When you think of famous explorers and famous journeys, what names do you immediately think of? Marco Polo travelling from Italy to China? Columbus discovering America? Amundsen reaching the South Pole? These are all well-known names. Doubtless you can think of many more. Yet there is one name that you probably don't know, that of a man who made one of greatest journeys of the last century. His name is Aimé Félix Tschiffely.
Tschiffely was born in Switzerland in 1895. He was brought up and educated there, then moved to England at the age of twenty, where he was first a teacher, then later a professional footballer and boxer. In his late 20s, in search of adventure, he moved to Argentina and returned to teaching at a school in Buenos Aires. It was from here that he set off on one of the greatest journeys of all time: from Buenos Aires to New York on horseback.
In one sense, the horses he chose to accompany him on this trip were totally unsuitable. They were old – one was 15, the other 16 – and until Tschiffely took possession of them, they had run wild across the Argentinian countryside. No one had ever ridden them; Tschiffely had to break them in himself. In another sense, they were the best possible animals he could have chosen. They were Criollos, direct descendants of the best horses brought to South America by the Spanish in 1535. And although neither of them was a particularly fine-looking animal, they were tough, intelligent and strong.
Despite the impressive heritage of the horses, local opinion in Buenos Aires was that Tschiffely was completely crazy. Newspapers reported that the journey was impossible; that it was ridiculous even to attempt it. Local horsemen told the press that Tschiffely was mad. But Tschiffely, quietly self-confident, was determined to make his journey, discovering the wilder parts of South America.
To say that Tschiffely encountered many difficulties along the route is something of an understatement. The list is truly extraordinary. They crossed dangerous rivers. They climbed mountains as high as 3,500 metres on the way into Bolivia. They struggled through steep jungle valleys in Peru. They crossed the boiling hell of the Matacaballo Desert, also known as the 'Horse-killer'. They froze in the mountains of Ecuador. There were mosquitoes, sand flies, poisonous plants, and poisonous snakes.
On one occasion one of the horses slipped and fell off the side of a mountain. Tschiffely thought he had lost the horse and all his luggage forever. But, on looking over the edge, he saw that the horse's fall had been broken by the only tree in the area. Tschiffely managed to climb down to the horse, take off all the luggage and then pull the horse back up to the path with the help of his other horse and some helpful people who were passing along the same road.
From Colombia he took a boat to Panama where he made his way through the jungles of central America to Mexico and Mexico City. From there he crossed into the United States at Laredo, Texas. Then, finally, Tschiffely and his horses arrived in Washington DC.
During the journey Tschiffely had sent letters home to his friends in Argentina. He was never really sure whether these notes would arrive or not, but he kept sending them anyway. What he didn't know was that many of these letters were published in newspapers and that he was fast becoming famous in both North and South America. On his arrival in Washington he was asked to make a speech to the National Geographic Society and invited to the White House by Calvin Coolidge, then president of the United States. He then shipped the horses to New York, as there was too much traffic on the roads to ride there safely, and from there returned to Buenos Aires. He had become so famous over the three years of his journey that he received a hero's welcome.
No, he wasn't Marco Polo or Columbus or Amundsen. But he did make a remarkable journey, spending three years in the saddle and covering over 8,000 kilometres – undoubtedly one of the greatest horse rides ever. He wrote about his travels in the best-selling book Tschiffely's Ride and he has been the inspiration for countless other long journeys on horseback.
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