Karl Bushby is finally home. He took the long way.
In 1998, the former British paratrooper set out from Punta Arenas, near the southern tip of Chile, with an unusual goal: get back to his hometown of Hull, England, under his own power. On Nov. 2, UPI reported that he had reached his family’s home in Britain, bringing the 28-year journey to an end.
When Bushby left, Google was new, the iPhone was nine years away, and getting directions usually meant unfolding something you’d never be able to fold again.
Bushby called the trip the Goliath Expedition, a name that turned out to be admirably free of exaggeration. His rule was that he couldn’t take a ride to advance along the route. That didn’t mean he walked every day for 28 years. He could stop, and sometimes had little choice. But when he resumed, he had to pick up where he’d left off. A delay could cost him months or years without gaining him so much as a mile.
From Chile, he headed north through the Americas. Getting all the way to Alaska was an expedition in its own right. Then came an awkward discovery for anyone trying to walk home from that direction: the road to Russia is made of water.
In 2006, Bushby and fellow adventurer Dimitri Kieffer crossed the Bering Strait over shifting sea ice. There was no solid bridge from one shore to the other. The ice itself moved, meaning that a man could spend hours making progress on foot while the surface underneath him had other plans. Of all the ways to discover that the ground is moving beneath your feet, this has to rank near the bottom.
Reaching Russia solved the problem of the strait. It didn’t solve the problem of getting across Russia. Visas and border restrictions complicated the expedition, and raising money for the journey was a recurring challenge. A man can train for cold, distance and exhaustion. There’s only so much he can do about someone behind a desk saying his paperwork isn’t in order.
Then there was the Caspian Sea. In 2024, Bushby swam from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, keeping the route intact without taking a ride across. By then, anyone keeping score at home could reasonably object that this was no longer a walk. Bushby’s feet had already done years of work. His arms finally got their turn.
One of the remarkable things about the trip is how long Bushby had to keep deciding to finish it. Setting off in 1998 was one decision. Going back after another interruption, putting on the boots again and starting from the same spot was another. A person can lose interest in a home improvement project between Saturday and Sunday. Bushby kept returning to a project that had already outlasted several generations of cellphones.
There’s a temptation to picture a finish like this at some grand landmark, with a ribbon across the road. But Bushby had a particular destination in mind all along. It wasn’t just Britain. It was home.
The next time somebody from Hull tells you they know a shortcut, it might be worth asking whether they mean through Alaska.
