Karl Bushby’s plan to walk across the globe began with a note in a birthday card.
asserted
plan → walk → card
It was the mid-1990s, and Bushby was a paratrooper in the British Army, obsessed with endurance tests.
asserted
Bushby → obsess → tests
He was trying to find the longest distance he could travel on foot, but none of his options felt challenging enough, maxing out at a few thousand kilometres.
uncertain
none → try → kilometres
Then his father suggested in the card that he look into traversing the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia when it froze in the winter – unlocking a path across four continents.
uncertain
it → suggest → continents
Never mind that crossing the perilous waterway on foot had little modern precedent.
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crossing → mind → precedent
Bushby took a black marker, walked to a map on his wall and drew a line from England, where he lived, through Europe and Asia, across the strait into North America and down to the southernmost tip of South America.
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he → take → America
“That was when I realised that that’s the kind of thing I’ve been looking for,” he recalled in an interview.
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he → realise → interview
“Now we had the ultimate journey.”
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we → have → journey
Bushby flew to South America and started walking home.
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Bushby → fly → America
Nearly 28 years later, he’s almost done.
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he → do → ?
This month, he swam across the English Channel, arriving in his home country after spending half his life away.
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he → swim → life
He began his trek in southern Patagonia, Chile, in November 1998, when he was 29, and plans to reach his mother’s house in Hull, England, sometime next week.
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he → begin → Hull
The journey, he said, has taken him through some of the world’s harshest landscapes, from the jungle of the Darien Gap to the tundra of Siberia.
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he → say → Siberia
He has been arrested, deported, broke, lost and written off more times than he can count.
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he → arrest → ?
Through it all, Bushby has been guided by wanderlust and two self-imposed rules: He would not use modes of transport to travel and he would not set foot in Britain again until the end of his journey, even though this made seeing his son more difficult.
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he → guide → son
‘The first years, you’re living the boys’ adventure dream … and then it really becomes a grind.
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it → live → dream
At a pub in south London this month, Bushby was sipping coffee in athleisure and scuffed running shoes, reminiscing before the final stretch of his quest.
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Bushby → sip → quest
“It feels like it’s one miracle after another,” he said of his journey.
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he → feel → journey
Over the past three decades, adventure came at him “like a tsunami,” he added, “and it really gives a good shellacking.”
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it → come → shellacking
The boy and the beast
Bushby began his trek in Punta Arenas in southern Chile.
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boy → begin → Chile
He had around $US500 ($711) and what he called “The Beast,” a modified golf trolley holding camping supplies, clothing, toiletries, food and water.
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he → have → supplies
On an average day, he would try to walk 28 kilometres before looking for a place to set up camp.
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he → try → camp
The first few hundred kilometres were rough, he said.
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he → say → ?
The weather could be harsh, and he mostly lived on gas station food.
uncertain
he → live → food
“We had no support,” he added.
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he → have → support
(Bushby often uses “we,” meaning himself and the trolley.
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Bushby → use → himself
“It would become my version of Wilson,” he said, referring to the volleyball companion of Tom Hanks’ character in the movie Cast Away.)
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he → become → movie
As word of his journey spread, people began to drive by to give him food and money.
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people → spread → food
During the walk, Bushby also took breaks, pausing for weeks or months to recover and escape road life, which he said was “absolutely, insanely tedious”.
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he → take → life
“The first years, you’re living the boys’ adventure dream, and it’s great,” he said, “and then it really becomes a grind.”
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it → live → dream
Bushby felt a shift in 2002, when he crossed into the United States.
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he → feel → States
He arrived in Nogales, Arizona, he said, and went from being a roadside curiosity to a nuisance or a threat.
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he → arrive → nuisance
He was often thought to be homeless, he said, “and it was not long after 9/11 at that point, so everyone was very touchy.
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everyone → think → point
He was frequently stopped by police, who kept him off highways, made him move his tent or shooed him away from public places.
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him → stop → places
The United States is also where he picked up sponsorships, including from a web hosting company and a shoe insole brand, which generated a few hundred dollars a month.
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which → pick → dollars
In 2003, he reached Canada, where he had an epiphany.
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he → reach → epiphany
For years, he had pulled his trolley, until one day – by chance – he shoved it from behind.
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he → pull → behind
“I accidentally pushed it and realised, actually, this could be easier,” he said.
uncertain
he → push → it
“From there on, I pushed it.”
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I → push → it
Over ice and into Russian custody
While he faced many challenges, perhaps none was as gruelling as the Bering Strait.
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none → face → Strait
…and 28 more, not listed.
The Aporia
