From Haddon Township, around the world and back again
Tom Turcich just wants to be out of the weather.
"So much of my life is dictated by the weather," he admitted. "I'm looking forward to a roof over my head and not setting up and breaking down camp every day."
After years on the road, walking six to eight hours a day with his dog Savannah by his side and a modified baby stroller with minimal supplies in front of him, he's ready to return home to Haddon Township — and he's almost there.
Talking to the Courier-Post by phone as 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, just after he turned 26. He expects to walk along Haddon Avenue sometime on May 21, and some of his neighbors in the township are planning to welcome the pair back home.
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"It'll be a fun thing," said Gwenne Baile, a Haddon Township resident and Turcich family friend. "We'd like to have the streets lined with people to welcome them back, and we're hoping people will bring their dogs with them, too."
Later that day, a party is planned at the Taproom for Turcich, and on June 1, Haddon Township High School will host Turcich as he shows photographs from his journey and describes his experiences.
After 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 save money for the long-planned trek, inspired by the loss of a beloved friend, as quickly as possible.
Before his departure, Philadelphia Sign Company CEO Bob Mehmet, who lives in Haddon Township, pledged $1 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 help him get through Europe and beyond.
"It was never about getting rich," laughed Turcich, who sleeps most nights in a tent.
So … what was it about? Why walk thousands of miles with just 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 really stark realization that I could die at any minute," he explained. "I always wanted to see the world; I always wanted adventure. That was it: to see the world and experience an adventure and to understand the world, outside of a tourist sense, to get a really good grasp of the world."
The odyssey began with Turcich stepping off his front porch and walking south.
Over the course of two years, he traveled through the southern United States, into Mexico and Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
He then flew from Panama City to Bogotá, his first stop on a South American leg that took him to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.
He's been to Antarctica and Iceland; to Africa (Morocco and Nigeria) and Europe (United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, France and Spain), as well as Turkey, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
He's lingered in some places longer than others, staying with friends and family when he can and absorbing as much local culture as possible, taking in breathtaking vistas from Switzerland to Wyoming, Chile to Kyrgyzstan.
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The trip, of course, 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 "thought I might die; I was miserable."
He returned home to recover for six months, then set 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 mind kept going toward the negative."
Solitude, he found, could be both a blessing and a burden.
"When I'm out here on my own, it's just me and my thoughts," he said. He trekked through the European continent but "couldn't shake the negative bent in my thoughts."
But by the time he'd reached Santiago, Spain, he'd found a community of walkers and hikers and felt less alone.
"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 rest, where he can eat. He carries about 80 pounds of supplies: food and water, camping gear, a laptop, a 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 bureaucracy was easier to navigate. He's kept away 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 nonetheless some of the world's most dangerous places.
"It was one of the first 'foreign' places I went," he recalled, "and I was still learning a lot, like how to distinguish a place that's dangerous versus just very poor."
How did he protect himself?
"I'd camp well before sundown; keep myself hidden," he said. "And tried not to be an idiot."
Covid-19 kept him from countries like Australia and Mongolia that he'd hoped to visit, but Turcich, who plans to write a travel memoir, has no shortage of stories to share from the dozens of places he's visited.
He's seen stark differences in countries that share borders: freer societies that bump up against authoritarian regimes; nations whose people live in abject poverty next to more well-off societies; places where he could move 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 really learn how much of your life is dictated by your circumstances, where you were born and where you live."
MORE INFORMATION
Tom Turcich plans to return to Haddon Township the afternoon of May 21; for updates, visit www.facebook.com/TheWorldWalk/
To hear Tom Turcich talk about his journey around the world on June 1, visit https://tinyurl.com/2p8bybwc
For more 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-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. She's called South Jersey home 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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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: A South Jersey man walked around the world and he's almost home
