(CNN) – Very few people try to walk around the world and even fewer manage to complete the journey. On May 21, 2022, Tom Turcich, from New Jersey, became the 10th person in the record to achieve this remarkable feat, and Savannah’s four-legged companion was the first dog to do so. The couple hosted a huge celebration of returning home, which was attended by many friends and family of Turcich, along with good gods. The triumphant moment led to the end of a seven-year journey of 48,000 kilometers (29,826 miles) for which he had spent even more effort. “It was very surreal,” Turcich told CNN Travel from his parents’ home in Haddon Township. “I imagined what the end would be like a long time ago. And when it happened, there were people in the streets walking with me. “The primary feeling was just relief. It dominated my life for 15 years, and being able to finally leave it behind was amazing.”

Inspirational walk

Tom Turcich, from New Jersey, and Savannah’s dog spent seven years walking around the world together. Tom Turcic The inspiration for the trip came from a sad loss in 2006, when Ann Marie’s longtime girlfriend died in a jet ski accident at the age of 17.
“The [her death] “It was very formative for me,” he explains. “He was a much better person than I was. And he was immersed in the fact that I was going to die [one day] and can happen at any time. And I started re-evaluating everything. ” Turcich, who has been compared to Forrest Gump, the character Tom Hanks he played in the 1994 film, decided he needed travel and adventure in his life and began looking for all the different ways he could. After reading about Steven Newman, who was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first person to travel the world, and the walking adventurer Carl Busby, who has been touring the globe since 1998, Turchich began to respond. himself in this challenge. “The [walking] “It seemed like the best way to understand the world and be forced into new places.” “I did not just want to go to Paris and Machu Picchu, I really wanted to understand the world and see how people lived their day. day.” As soon as he devoted himself to work, Turcich began to plan the route, while also trying to raise funds for his travels. He managed to save enough to support him for about two years on the road, working in the summer while he was in college and moving back with his parents after graduation. However, shortly before he left, the owner of a local company, Philadelphia Sign, found out about his plans and decided to grant his trip. “He [the businessman] “He happened to meet Ann Marie and her family,” he says. “And he just wanted to support me as much as he could.” Almost nine years after he first thought of the idea, Turcich took the first step on his journey around the world. He started on April 2, 2015, shortly before his 26th birthday, pushing a stroller containing hiking equipment, a sleeping bag, a laptop, a DSLR camera and a plastic cage, which he used to store his food. Turcich says he devised his route with two key factors in mind – he wanted to “hit every continent and travel with as little bureaucratic trouble as possible”. “I thought it would be about five and a half years,” he says. “And that proved to be quite expensive for real walking.”

Loyal companion

The couple in an orange field in Valencia, Spain in 2018. Tom Turcic The whole trip ended in seven years, mainly due to two significant delays. The first occurred when Turcich became ill with a bacterial infection, from which it took several months to recover, and the second was due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He inevitably experienced various ups and downs along the way, including being invited to local weddings in both Turkey (or Turkey) and Uzbekistan and being held under the knife while in Panama. Before embarking on the tour, Turcich had made very few trips other than visiting England, Ireland and Wales during an exchange trip to high school, and was also vacationing in Canada and the Dominican Republic. He also did not have much experience in hiking, although he had previously completed a 10-day hike with a friend, as well as some hiking weekends. The first stage of the trip saw him walking from New Jersey to Panama. About four months later, Turcich acquired his companion, the Savannah puppy, from an animal shelter in Austin, Texas. While he did not initially intend to get a dog, Turcich struggled to relax, especially while sleeping in a campsite, and woke up constantly during the night convinced that he could “hear something coming”. He felt that having a furry friend by his side who could “watch” at night would make a difference, and that proved to be true. “It was fantastic,” he says of Savannah. “It’s just nice to have someone to share some moments with.” As soon as they arrived in Panama, the couple flew over the Darien Gap, an insidious part of the jungle between Panama and Colombia. After that first year on the road, Turcich set up an account on the Patreon donation platform, so that his followers could choose to help fund his travels. They spent most of the second year walking from Bogota, Colombia to Montevideo, Uruguay, where they took a boat to Antarctica. At this point, Turcich returned home for a while to obtain the documents needed to travel to Europe with Savannah. Upon their arrival in Europe, the couple traveled throughout Ireland and Scotland, but were forced to take an extended break when Turcich became too ill to continue. “I threw a towel there [in Scotland] and he went to London, “he said, explaining that he had been in and out of the hospital for weeks while in the United Kingdom and eventually returned home to the United States to recover.

Challenging times

Turcich and Savannah walked between 18 and 24 miles (about 29 to 38 kilometers) on a typical day. Tom Turcic Turcich, who recorded his trip on Instagram and The World Walk blog, continued his walk in Copenhagen in May 2018, but it would take some time for him to return to his normal self, both mentally and physically. “When you walk out and spend all this time alone, you really have to make good friends [to yourself]”he explains. “Especially when you’re exposed to the elements all the time. And so it wasn’t really fun for me.” Although Turcich admits he began to question whether he could continue, he says he never seriously considered giving up. “There were definitely times when I wasn’t really in a good place,” he says. “And I was thinking, ‘What am I doing out here?’ “I could be with my family and friends, and instead I walk in this cold rain in Germany.” “But I don’t think I would have ever stopped. I was thinking about the ride for eight years before I even started it. So it would be crazy to give it up after a few years.” As soon as he walked the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage that includes many trips to Spain, France and Portugal, he began to feel fully remembered and was ready to fully immerse himself in the journey. He and Savannah then traveled to North Africa, where they walked to Morocco, Algeria, where he was accompanied by police, and Tunisia. From here they passed through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece. After Greece, they headed to Turkey, where Turcich became the first individual to be allowed to cross the Bosphorus Bridge on foot. They then traveled to Georgia, located between Russia and Turkey, in the Caucasus Mountains, and to Azerbaijan, an intercontinental country bordering Eastern Europe and Western Asia, just as the pandemic struck. This ultimately meant that they were forced to stay in Azerbaijan for at least six months.

The way back home

Turcich took countless photographs, including this one of Cappadocia, Turkey, to record his journey. Tom Turcic “Then we just waited until we got to any of Central Asia,” said Turcich, who initially planned to travel through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia before flying to Australia and then back to the United States. Unfortunately, the strict travel restrictions in force at the time meant that Turcich had to abandon plans to visit Australia and Mongolia – both destinations were closed to international visitors for about two years – along with Kazakhstan. After walking to Kyrgyzstan, a small Central Asian country bordering China, he and Savannah flew to Seattle in August 2021 and began making their way home to New Jersey. Of all the places he crossed during the trip, Turcich says Wyoming, the least populous U.S. state, was the most difficult. “It’s deserted out there,” he says, remembering how he and Savannah walked for an entire weekend without seeing so much as a store or even a person, before finally meeting a tiny gas station. “This completely distracted me. I returned to the United States thinking, ‘I’m home. It is so developed. “This is a piece of cake.” But I may have been in the deserts of Chile or Peru. “ During their world tour, the couple walked to six continents and 38 countries together, spending most nights at the campsite. The Guinness World Records sets the requirements for a walking tour, as it travels 18,000 miles (about 30,000 kilometers) and crosses four continents – a goal surpassed by Turcich. In an average day, he and Savannah walked between 18 and 24 miles (about 29 to 38 kilometers). “The thing about Savannah was that he always had a lot more energy than me,” he says. “This [walking from country to country] is the only one he has ever met. “There were times when we went through the desert and it collapsed at the end of the day and she came with a stick and wanted to play.” They have just returned to the USA …