The ultimate dog walk of a lifetime — and then some. On May 21, 2022, Tom Turcich etched his name into history as only the tenth person ever recorded to trek all the way around the globe on foot. And trotting proudly beside him the whole way? His rescue dog Savannah, now seven years old, who became the FIRST canine on record to conquer the entire world by paw.
Turcich scooped up Savannah just a few months into his epic journey, at an Austin, TX animal shelter. Side by side, they then powered through 38 countries spanning six continents over a grueling seven years — with most nights spent roughing it under the stars in a tent.
Adopting her “was fueled by this primal, ancient craving — this deep need for someone to listen and to watch my back at night,” admits Turcich. “It grew out of camping in all these bizarre places and jolting awake four times a night. I desperately wanted to switch off that paranoid part of my brain.”
the loyal century — In the beginning, though, Turcich — who chronicled the whole odyssey on Instagram and his blog The World Walk — was convinced he'd made a catastrophic mistake by adopting her.
“I was one hundred percent sure I'd screwed up,” he admits. Savannah was barely a puppy — terrified of cars and totally incapable of handling marathon walking days. More often than not, Turcich wound up pushing her along in the supply cart that held his gear: camping equipment, spare clothes, a plastic food crate, water, and a camera.
“From Texas all the way down to Mexico, I'd plop her in the back basket of the cart,” he says. “It drove me crazy that she was holding us back so much. I remember venting to my mom — 'this is a total disaster, way harder than I expected' — and she told me I had to make Savannah my number one priority. The second I did that and flipped my mindset, everything changed.”
Then came the turning point. When they rolled out of Corpus Christi, TX, Savannah marched a solid two hours before she even thought about hopping into the cart. It was a genuine breakthrough. “By the time we reached Mexico, she was crushing the full 24 miles on her own four paws,” says Turcich. “After that, I couldn't have gotten her in the cart even if I'd tried.”
Here's the staggering math of this epic: on a typical day, the duo logged anywhere from 18 to 24 miles (roughly 29 to 38 kilometers). All told, Turcich crushed a jaw-dropping 28,000 miles — while Savannah racked up an incredible 25,000 of her own on four paws.
the loyal century — “The craziest thing about Savannah was that she always had ten times more energy than I did,” he laughs. “At the end of a brutal day, she'd be all, 'let's go again!' I remember trekking through the desert in South America, doing 27, even 30 miles, just because there was literally nothing else to do. I'd be completely wrecked, and she'd be sprinting circles around me — full-on zoomies!”
In the end, Savannah turned out to be the greatest companion a wanderer could ever dream of. “Savannah stuck with me through absolutely everything — the blistering heat, the freezing cold, the towering mountains, the endless desert. She taught me how to push through each day no matter how I was feeling inside. Every night, once we'd set up camp, she'd settle in right beside me, and in those moments, I could finally soak in the sheer beauty of it all and marvel at how impossibly far we'd come together.”
Side by side on this once-in-a-lifetime odyssey, man and dog grew up together — in more ways than one.
Turcich doesn't sugarcoat his younger self. “I was an idiot when I started,” he admits. “I was just a young, suburban dummy.” But he insists it was the greatest education money can't buy: “It was a great way to grow up and understand the world.”
Turcich's “quietly stunning” book capturing their remarkable journey — The World Walk: 7 Years. 28,000 Miles. 6 Continents. A Grand Meditation, One Step at a Time — is set to hit shelves on Oct. 8, 2024.
the loyal century — And for the little ones, there's more Savannah magic: his debut children's book, Savannah's World of Adventure: Crossing the Andes, is waiting for you over at tomturcich.com
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