He spent 7 years walking around the world. But his biggest challenge was being back home

By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN

(CNN) — As he walked back to his hometown alongside his beloved dog Savannah after seven years on the road, adventurer Tom Turcich, from New Jersey, couldn’t have been more hopeful about the future.

He and his four-legged companion were greeted by a huge homecoming celebration in Haddon Township on May 21, 2022, with Turcich officially becoming the 10th person on record to walk around the world, and Savannah claiming the title of the first dog to do so.

The journey had seen the pair walk across six continents and 38 countries, including Chile, Panama and Kazakhstan, together.

Constant companion

“The ending was incredible,” Turcich tells CNN Travel, recounting how friends, family and well wishers all turned out for them.

“Because it was just basically half my life devoted to that idea of walking around the world and then finally realizing it… Crossing the finish line, it was like paradise.”

Turcich previously told how the deaths of his friends, Anne Marie, who died in a jet ski accident, and Shannon, who was killed in a car accident, had been a catalyst for his trip, and he was thrilled to see their parents among the well-wishers.

“Having Anne Marie and Shannon’s parents there was really special,” he adds.

Turcich remained on cloud nine for the next three months as he took in his incredible achievement.

“It was like I was in an afterglow,” he says. “And everything was perfect.”

But as that incredible high began to fade. The realization that such a huge part of his life was over began to sink in, and Turcich quickly found himself at his lowest point.

“I kind of had this realization when I was walking to the park with Savannah,” he says. “That it keeps going. Life.

“This thing that had been my life forever was over. But then life kept going on, and you can just live life without this greater purpose. And then it became really difficult.”

Turcich, who has been compared to Forrest Gump, the character played by Tom Hanks in the 1994 movie, understood that he would have to move on and continue doing “stuff that doesn’t mean as much as the world walk did to me.”

“It’s really challenging to go from having this one singular point to focus all your efforts on, and then being unmoored,” he adds.

According to Turcich, things came to a head when he moved to Seattle to be with his partner Bonnie Snyder, who he’d met towards the end of his trip, last November.

“I fell into probably the first depression I’ve ever fallen into,” he says, describing how lost he felt without having such a clear purpose.

Heartbreaking loss

And just as he’d worked his way out of the darkness, his beloved Savannah passed away.

Turcich recalls how he’d just returned from a vacation with Snyder, who was mourning the loss of her own dog, Cleo, when he learned that Savannah was seriously ill.

While she’d been having “bouts” of ill health for a few months, Turcich was completely unprepared for the news.

“Her kidneys were in failure,” he says. “There was nothing they could do about it… They had to put her down.”

Turcich is still coming to terms with the loss, which feels like the final closing of a chapter that he was already struggling to let go of.

“I still have a little bit of guilt,” he says. “I was really bad the first month afterward. She was my best friend, in a way.

“She’s the only other living thing that went through that. I think a lot of the pain is… We spent so much time together and went through so much.”

After being Savannah’s “protector” through bad weather and “strange places” while they were on the road, Turcich has found it difficult to accept that he wasn’t able to protect her this time.

“But she lived nine great years. I’m grateful for that,” he adds, recalling how Savannah spurred him on time after time throughout the journey.

Turcich initially decided to take on the challenge of walking around the world after reading about Steven Newman, listed by Guinness World Records as the first person to walk around the world, and walking adventurer Karl Bushby, who has been circumnavigating the globe on foot since 1998.

He set off on April 2, 2015, just before his 26th birthday, with just a baby stroller containing hiking gear, a sleeping bag, a laptop, a DSLR camera and a plastic crate that he used to store his food.

While he began the trip alone, Turcich adopted Savannah, who was a puppy at the time, from an animal shelter in Austin, Texas, during the first leg of his trip, which saw him walk from New Jersey to Panama.

Turcich explains that he felt that having a canine companion beside him who could “keep watch” during the night would make all the difference, and this certainly proved to be the case.

Adventure story

On an average day, the pair walked between 18 to 24 miles (around 29 to 38 kilometers) together.

Guinness World Records requirements for a circumnavigation on foot are traveling 18,000 miles (around 30,000 kilometers,) and crossing four continents, which Turcich surpassed.

When asked if he believes he would have managed to complete the journey without Savannah, Turcich says he’s not sure.

“It wouldn’t have been as good,” he says. “It wouldn’t have been as fun. I wouldn’t have been able to take in as many moments…

“She was definitely, like the stalwart of the walk. I can’t imagine doing it without her, in hindsight.”

Turcich has written a memoir, The World Walk, about his experiences during the incredible trip.

While writing the book, released this month, was a cathartic experience for him, Turcich says his main goal was to encourage people to be “a little more curious about places and a little more trusting of the world,” and most importantly, produce an entertaining read.

“I wanted to get my ego out of the way and just create a book that readers would enjoy,” he says.

“Just tell a good adventure story about a guy and his dog walking around the world.”

While he visited many countries, there are two in particular that Turcich is very eager to return to – Turkey and Georgia.

“I love both of those countries,” he says. “And I think the capitals, Tbilisi and Istanbul, are both just so interesting.”

Turcich says he was hugely impressed by the “young, vibrant democracy” of Georgia.

“You really feel that people really care about their country, and it just provides this sort of electricity,” he says.

“This current that is running through everything that is not there in every country.”

As for Turkey, Turcich says he loves the climate, the “confluence of all these cultures,” and the food.

“Bonnie’s never been there,” he adds. “And she’s a big foodie, so I know she’d appreciate that.”

Greatest lesson

According to Turcich, one of the biggest lessons he took from his adventure was “how small and inconsequential” we all are in the grand scheme of things.

“I think I knew it intellectually before,” he says. “But then you go out there and you see how big the world is. And how these really much larger forces than anyone’s willpower and desire impact someone’s life.

“How much geography and culture impact someone’s life. And you kind of see yourself reflected in all these different places and all these different people, and you realize, you’re just one person among all these people.”

While he’s thrilled to have gained the title of 10th man to walk around the world, Turcich stresses that this was never really his goal.

“The World Walk was never about any record or anything like that,” he says. “It was just purely selfish in the sense of, ‘I want to go see the world. I want to experience the world. What’s the best way to do that?’

“And it was walking.”

Since completing the challenge over two years ago, he’s been contacted by others who hope to achieve the same feat.

“I’m like, ‘Alright, it’s a crazy idea, but if you’re really dead set on it…’” he says.

“I think walking around the world, if you really want to do it, it’s an incredible way to live a life.

“And I’m deeply, deeply satisfied with it. It’s a great way to experience the world and to be changed.

“If you have that fire within you to do it, I think it’s fantastic. (But) It’s definitely not for everyone.”

Turcich has been on a few vacations since returning, including visits to Sicily and Malta with Bonnie, and admits that he’s still getting used to the idea of dropping in to destinations for short periods of time.

“It’s not nearly as immersive,” he says. “And I kind of feel like I’m taking from a place more than I did when I was out on my own.”

“It feels like you’re there with this intention to get something. ‘I’m here to travel and to experience Sicily, and I’ve got to have the olive oil and the pizza.’

“You feel like you have to extract something from it. It’s a very different form of traveling.

“I think if you haven’t traveled in the other way, you don’t really notice it.”

Although he feels that “travel in any form,” is beneficial, Turcich is very grateful to have been able to travel slowly and really take in the destinations he visited alongside Savannah.

“I think slow travel is the best way to understand the world and to be changed by the world,” he says, acknowledging that traveling this way may “not be achievable and realistic for everyone.”

While Savannah’s death has clearly rocked him to the core, after experiencing so much grief and sadness in a relatively short space of time, Turcich is eager to move on, and hopes to be able to “put it immediately behind” him.

“It’d be nice not to grieve in a way,” he says. “And just be like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to move on to the next thing.’

“But the depth of feeling that I have towards the walk, towards Savannah, towards my friends who passed, I think is what has propelled me.

“And a lot of times, has been this great boon for me. To really reflect on these things, I think has served me really well.

“So even though it’s not particularly enjoyable, I think it also speaks to how much I cared for these things when they were around.”

Turcich, now 35, and Snyder are currently living in Kentucky together.

The couple, who recently got engaged, have discussed getting another dog, and Turcich is once again excited about the future.

“She’s great,” says Turcich. “We really are a good pair.”

While he has no plans to take on a challenge as big as walking around the world anytime soon, Turcich can certainly see himself embarking on a new adventure in the future.

“I don’t know what the next thing is,” he says. “Maybe it’s taking a dog, a new puppy, on the Appalachian Trail to train it.

“Maybe it’s writing something else. We’ll see what happens.”

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