much like what Marco Polo had seen.

During the course of their trip, they had to survive threats to their safety in different forms—extreme temperatures and dangerous warlords. At one point, footage shows them caught in a firefight between different factions of warriors.

No turning back

But still, they continued on, even when O’Donnell reached a personal crossroads upon learning of his father’s death. Convinced that his father would not want him to turn back, O’Donnell went on and dedicated the journey to his father, whom he credits for instilling a love of history in him.

In the end, after all the miles and all the months, they were left wishing there was “one more country,” as Belliveau said.

But in their return to Venice, they were hailed as heroes and when the mayor asked if there was anything he could do for them, they did not have to think over an answer.

They got to see the last will and testament of Marco Polo, after all.

The two noted that by traveling alone, without a film crew, they were able to move about more freely, although they acknowledged that using a film crew would have added to the documentary.

“The best stuff that happened, you didn’t get to see,” O’Donnell grinned.

“Make another one!” someone called out.

“A sequel,” said another.

Clearly, the audience was hungry for one more country, too.

Fielding questions

At the end of the film presentation and before signing copies of their book, the two took questions from the audience.

Some of the questions and the responses included:

How did you carry money as you went from place to place?

Belliveau: “For the first year, we had the cash on us—hundred-dollar bills. There were no ATMs, especially in the mountains of Afghanistan.”

O’Donnell: “A lot of it was hidden, sewn into our clothes.”

Similarly, the Americans carefully carried other paper items that were at least as valuable as U.S. currency— letters from various warlords, intended to provide safety.

Belliveau: “Once we got to Beijing, we were able to go to American Express.”

What was the best food that you ate?

Belliveau: “I would say that the best food was after we entered China—after eating sheep—and just enjoying all the vegetables.”

How did you get across the desert?

O’Donnell: “That actually happened in four different increments. At one point, we rode horses—four hun- dred miles along the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, from oasis to oasis. After that, we traded in our horses for camels, then actually went into the desert. When we came out, we traveled with the locals in a territory that was off limits for foreigners before sneaking through another part.”

Belliveau “Six weeks of desert, after coming out of the freezing mountains—and we went six weeks without bathing. We washed our hands and faces, but went six weeks without bathing.”

How long did it take you to prepare, to mark off the route?

O’Donnell: “We spent about a year and a half doing research. Even though we had traveled quite a bit together before this, there was a huge learning curve on Marco Polo. His story has so many different disciplines— twenty-two countries and eight war zones—so there was a lot of research.”

Belliveau: “We were in the main branch of the New York Public Library for months, taking out every book on Marco Polo.

“As I would tell anybody—and we’re in a library here today—not everything is online. There’s a lot of information in books that haven’t been digitized yet. So, if you really want to research a subject, you have to go to the library.”

As noted, the film In the Footsteps of Marco Polo was produced by Return to Venice LLC and WLIW21 in association wit WNET.ORG, presented nattionally by WLIW21 and distributed nationally by American Public Television.

Funding was provided by The Starr Foundation and the Center for Cultural Interchange.