Around the World and Home Again
Tom Turcich just wants to be out of the conditions.
"And so much of my life is dictated past the weather," he admitted. "I'm looking frontwards to a roof over my head and not setting up and breaking down army camp every day."
After years on the road, walking 6 to eight hours a twenty-four hour period with his dog Savannah by his side and a modified baby stroller with minimal supplies in front of him, he'south ready to return home to Haddon Township — and he'due south near in that location.
Talking to the Courier-Post by phone every bit he walked through western Pennsylvania, Turcich dropped in and out, finally deciding to wait until the following day, when he arrived in a town with better cell phone reception.
He and Savannah are on the last leg of a journey that began in 2015, but after he turned 26. He expects to walk along Haddon Avenue old on May 21, and some of his neighbors in the township are planning to welcome the pair back domicile.
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"It'll be a fun affair," said Gwenne Baile, a Haddon Township resident and Turcich family friend. "Nosotros'd like to have the streets lined with people to welcome them dorsum, and we're hoping people will bring their dogs with them, too."
After that 24-hour interval, a political party is planned at the Taproom for Turcich, and on June 1, Haddon Township Loftier School will host Turcich as he shows photographs from his journey and describes his experiences.
Afterward graduating from Moravian College, Turcich lived with his parents and worked in solar installation, restaurants, insurance — anything that would help him pay off student loans and salvage coin for the long-planned trek, inspired by the loss of a beloved friend, as rapidly equally possible.
Before his departure, Philadelphia Sign Company CEO Bob Mehmet, who lives in Haddon Township, pledged $i a mile to help finance the trip. His savings and financial support from Mehmet helped Turcich get through the Americas; he started a Patreon, an online fundraising tool, to assist him go through Europe and beyond.
"It was never about getting rich," laughed Turcich, who sleeps well-nigh nights in a tent.
So … what was it most? Why walk thousands of miles with only a dog, a tent and minimal supplies?
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"My friend Anne Marie passed away when I was 17, and I had this actually stark realization that I could dice at whatsoever infinitesimal," he explained. "I always wanted to see the world; I always wanted gamble. That was information technology: to see the world and experience an adventure and to understand the world, exterior of a tourist sense, to get a actually expert grasp of the world."
The odyssey began with Turcich stepping off his front porch and walking south.
Over the course of ii years, he traveled through the southern United States, into United mexican states and Cardinal America: Republic of guatemala, Republic of el salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
He and then flew from Panama City to Bogotá, his kickoff stop on a Due south American leg that took him to Colombia, Republic of ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.
He's been to Antarctica and Iceland; to Africa (Kingdom of morocco and Nigeria) and Europe (United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, Belgium, Frg, Denmark, Republic of ireland, France and Spain), also as Turkey, Algeria, Republic of azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
He's lingered in some places longer than others, staying with friends and family when he tin and arresting as much local civilisation as possible, taking in breathtaking vistas from Switzerland to Wyoming, Chile to Kyrgyz republic.
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The trip, of class, wasn't without its difficulties.
Perhaps the biggest challenge came when Turcich got sick, picking up a bacterial infection in South America that sent him to a London hospital. He lost about 45 pounds and "idea I might die; I was miserable."
He returned home to recover for six months, then ready out again.
"My body came back pretty quickly," he recalled. "Europe has great walking infrastructure; everything there is built with pedestrians in mind. But mentally, I had been in pain for so long, my listen kept going toward the negative."
Solitude, he found, could exist both a blessing and a brunt.
"When I'm out hither on my own, it'southward just me and my thoughts," he said. He trekked through the European continent but "couldn't shake the negative aptitude in my thoughts."
But past the time he'd reached Santiago, Espana, he'd found a customs of walkers and hikers and felt less lonely.
"I exorcised that darkness, and I finally felt like my normal self," he recalled.
Turcich maps out his routes in advance, planning where he might be able to camp, where he can residuum, where he can eat. He carries about 80 pounds of supplies: nutrient and water, camping gear, a laptop, a photographic camera, batteries, clothes, tools and personal items.
He's been delayed or detoured by travel visas in some countries, and tried to hew to places where they are more easily obtained or where hierarchy was easier to navigate. He's kept abroad from conflict zones, but that doesn't mean he never faced danger or worried about his safety.
El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries, while not conflict zones, are even so some of the world's most unsafe places.
"Information technology was one of the kickoff 'foreign' places I went," he recalled, "and I was still learning a lot, like how to distinguish a place that's unsafe versus just very poor."
How did he protect himself?
"I'd camp well before sundown; go along myself hidden," he said. "And tried not to be an idiot."
Covid-19 kept him from countries like Commonwealth of australia and Mongolia that he'd hoped to visit, simply Turcich, who plans to write a travel memoir, has no shortage of stories to share from the dozens of places he's visited.
He'due south seen stark differences in countries that share borders: freer societies that crash-land up against authoritarian regimes; nations whose people alive in abject poverty next to more well-off societies; places where he could motility about freely and countries where he was subject to surveillance and police escorts.
"You see how much more relaxed people are in a democracy," he observed. "You actually larn how much of your life is dictated by your circumstances, where yous were built-in and where you live."
More Information
Tom Turcich plans to render to Haddon Township the afternoon of May 21; for updates, visit www.facebook.com/TheWorldWalk/
To hear Tom Turcich talk about his journeying around the globe on June 1, visit https://tinyurl.com/2p8bybwc
For more than about his journey visit http://theworldwalk.com or www.facebook.com/TheWorldWalk/
Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, concentrating on issues relating to quality of life and social justice for the Courier-Mail, Burlington County Times and The Daily Periodical. She's chosen South Jersey dwelling house since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @By_Phaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.
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Source: https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/2022/05/10/south-jersey-man-walked-around-world-almost-home-tom-turcich-world-walk-haddon-township/9587734002/
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