TOM FREMANTLE » Talk Two

TALK TWO
MULE WALK FROM MEXICO TO MANHATTAN

Last year Tom completed a 2,700 mile walk starting from the Tex-Mex border and ending up in New York. He was following in the footsteps of his ancestor, Lt Colonel Arthur Fremantle, who travelled through the Deep South in 1863 at the height of America’s devastating Civil War. While Arthur hitched rides on wagons, steam trains and horseback Tom was supported by Browny a cantankerous but heroic mule, who had just celebrated her 17th birthday.

Throughout the course of the long march Tom and Browny used up two pairs of leather boots, seven sets of mule shoes, dozens of camera films and several jam- packed diaries.
They crossed the Mississippi, negotiated the Atlanta suburbs, stayed at an Indian reservation, traversed the Blue Ridge Mountains, roamed Civi War battlefields and experienced the unusual beauty of Amish country in Pennsylvania. They faced mercury- busting heat in the Texan desert, an angry buffalo in South Carolina and fierce wind chill in the Virginian hills, but it was all worth it, when on the final day they walked over the George Washington Bridge into the Bronx with a police escort. Soon afterwards Browny was grazing in New York’s Central Park and the journey was complete.

The trip raised over £26,000 for St John Ambulance in Aylesbury, which has been used to purchase a Community Care Vehicle. Over £1,000 was also raised for Covenant House in New York, a charity that supports homeless teenagers.

"Both trips were experiences that I was so lucky to have fulfilled," says Tom, "‘What did you learn?’ is the big question everyone likes to ask me. The answer is simple. I learnt that if an incompetent traveller like me, with stumpy legs, limited language skills and a bad sense of direction can make it, unscathed, through over 20 countries and 15,000 odd miles - then this world we live in can't be such a bad place."

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