BEST WALKING COMPANION

Tom and Savannah visited six continents on foot

- NASIFA SULAIMAN

WHEN he decided to take a walk around the world, he wanted someone at his side. And when he stepped into an animal shelter in Texas in the US and saw Savannah, an Australian Shepherd puppy who’d been abandoned on the side of a highway, he knew he had his travel pal.

“She was helpless and that endeared her to me,” Tom Turcich says.

But Savannah was anything but helpless as she and Tom trekked around the globe. Now seven years, six continents and 46 000 kilometres later, Tom and his dog are back home – and she has the distinction of being the first dog to successfully walk around the world.

Tom (33), from New Jersey in the US, is the 10th person to successfully complete the trip. He was inspired to undertake the epic journey after suddenly losing two of his best friends at a young age.

“I recognised the impermanence of life and when I thought about what I wanted to do with my brief time here, I wanted adventure, I wanted to travel and to understand the world,” he says.