THOMAS Kearney never intended to write a book. When the West Belfast man set out on his journey from southern Argentina to the edge of Canada, his plan was less practical and more than a bit cracked: to hitchhike some 25,000 kilometres from Ushuaia to an Inuit settlement on the Arctic Ocean.
As we sit down over Zoom to discuss his new travel book ‘Thumbs Up’, it becomes apparent that Thomas’ decision to embark on such an onerous trip was not so much influenced by naivety, but a genuine sense of adventure.
Author Thomas Kearney
By his own description, the book sees him travel through bleak poverty-stricken villages to breathtakingly beautiful jungle, mountain and forest landscapes; from freezing nights in the Andes to blistering hot days in the desert.
Though breathtaking landscapes, sights and smells abound, much of his book focuses on the people and the communities he met along the way.
“When I was in Uni I read a few adventure books and travel books, and there were a few books in particular that made me think I would like to travel slower, and that I would like to travel over land and meet as many people as possible,” he said.
“I read a book called ‘Into the Wild’ and another one called ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’, which is about Che Guevara. That made me feel like I should try to throw myself out there and get into these dodgy situations where I can meet every type of person possible.”
Travelling through Latin America with no grasp of Spanish – which he mistakenly thought he would learn “by osmosis” – the “dodgy situations” Thomas sought were more plentiful and more intense than he might have anticipated.
From encountering an armed gang in Guatemala, having bricks thrown at him in Columbia, and sharing a room with a knife-wielding psychopath in Lima, he admits there were a few moments where he “nearly s**t” his pants, and one moment when he actually did.
Thomas’ reliance on hand gestures did, however, earn him the moniker “Mr Bean” amongst various truck drivers who picked him up along the way.
Despite the dangers he encountered, our intrepid traveller experienced immense kindness on his journey too, which would change his perception of the places he visited forever.
“In Latin America, even though it's more dangerous, normal people weren’t afraid to pick up a white guy with a backpack,” Thomas explained.
“I got picked up by lots of hospitable people who took me in, fed me, gave me beds, took me on tours around their cities for free – people who were poor and had nothing but treated me like a king.”
He added: “Hitchhikers are seen in a bad light it USA and Canada, so I got picked up by a lot of ex-criminals, drugs addicts, one guy who said he was running from the law alcoholics, conspiracy theorists – a whole array of crazy people.”
Having met poor and indigenous peoples throughout Latin America, including during a stay with a Zapatista community in Mexico, Thomas’ view of the U.S. was less than favourable given its imperialists interventions in the south. After travelling northwards, his view became much more nuanced.
“My image of the U.S. wasn’t great after going through Latin America,” he said.
“Then when I went to North America I met a bunch of hunger strikers who were protesting against police brutality in San Francisco and got involved in Black Lives Matter protest at the City Hall.
“I saw loads of things in the U.S. that made me think that it’s such a lie what you see on the news and Hollywood. This image that you U.S. has is total bulls**t. There’s a lot of homelessness, big drug problems, a lot of inequality, but I met a lot of people that restored my faith in the U.S. There are lots of struggles going on and people who are prepared to carry out that struggle in the U.S. and Canada.”
The distance between the communities that span the Americas is immense, but through his travels Thomas found commonality amongst the ordinary people; those involved in class struggle, those fighting racism, and those involved in environmental movements. He also found similarity in the injustices faced by indigenous communities north and south.
After a full year of travelling Thomas returned to Belfast and returned to his old job as he had before in a local bar, where an encounter with one punter would again change his course.
“All the regulars were sitting there and some of them hadn’t realised I had been gone,” he recalled.
“They were sitting in the same seats, drinking the same pints out of the same glasses. One of them turned round and said ‘where have you been for the past year hey boy’. I told him and he didn’t even listen to me. He said, ‘so now you’re ready to sit still and be happy like the rest of us?’”
The answer, of course, was a definitive ‘no’.
Thomas quit his job, moved to Spain and would later spend some more time hitchhiking in South America before finally settling in Berlin, where he teaches English to Chinese students.
A journal kept throughout his nine-month journey from Patagonia to the Arctic became the basis of his book, the reading of which is sure to be an adventure in itself.
Thomas Kearney never set out to be writer, but some stories just have to be told.
‘Thumbs Up: A Hitchhiking Irishman and 25,000 Kilometres from Patagonia to the Arctic’ is available to buy in paperback or for Kindle on Amazon.
