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Bushby Completes 28-Year Walk Around the World
Confirmed
In Short: British adventurer Karl Bushby has completed a 28-year journey around the world, ending with a swim across the English Channel.
Bushby, who began his trek on November 1, 1998, at the age of 29, walked more than 30,000 miles across 29 countries.
He walked the length of South America, crossed the Darien Gap, and continued north to Alaska, waiting for the Bering Strait to freeze to cross into Russia.
Bushby's journey was interrupted in 2012 when Russia denied him a visa, pausing his expedition.
Bushby's adventure began when he received a birthday card in the 1990s from his father about two soldiers arguing over an impossible feat, walking from London to New York via the Bering Strait.
Bushby started walking in protest, heading to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and then north to the United States.
Bushby's journey had two rules: no mode of transportation other than his own two feet and he could not return home until the worldwide trek was complete.
Bushby completed the swim in 14 hours and 39 minutes, calling it a 'surreal' experience.
Bushby said, 'I don’t want to keep this going for much longer,' indicating that his journey is finally coming to an end.
Bushby added, 'All of us can accomplish more than we will ever imagine,' reflecting on his incredible journey.
What this adds
Bushby's initial estimate of 10-12 years to complete the journey stretched to 28 years, with the final leg expected to conclude in October 2026.
Background
On Tuesday, British adventurer Karl Bushby announced that he had completed the final major hurdle of his journey by swimming from France to the UK, marking the end of his 28-year walk around the world.
Karl Bushby, a British adventurer, has returned to the UK after a 28-year journey to walk around the world.
What's confirmed
- "I left my mother's house, walked down through the United Kingdom to test some equipment I was pulling at the time, said goodbye to my friends still in the army down south and then got on a plane," said Bushby recalling the first couple days of the journey.
- A ban from Russia, plenty of bureaucracy, denied visas and deportations later, 11 years passed before Bushby would be allowed back into the country where he “inched” his way across, continuing his walk into Kazakhstan and central Asia.
- At this point, in 2006, the British adventurer is eight years into his Goliath Expedition, a mission to walk around the entire world, but here, in the frigid grip of the Bering Strait – one of three “gaps” to cross during the trek — the journey seems to hang by a thread.
- What he initially estimated would take about 10-12 years to complete, has now stretched into year 27 as Bushby prepares for the last leg of the expedition and an expected return home in October 2026.
- “One day my father had sent me a birthday card and in there was a note about how a couple of special forces guys had talked about being able to walk from London to New York … That's when we really started those lines and those maps kind of grew into something stupendous, incorporated the whole world not knowing why anyone would want to stop in New York,” Bushby described.
- Leaving the cobblestone streets of his home in Hull, England behind on Nov.
- 1, 1998, at age 29, the expedition has always had two rules: no mode of transportation other than Bushby’s own two feet can be used and he can't return home until the worldwide trek is complete.
- Housed in a guard base before being dropped off, without passports, in a desolate Siberian town and told to “stay put” it would be 57 days before the pair was free.
- “It would take me 10 days to go the distance it would take me one day on the road to get through that jungle,” he said.
What's still developing
- Adventurer Karl Bushby says he has completed a multi-day swim of the English Channel, stepping foot on UK soil after a 28-year journey.
- Adventurer Karl Bushby has finally stepped foot on UK soil as he completes a 28-year long journey across the world, Fox News' Stephanie Bennett reports.
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- Back on the ice, the battle to cross the Bering Strait alongside French adventurer Dimitri Kieffer, in an attempt to continue his trek through Russia, wasn’t even the crux of Bushby's adventure to date.
- Spending his early years as a British paratrooper, lines across maps started to lure Bushby.
- Bostock, 29, also earned a bronze for riding in the earlier rounds of the team pursuit.
- While resting in Dover, he said, "I’m staring at the Union Jack flying outside this hotel. I’ve seen many flags over the days, but that one is special."
- On Nov. 1, 1998, the ex-paratrooper started his journey in Chile, with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket "South America, you were young, it was all new, it was the boys adventure dream," Bushby said.
- "You’ll find that you are way more capable than you think you are, people always underestimate themselves. The world always looks bigger and scarier than it actually is," Bushby said.
- "We went at a reasonable pace, we did what we needed to do and it has worked. I know it’s time to stop, I know that much because I feel that in the knees and ankles."
- “You're in a war zone. The guerillas own that jungle and you’re basically avoiding anything and everybody, sneaking through what is the frontline of a civil war basically at that point,” said Bushby.