British adventurer Karl Bushby walked into his hometown of Hull, completing a 28-year global journey that covered roughly 58,000 kilometers without using motorized transport, nos.nl reported.
Departure from Punta Arenas in 1998
Bushby kicked off the Goliath Expedition on November 1, 1998, leaving Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile with just $500 in his pocket. A former member of the British luchtlandingstroepen who had served twelve years in the military during peacetime, he set out with two rigid rules: he would use no motorized transport whatsoever, and he would not return home until the route was finished. The initial plan was estimated to take five years, though the traveler soon realized reality demanded a much longer timeline across four continents.
Crossing the Frozen Bering Strait and Facing Russia
In 2006, Bushby teamed up with French adventurer Dimitri Kieffer to cross the freezing sea ice of the Bering Strait on foot, moving from Alaska over to Siberia. Few people had gone before them. Russia proved to be a grueling obstacle of the trek, holding him up for nearly a decade due to visa complications and severe winter weather. Authorities detained him after the Bering Strait crossing for entering the country illegally. When Russia denied him a visa in 2012, Bushby walked 5,600 kilometers in protest from Los Angeles to the Russian embassy in Washington to secure the paperwork.
Financial Roadblocks and the Global Pandemic
The journey stalled repeatedly through major geopolitical and economic hurdles. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Bushby lost his sponsors and lived two years in Mexico. Chinese authorities held him when he attempted to cross into Mongolia, and the later coronavirus pandemic brought further delays to his schedule.
Navigating the Caspian Sea and Swimming to England
With geopolitical conflicts making it impossible to travel through Russia and Iran, Bushby altered his path in 2024 to tackle the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest inland body of water. Over 31 days, he crossed it using a technique he termed “floatimming”—a mix of swimming and floating backward in a wetsuit and buoyancy vest because he considered himself a poor swimmer. When Eurotunnel authorities denied him access to walk through the Channel Tunnel, he swam across the English Channel to Dover instead, completing the water crossing over three days.
Homecoming and Celebration in Hull
On Sunday, Bushby crossed the Humber Bridge exactly 28 years after setting off on his quest. Hundreds of well-wishers, family members, the city’s mayor, and film director Werner Herzog—who is working on a documentary about the expedition—gathered on Queen Victoria Square to greet him. Bushby walked the final stretch to his 75-year-old mother Angela’s home, pulling his gear behind him in a loaded cart. Speaking to the gathered crowd, Bushby reflected on the massive collective effort required to finish the journey, stating that the entire world was needed to get him back home safely.
The Origins and Reach of the Trek
Bushby took inspiration from a birthday card sent by his father Keith, which pointed out the theoretical possibility of walking from London to New York across the prehistoric Bering land bridge. His route ultimately took him through thirty countries across North America, South America, Asia, and Europe, yielding an estimated seventy-five million steps.
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