Karl Bushby: The British adventurer who has spent half his life on the road
Some people are born adventurers, yearning for nothing more than getting out into the world and exploring everything that’s on offer. From Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, to Ernest Shackleton and Amelia Earhart, to name just a few, history is littered with humans who’ve searched and strived for more.
In a world in which everything feels known, and its secrets have been revealed, you’d think that this desire for adventure would have been quelled, but whether it’s travelling into the depths of uncharted jungles, sailing through unmapped seas or being launched into space, there’s still a hunger in some people to see more, such as Karl Bushby.
Bushby was born in March 1969 in Hull, England, the home of the Humber Bridge, poet Philip Larkin and the birthplace of boiled sweets. It’s a very normal place, a rugby league-loving city that drew scoffs of laughter when it was announced as the country’s City of Culture back in 2017.
Adventure had always been on Bushby’s mind, joining up to the British Army as a teenager and serving in the Parachute Regiment for over a decade. Then he decided to jack it all in and do something totally different, to set himself a challenge that would take determination, courage and a lot of effort, noting, “Our lives are short, and I’ve always wanted to live it to the fullest I can”.
It was then that he decided to walk around the world on foot, without using transport at all. With everything powered by his gait, he wasn’t allowed planes, cars or bikes, and boats were only allowed to sleep in during swimming crosses, such that this goliath expedition would see him do something that nobody else had ever achieved and forge the world’s longest unbroken path in history.
He started off his epic expedition in November 1998 in Punta Arenas, the capital city of Chile’s southernmost region, which had initially grown thanks to European immigrants coming for the gold rush, but, unknown to its citizens, became the departure point for one of the most impressive adventurers of the modern era.
This saw Bushby walk through South America before crossing into North America via the infamous Darien Gap, one of the most dangerous places on Earth, in the form of a remote rainforest region that borders Panama and Colombia. A lawless and extremely dangerous part of the world, the area forces you to deal with both the treacherous terrain and the cartels that operate there, fighting through thick foliage, navigating crocodiles, venomous snakes and spiders.
He managed to survive all to continue up the east side of North America before crossing the Bering Strait, another daring part of his trek that took him from Alaska to Siberia, making him not only the first Briton to make that crossing, but he did so after a narrow escape from a polar bear. Then came the long walk from Asia to Europe, including a month-long, 200-mile swim across the Caspian Sea, having been banned from continuing on foot through Russia and Iran.
It wasn’t just physical challenges; the toil of being on the road has seen him not only miss his loved ones but also miss funerals and final goodbyes, but he’s also adapted to a changing world as he’s walked across continents and developed a sizable following on TikTok. Now he’s nearing his home country and faces the prospect of one final swim across the English Channel, with the final fear of the prospect of ending his challenge, a challenge that has seen him spend nearly half of his life on the road, to deal with.
Starting his mission at 29 years old, Bushy turned 56 this year and is now nearing the finish line back in his hometown of Hull, a full 27 years and 30,000 miles later, and we wish him the best for it.
