Seven Years, 25,000 Miles: The Rescue Dog Who Walked Around the Planet With One Very Determined Guy

The best dog walk in history, hands down. On May 21, 2022, Tom Turcich became just the tenth person known to have circled the entire globe on foot. His rescue dog Savannah — now seven — became the first documented dog to make the trip.

Turcich picked Savannah up from an Austin, TX shelter just months into the trek. Together the pair crossed 38 countries across six continents over seven years, spending most nights under the stars.

'Adopting her was driven by this primal need to have someone listening, someone to keep watch at night,' Turcich says. 'It came from camping in strange places and waking up four times a night. I wanted to switch that part of my brain off.'

At first Turcich — who shared the journey on Instagram and his blog The World Walk — was convinced he'd made a colossal mistake.

'I definitely thought I'd messed up,' he says. Savannah was still a puppy, terrified of cars and far too young for long days on the road. He'd often end up pushing her in the cart he used for gear — camping, clothes, a plastic food crate, water, a camera.

'From Texas down to Mexico I'd shuttle her around in the cart's back basket,' he says. 'It infuriated me how much she was slowing me down. I told my mom it was such a disaster, so much harder than expected — and she said I needed to make Savannah my priority. Once I did that, once I shifted my mindset, everything changed.'

Leaving Corpus Christi, TX, Savannah walked two hours before hopping back in the cart. That was the turning point. 'By Mexico she was doing the full 24 miles,' Turcich says. 'After that, I couldn't get her in the cart even if I'd wanted to.'

A typical day saw the pair cover 18 to 24 miles (about 29 to 38 kilometers). In total Turcich logged a mind-bending 28,000 miles while Savannah clocked an astonishing 25,000.

'The wild thing about Savannah was she always had more gas in the tank than me,' he says. 'At day's end she'd be like, "let's go again!" I remember crossing a desert in South America, doing 27 or 30 miles simply because there was nothing else. I'd be wrecked, and she'd be tearing circles around me with the zoomies!'

In the end Savannah turned out to be the perfect copilot. 'She was with me through all of it — the searing heat, the cold, the summits, the dust,' Turcich says. 'She showed me how to move through a day no matter how I felt. Every night after camp, she'd settle beside me, and that gave me space to finally see how beautiful it all was and how far we'd come.'

Together, across that epic journey, they both grew up.

'I was an idiot when I started,' Turcich admits. 'Just a clueless suburban kid. It turned out to be the best possible way to grow up and make sense of the world.'

His 'quietly stunning' account of the walk — The World Walk: 7 Years. 28,000 Miles. 6 Continents. A Grand Meditation, One Step at a Time — is out October 8, 2024.

His first children's book, Savannah's World of Adventure: Crossing the Andes, is available at tomturcich.com.

This story first appeared in the award-winning Modern Dog magazine. Subscribe today!