How did you come up with this crazy idea? Why South America, and why Darwin?
My uncle gave me a book on the voyage of the Beagle after I spent a year teaching English in Chile. Having fallen in love with that part of the world, I was hooked! As Darwin had travelled mainly by horse when he did his collecting expeditions, it seemed the logical way of trying to retrace what he did – and I had a particular interest in Darwin from the philosophical / scientific point of view after having studied philosophy.

You say you were fascinated by Darwin from a philosophical / scientific standpoint from your studies at university – what do you mean by that?
Darwin is very interesting from the philosophical point of view – perhaps especially the history of philosophy – as he supplies the logical rationale for the supplanting of all earlier philosophical discourses in the West, based on a supreme Being, with all knowledge stemming from this perspective; indeed the theory of evolution really challenges the universalism of all discourses – even its own – which is why it is such a challenging and exciting idea.

Having decided to go, how did you plan you trip? And what logistical problems did you encounter?
The plan was to buy horses in Uruguay, where my girlfriend’s uncle had an old friend with a cattle ranch. Logistical problems we had not bargained for included crossing horses over international frontiers – the problems with the veterinary certificates were impossible to get round. Eventually I had to buy and sell horses in each country as I neared borders, which meant that I was always selling in a buyer’s market and buying in a seller’s market!

Other logistical problems included bizarre things such as the fact that Uruguayan banks only opened in the afternoon, so that by the time they had opened British banks had almost closed, which made it very difficult to arrange for the large transfer on my Visa card I had envisaged to buy the horses!

Once you had set off... How closely did you follow the route you’d plotted? How easy was it to stick to your plans?
 I stuck as closely to the route as I could, but occasionally things would crop up which made it impossible – such as the fact that a river he followed in Chile had been flooded and turned into a reservoir, for instance! Plans were always changed by things – sores developing on horses’ backs, the vagaries of El Niño, etc. – but, by and large, I plotted to follow Darwin’s route and stuck to it!
 
How much did you know about Darwin before you set off? And how present was he on your travels – did you plot the route based on his, and then just go and do it, or was he a more constant companion? Did you read him as you went?
I could not claim to have been an “expert” on Darwin before I left – what I did have a very good knowledge of was his route and his journey on the Beagle. I would often find that he would be a companion on my route, perhaps more so than expected – coming across a monolith to him in a remote corner of Uruguay, for instance, or a plaque to him on the Cerro la Campana in Chile. I did not read that much in my travels – I tended to find that the demands of the journey and feeding the horses took priority over everything else!
 
If you had to do the journey again now, what would you do differently? Would you plan more, or less? Would you prepare more, read more? Or do just the same?
If I was to do the journey again (what a thought!) I would not change much. I would plan it no more than I did, since it was the vagaries of chance that threw up some of the most interesting people and experiences that came my way. I certainly would do nothing like bring a GPS or a satellite phone – it was the fact that I was just a bloke on a horse which proved a great leveller and allowed people to empathise with my situation, something that would have been harder had I had all the latest gadgetry. If I could do one thing that I didn’t, it would be to explore the sertão between Salvador and Rio – Darwin never went there so I skipped it, but I suppose it is a part of the landmass he sailed past, and I could have done it. I think that’s a fascinating and very little visited part of the world.
 
And finally... What would your Icon of England be – and why?
My icon of England is Marmite. No one else can stand it anywhere in the world. No one else can even understand why the English even eat it, let alone like it. Put two English people in a distant land in front of a jar of Marmite, and they will instantly have something in common and floods of reminiscences of their “green and pleasant land” will start to come...

Saddled with Darwin by Toby Green is published in paperback by Phoenix.