Briton returns home after 28-year walk around the world

On Monday, Karl Bushby arrived in the centre of Hull in northeast England, where he was met by up to a thousand people. After the welcome, the traveller thanked those who had supported him throughout the journey and emphasised that he had not completed it alone.

The day before, Bushby crossed the Humber Bridge in thick fog, then headed into the city centre and towards his mother’s home. Along the way, he had to overcome jungles, deserts, tundra, and mountainous regions, as well as numerous bureaucratic obstacles. His expedition was originally planned to take 12 years but ultimately stretched to 28 and was named the Goliath Expedition.

The idea for the journey came to the former British paratrooper in the mid-1990s. His father, Keith, a veteran of the army, told him about a debate among special forces soldiers: whether it was possible to walk from London to New York via the Bering Land Bridge, which some scientists believe ancient humans may have used to migrate from Asia to America when sea levels were lower.

Bushby drew a continuous route on a map through Europe and Asia to North America, then extended it to the southernmost tip of Chile. He set two rules for himself: not to use any transport to move forward and to return home on foot as well. He set off with 500 dollars.

The first challenges began in Patagonia, where he had to battle hurricane-force winds. In 2001, Bushby bypassed the dangerous Darién Gap—a roadless region of jungles, tropical forests, and mountains between South and Central America. Later, he spent 18 days in prison after crossing a closed border zone in Panama.

In 2006, Bushby, together with American traveller Dimitri Kieffer, attempted to walk 56 miles across the Bering Strait. After Bushby fell into icy water and nearly died, both were airlifted to safety. The travellers almost lost their supplies, and after their rare crossing of the strait, they were arrested. They also faced deportation for illegal entry into Russia.

It took Bushby nearly 10 years to traverse Russia. Travel there was only possible for a few months each year due to weather conditions, and visa difficulties repeatedly halted his progress. In 2012, after Russia refused him a visa, he protested by walking from Los Angeles to the Russian embassy in Washington. This later helped him obtain the necessary documents.

After further delays, Bushby returned to the US or Mexico, where living costs were lower, and waited for an opportunity to resume his journey from where he had left off. In China, he was under police surveillance, and later, the expedition was interrupted for a long time by the pandemic. Subsequently, geopolitical circumstances blocked routes through Russia and Iran, forcing him to spend 31 days crossing the Caspian Sea.

Bushby was a poor swimmer and stayed afloat using a life jacket and a wetsuit. He moved slowly, waving his arms, and called this method 'floatimming'—a combination of swimming and floating.

In Europe, the route was complicated by rules limiting the traveller’s stay to 90 days. Because of this, he had to break the European leg of his journey into three-month segments. In early October, he swam across the English Channel and found himself back in Britain. At the time, Bushby said he was glad to feel British soil under his feet again after all these years, though the journey had not been easy.

Funding for the expedition was provided by various sponsors, who came and went as the journey dragged on. Some faced financial difficulties after the 2008 crisis. For the past 16 years, Bushby’s main source of support has been a production company founded by *House of Cards* creator Beau Willimon and music producer Jordan Tappis.

The company is supporting the production of a documentary about the journey, directed by Werner Herzog. The feature-length film is titled *Walk of Life*, and Herzog and the film crew accompanied Bushby during his return home.

The traveller himself said that financial support was not the only thing that kept him going. In different countries, he was taken in by people living in shacks made from car parts. A Peruvian doctor’s family helped him recover from a severe stomach infection, and strangers repeatedly fed him simple rice porridge, expecting nothing in return.

Bushby noted that he was welcomed by some of the poorest people and that almost all the representatives of different cultures he met treated him with the same kindness. Hull’s mayor, Maria Coward, had previously stated that many city residents followed his journey and were inspired by his spirit, perseverance, and determination.

Late on Monday evening, Bushby was due to meet his mother, Angela, his 36-year-old son, Adam, and his 12-year-old granddaughter, whom he had never met before. In an interview given in September in northern France, he admitted that returning to normal life in Britain made him anxious. 'I need to try to re-establish myself in the adult world,' the traveller said.