The Ultimate Walkabout: British Adventurer Karl Bushby Nears Home After a Mind-Boggling 28-Year Trek Around the World 🌍🥾

Imagine stepping out of your front door to go for a stroll, and returning home 28 years later.

For former British paratrooper Karl Bushby, that wasn’t just a figure of speech—it has been his entire life’s mission. Setting off from Punta Arenas, Chile, all the way back on November 1, 1998, Bushby embarked on the Goliath Expedition, an unbroken, continuous walking journey spanning four continents, 29 countries, and over 30,000 miles (roughly 50,000+ kilometers), with two unyielding rules: no mechanical transport to advance the route, and no going home or shortcuts on foot.

Now, nearly three decades later, the adventurer is finally closing in on his ultimate destination: his mother’s front doorstep in Hull, England.

Who is Karl Bushby? The Man Behind the Legend

Born and raised in the UK, Karl Bushby served as a professional soldier in the British Parachute Regiment. Witnessing the premature deaths of several fellow soldiers left a profound mark on him, cementing his belief that life was fragile, fleeting, and never to be postponed. Restless and searching for a grand, defining challenge just before turning 30, Bushby decided to take on a feat that most would dismiss as an impossible dream.

The Birthday Card That Sparked a 30,000-Mile Obsession

The genesis of the Goliath Expedition dates back to the mid-1990s, when Bushby received a birthday card from his father containing a handwritten note. Inside, his father recounted a conversation between two UK Special Forces members arguing over an ultimate hypothetical feat: walking from London to New York by way of the Bering Strait.

Fascinated, Bushby walked over to his wall map with a marker. He drew a line starting in the UK, cutting across Europe and Asia, crossing the frozen Bering Strait, continuing down through North America, and sweeping all the way down to the southern tip of South America. Looking at that single unbroken line, he knew his life’s path was set. He stationed himself at Dover Castle’s Connaught Barracks in his army days, staring across the English Channel and imagining the day he would close the loop.

Surviving Polar Bears, Guerrillas, and Bureaucratic Nightmares

When Bushby set off with just $500 in his pocket in November 1998, he expected the trek to take roughly 12 years. Instead, a relentless onslaught of geopolitical red tape, extreme terrain, and global crises stretched the journey into a 28-year epic.

His journey involved astonishing trials:

• The Darién Gap and Guerrilla Zones: Traversing lawless jungles in Colombia where he faced hostile cartels, armed factions, and crocodile-infested waters.
• The Bering Strait Ice Crossing: Battling shifting sheets of polar sea ice, sub-zero winds, and open water leads from Alaska to Russia alongside explorer partner Dimitri Kieffer.
• Global Bureaucracy and Russian Visa Bans: Spending years caught in visa locks—including a 5-year Russian visa ban which he characteristically protested by walking all the way from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., to get it overturned.
• Epic Open-Water Swims: When land routes were blocked by geopolitical standoffs, Bushby didn’t cheat his rules—he swam. This included an exhausting 31-day open-water swim across parts of the Caspian Sea using a wetsuit and floatation vest, followed later by swimming across the English Channel to touch British soil.

Restoring Faith in Humanity

Despite battling physical exhaustion, a stolen gear cart in Montana, infections, and extreme isolation, Bushby’s greatest takeaway from nearly three decades on the road is surprisingly optimistic. He frequently notes that 99.99% of the ordinary people he encountered across the globe represented the absolute best of humanity, offering him food, shelter, and kindness when he had nothing.

As he takes his final steps toward Hull to complete the Goliath Expedition, Bushby’s extraordinary odyssey stands as one of the most remarkable testaments to human endurance in modern history.

Coming home after 28 years of walking around the world
– Watch a video highlighting Karl Bushby’s incredible 28-year journey around the world on foot.