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The first step was easy. The next 50,000 kilometers were not. When Karl Bushby left Punta Arenas, Chile, in 1998 determined to walk home to England without using transportation, he had no idea the journey would trap him in jungles, land him in detention cells, strand him in Siberian snowstorms, and nearly end on drifting sea ice. 27 years later, the expedition is still underway and closer than ever to completion.
The Rulebook: No Vehicles, No Going Home
Bushby’s challenge came with two unbreakable rules: he would not use any mechanical transport, and he would not return to England until he completed the journey on foot. Those guidelines became the structure of his life. They meant refusing rides that would have saved months, turning down shortcuts that would have compressed continents, and missing irreplaceable life events at home. For Bushby, breaking the rules would have been the same as ending the walk itself.
1998: The First Steps Into the Unknown
He began the Goliath Expedition believing it would take around eight years. The early stretch carried him through Patagonia and up Central America, where travel was difficult but manageable. He camped, bought food when he could, and learned to stretch a few pesos across many days. In that phase he was not yet mythic, simply a determined traveler walking across landscapes that still felt familiar to the world’s backpackers.
The Darién Gap: Where the Expedition Became Real
Everything changed in the Darién Gap. Between Colombia and Panama lies a swath of rainforest controlled by cartels, militias, and terrain that swallows roads. Bushby was detained and held for 18 days, suspected of entering illegally. His parents tried to advocate for him from the UK, but diplomatic channels moved slowly. The jungle taught him that danger would not only come from distance or weather, but from governments, rules, and suspicion.
Six Years Up the Spine of the Americas
Once he escaped the jungle, the expedition became work. Six years of walking carried him through Mexico, the U.S. Southwest, the Rockies, and into Alaska. There were no sponsorship teams or media caravans. He ate when locals helped him and slept outdoors when they didn’t. He crossed industrial cities, empty highways, cattle country, and Arctic landscapes. By Alaska, he had already walked farther than most people will in their lives, and the hardest terrain still lay ahead.
The Impossible Crossing: Walking the Bering Strait
Most expeditions end when an ocean appears. Bushby waited for one to freeze. In 2006, he and explorer Dimitri Kieffer attempted the first modern crossing of the Bering Strait on foot, hauling sleds of supplies over fractured sea ice. When sheets split apart, they drifted into open water and spent nights on unstable slabs. GPS showed them drifting more than 50 miles off course. They eventually reached Russia, only to be detained by border authorities who had no protocol for two men walking in from the Arctic.
Siberia: Eleven Years in the Grip of Bureaucracy
Russia became a bureaucratic labyrinth. Bushby’s visa required him to exit and re-enter every 90 days, returning each time to the exact step where he’d stopped. For 11 years, he repeated the cycle: walk, exit, apply, wait, walk again. Siberia was not dramatic to spectators—no camera-ready avalanches, just cold, insects, time, and paperwork. The journey became less about stamina than endurance of systems. He kept going because quitting never felt like an option.
The Personal Cost: Time, Relationships, and a Life on Pause
Bushby rarely speaks about his private life, but the expedition began in the aftermath of personal upheaval. He has described starting the walk “post-divorce,” a period when crossing the world on foot felt less daunting than rebuilding a life. He left the UK with a tearful girlfriend, his parents, and his brother watching him depart. For nearly three decades, he has missed birthdays, holidays, and milestones that never return. He has said the true hardship is not hunger or frostbite, but knowing that while he kept moving, the people he loved continued without him.
When the World Closed
The greatest setback came not from nature but from a pandemic. COVID-19 shut down borders worldwide and stranded Bushby in Kazakhstan for four years. He was more than two decades into the expedition, still bound by his original rules. Travel restrictions transformed walking into waiting. For someone whose identity was movement, stillness felt like suffocation. When borders reopened, he stepped forward again.
A Swim That Shouldn’t Have Worked
When land routes blocked him, Bushby found another way. He swam nearly 200 miles across the Caspian Sea over 31 days, sleeping on a support boat between phases. Swimming did not violate his rule against mechanical transport, allowing him to bypass geopolitical obstacles that had stopped him for years. The crossing was quieter than the Bering Strait, but symbolically just as defiant: when no path exists, make one.
How He Paid for a Life on Foot
He is often asked how he funds the journey. The answer is unglamorous. Kindness of strangers. Small donations. Sporadic sponsorships. Proceeds from his book, Giant Steps. Locals have offered food and places to sleep, though he has always declined rides. When the economy collapsed in 2008, so did his sponsors, halting the expedition for two years. He earned every kilometer not through comfort, but through scarcity and persistence.
The Final Stretch
Today, Bushby is walking through Europe. He has crossed 25 countries and more than 50,000 kilometers. He plans to continue via Turkey in August and expects to be back on British soil within a year, aiming to arrive in Hull by September 2026..He has approached the finish line before, only to watch it retreat behind policies and storms. This time, the path appears clearer. Even so, he continues as always, one step at a time.
What the Walk Means
Bushby does not describe his expedition as a contest against nature or a spectacle for an audience. He talks instead about strangers who fed him, families who sheltered him, and people who offered help when they had no reason to. When asked what kept him moving, he gives the same answer: do not fear hard things. Take a step, then another. The world is larger than you expect, and most of the time, far kinder.