A Mission That Started in 1998
Karl Bushby began his global walk in November 1998 when the former British paratrooper stepped onto the road in Punta Arenas in Chile with one rule: he would circle the planet entirely on foot with no motorized transport. What he expected to take eight years has stretched into a 27-year odyssey shaped by conflict zones, weather extremes, and international bureaucracy. His goal remains the same. He intends to return home to Hull in England on foot, completing an unbroken loop around the Earth.
The Extraordinary Obstacles
Bushby’s route pushed him through some of the most difficult terrain and political barriers on Earth. He crossed the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, a dense and dangerous jungle corridor known for armed groups, flooding, and extremely harsh terrain. In 2006 he and fellow adventurer Dimitri Kieffer walked across the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia over shifting sea ice. It remains one of the rarest and most dangerous human-powered crossings ever recorded. Years later visa obstacles blocked his route near the Caspian Sea. Bushby refused to violate the continuous footsteps rule. In 2024 he swam roughly 300 kilometers across the Caspian and rested at night on support vessels while keeping the integrity of the route intact.
Europe and the Final Push Home
In May 2025 Bushby reached Turkey and crossed the Bosphorus Bridge into Europe. It marked the final continental chapter of his walk. From there his route continues through Eastern and Central Europe toward France and eventually the English Channel. Even now he faces administrative challenges. The 90-day Schengen travel limit for British citizens threatens to disrupt his timing. The Channel Tunnel remains legally closed to pedestrians. His team has asked for special permission for him to use the service tunnel. If that request is denied he has publicly stated that he is willing to swim the Channel in order to maintain a fully human-powered return home.
The Personal Toll
Spending 27 years on the road has come with heavy emotional cost. Bushby has spoken openly about the strain of spending nearly half his life away from family and the everyday world he left in the late 1990s. He has called the idea of finally walking back into Hull “strange” because the world and his life have changed dramatically during his absence.
Why This Walk Matters
Bushby’s journey is more than an endurance record. It challenges the modern expectation of speed, convenience, and border-driven limitation. His walk has carried him through countries that no longer exist, through war zones, and through systems that were not designed for someone attempting a continuous human-powered circumnavigation of the planet. If he completes the final miles into Hull which he hopes to do in 2026 he will finish one of the most sustained and demanding human achievements ever documented.
Go, my man, Go!