Walking around the world is still a dream for many of us and we spent a lot of our time and resources planning and saving money. But one guy, Tom Turcich took one step forward and did it. He left his home in New Jersey five years ago and started the 25,000 miles, seven-continent walk around the world. He was in Texas when he adopted a pet dog Savannah and since then the duo traveled miles together across 33 countries.
Man Walking around the World with His Dog
“During the first two years of this adventure I walked from New Jersey to Uruguay,” Turcich recalled. “I was held up at knife point in Panama, did Ayahuasca in the Amazon, and climbed 15,000 feet over the Chilean Andes. The three years since walking The Americas, I was almost taken out by a bacterial infection, needed seven months to recover, then walked Europe, North Africa, across Turkey and into Georgia. I peregrinated The Camino in Spain, had a twenty-four hour police escort through Algeria, visited the village of my family name (Turčić) in Croatia and became the first private citizen granted permission to cross the Bosphorus Bridge on foot (the Istanbul bridge crosses from Europe to Asia).”
Turcich was in Baku, Azerbaijan when he had to face the lockdown because of coronavirus. To keep himself entertained, he did a Reddit AMA on April 26. He provided his fans and followers some insight into his extraordinary adventure.
The wanderlust talked about the inevitable reality of travel. “That’s one of the wonderful things about traveling this way – I’m perpetually open to serendipity. I’m out in the world colliding with new people. In Scotland I had a cop find me sleeping at a bus stop then come by in the morning to give me coffee and danishes. In Turkey a fruit vendor saw me on the news and proceeded to load me down with fruit. In the Argentinian summer I walked four hours through a downpour, staggered into a church, and was welcomed by a priest who brought me to his parish and gave me a bed for the night. Lots of great moments.”
He also revealed his experience about how the coronavirus outbreak has influenced the duo’s incredible mission. “Coronavirus has thrown this entire year off track, that’s for certain. But this was a pretty tenuous year to begin with, I needed to balance a couple large scale things for it to go as planned.” Turcich explained that Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia along with Uzbekistan was part of the plan, but due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, these stops were put on hold.
Turcich said that his journey was life-changing for him, he sees things with a different angle now and has a different perception of the world. “I didn’t realize how naive I was before beginning this. The journey has given me a much better grasp of the world and how people exist within it. When I read about a country now I have a good context of how to place that information. I’m much less likely to generalize or unknowingly blow things out of proportion.”
As for those whose wanderlust for traveling the world from learning about Turcich’s experience increased, he gave some useful guidance for aiming explorers. He suggested saving as much money as possible, and to go on hikes. “I didn’t do a great deal of hiking before beginning, but the first leg of my trip was five months in the US so I had time to figure things out in my own country where I knew the culture and norms,” he remarked. “You’ll want some experience finding places to sleep and sorting out what you need to bring and what you don’t.”
