Story written by Prue Osborne

"Solita?"

It was the question most asked Marianne Du Toit on her 21-month journey from Argentina to New York. Was she alone? Always the answer was, "Non, con dos caballos!"

Marianne Du Toit and her two equine companions walked, trotted and galloped through both the spectacular beauty and the perils of South, Central and North America in 2002 and 2003.

Marianne's spirit of adventure, courage and unimaginable inner drive brought her to the notion to try the ride Aime Tschiffely successfully completed in 1925. Marianne spoke no Spanish, knew no one in the Americas, hardly knew how to ride and knew next to nothing about horse care, equipment or what lay ahead of her when she trotted off from San Diego, Argentina. She said it was better that way — knowing more might have scared her off. "Fear," Marianne Du Toit said, "is an emotion that takes up too much packing space." The unknown, she acknowledged, frightens some people, but not her. She doesn't let herself think that way. She just knows things have a way of working out fine in the end.

A History of Adventure

It wasn't Marianne's first solo adventure. Marianne Du Toit grew up in South Africa, went to university there, then worked and travelled in Europe for three years. In 1991 Du Toit cycled alone around Europe for three months, covering 2,000 kilometres. A burning desire to see a famous bottlenose dolphin in Ireland took her there where she stayed until her quest for adventure could not be denied.

Marianne Du Toit said she had always been inspired by the stories of adventurous women who put aside the expectations for a husband, home and family and set off exploring the wilds. She was at a time and place in her when she could do that. Once she read Tschiffely there was no going back; that was the journey she had to make.

Du Toit said she thought about it secretly for quite some time before telling her friends and family. She described her mother as an “eternal optimist,” not unlike herself. Her mother always believed in her strong-willed, independent daughter. She fostered in Du Toit the knowledge that whatever she did, she would be proud of her. It seemed to give her the confidence to dream big. Her father simply reminded her that she didn’t know how to ride.

Making a Dream a Reality

This journey was just something she had to do. Marianne still can’t explain it. With the need to do it came the need to fund it and she wanted to benefit not just herself, but a cause as well. She rallied sponsors and patrons. The adventure became Travels Across the Americas — TATA.

Ireland, she found, had no purposeful handicapped riding facilities and she dreamt of starting a centre herself. Although publicity goes counter to who she really is, she needed it to get the support she needed. A woman travelling alone with two horses captures attention.

Getting Started in Argentina

Once Marianne landed in Argentina she made contacts, some good and some not so good, who helped her find Criollo horses, the same hardy breed Tschiffely used so long ago. Since she really couldn’t ride, she had to rely on instinct to tell her if they were the right horses for the job. After barely learning the basics, mapping her journey and using her new contacts to make future contacts, off she set. Within moments her packs slid under her horse’s belly and dumped everything on the ground — not an auspicious start. Thankfully, her sense of humour buoyed her then and throughout.

“All I could say was, ‘My journey is now starting, I can only look forward and deal with the consequences.’ I didn’t want to know how hard it was going to be.”

Du Toit admitted now that she actually thought she might last 12 days at best. But, she couldn’t just give up. She was afraid at times, but the fear pushed her forward. Dire warning didn’t daunt her. She survived it all — the brutality and wonder of the high mountains, heat, freezing cold, rain, the pain of sitting on a horse for ten, twelve hours a day, the thinnest high altitude air, cockroaches sharing her nights, nothing to eat but crackers or at best sardines and tomatoes, bandits, the most spectacular sights, the friendliest and the most unfriendly people, the least generous and most generous and the indescribable bond between her and her horses.

Marianne remembered her loneliest moments came when she was with loving families for then she felt most what she was missing at home. She was never lonely when she was actually alone in nature with only her horses. She was at peace, she said, surviving and living in the moment.

Tragedy in Brazil

Du Toit’s lowest low came six months into the trip where in Manaus in northern Brazil, preparing to cross into Venezuela. One of her beloved horses tested positive for equine infectious anaemia and had to be destroyed. One of the trio was gone and Du Toit had to muster the strength to find a new horse and go on. Of course, she did.

The trip took them through Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and then Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. As she went along, things just had a way of working out and falling into place, especially after things had been at their worst. She said she knew that when things go bad, they had to get better.

A Community of Support

Every day of her journey Marianne had to rely on herself or on strangers for survival — for places for her and her horses to spend the night and enough for all of them to eat. She learned to speak understandable Spanish. They never starved and she never got sick. She experienced humanity at its best and nearly at its worst, but learned the most about herself. She made it.

In the USA, Du Toit was featured by the late Peter Jennings on the ABC evening news as the Person of the Week. He described her adventure as “One very daunting journey by a very determined woman.”

With her until the end was Mise, her strong and brave Criollo, who set off with her in Argentina and now lives a life of leisure near her home in Ireland. To Du Toit, she is so much more than just a horse.

At the end of her journey, Marianne Du Toit and her TATA project had raised $42,000, which was donated to Pegasus, a therapeutic riding facility near Sligo Ireland, which has now eighty registered riders.

Du Toit is married now and busy promoting her book titled Crying with Cockroaches. She hopes the book will be translated into Spanish. She dreams of taking an RV tour of her route in South and Central America, stopping to see and thank the many, many people who helped her along the journey and present them with the book. She had already given copies to most people who had helped her and her horses during the three-month stretch of her trip through the USA.

She said it wasn’t until her parents read the book that they know just what their daughter had faced on her journey, and the places where she lay her head down at night. They are grateful for not knowing before.

Du Toit says she is not planning any new adventures at the moment. A passionate animal lover, she supports and raises funds for the DSPCA in Ireland and is also actively involved in animal welfare campaigns, amongst them the ban on foie gras, fur-farming in Ireland and the seal hunt in Canada.

Crying with Cockroaches is available at all good bookshops in the USA and at www.amazon.com

For more information on TATA, visit www.tatachallenge.com

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