Karl Bushby Back in Europe, Begins Last Leg of Journey
Back in Turkey to finish the 27-year-long journey. Photo: Karl Bushby
Karl Bushby set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, almost 27 years ago, on Nov. 1, 1998. With a Day of the Dead parade kicking off in the background, he began with $500 in his pocket, a vague plan he came to call the Goliath Expedition, and a stubborn confidence that he could do what no one else had done before — walk around the world with no mechanical transport and not returning home until the walk is complete.
About 47,000km later, the ex-paratrooper is now back in Europe. In spring 2025, he reached Turkey, and on May 2, he strode across Istanbul’s Bosphorus Bridge, officially leaving Asia behind and stepping into Europe for the first time since 1998.
The route. Map: Karl Bushby
There, the bureaucracy that has bedeviled him time after time reared its head once again. Turkish visa restrictions forced Bushby to leave the country the day he crossed the bridge. His 90-day visa was about to expire, and he had to race to the airport to avoid running afoul of those limits. For the next three months, he waited in Mexico to be eligible to reapply for entry into Turkey.
Yesterday, he landed back in Istanbul, preparing to restart his trek. He will then pick his way across Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, and finally the UK. With home just 3,000km away, he is confident he will be back in Hull, England by September 2026.
Hurdle after hurdle
It is no surprise that the last 27 years have been plagued by such logistical hurdles. Several times — bureaucracy, the need to cross war zones, lack of funding, and a pandemic — he has had to pause his walk until he could set off again. His rules allowed him to fly to a holding area, often Mexico, and wait until he could overcome whatever stopped him from continuing.
He survived the infamous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, trudging through mud and jungle to emerge weeks later in Panama, where he was briefly detained. From here, he crossed Central America and the United States. In 2006, he and fellow adventurer Dimitri Kieffer made international headlines when they crossed the frozen Bering Strait on foot, leaping between bobbing ice floes and braving bitter Arctic winds, only to be arrested upon reaching Siberia.
Years of diplomatic wrangling followed as he tried to get permission to walk across Russia, which would take him much longer than a three-month tourist visa allowed. Intervention by figures as highly placed as British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich helped keep the expedition alive. Finally, in 2014, he received the coveted permission. From Russia, he crossed through Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan — another hard one. Here, his journey once again ground to a halt. He could not get a visa for Iran, and then COVID struck.
Photo: Karl Bushby
A long interlude, an unusual solution
So it was back to Mexico. He spent the next few years there, eventually coming up with a plan that morphed into the most unexpected leg of his journey. Bushby swam the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan with fellow walker Angela Maxwell. It was the only way he could continue the journey without setting foot in Iran.
Crossing the Caspian Sea. Photo: Karl Bushby
He doubled back to Uzbekistan and then walked across the Kyzylkum Desert to the Caspian Sea. He then swam 288km in stages to Azerbaijan, although he admitted that swimming was not his forte. A relieved Bushby then started walking again.
One last obstacle remains, which may prove as daunting as the Darien Gap or the Bering Strait. To complete his walk, Bushby must somehow cross the English Channel. He does not want to swim it, sailing is not an option because under his self-imposed rules, sailing qualifies as mechanized, and walking through the Channel Tunnel is prohibited. His only chance is to secure special authorization to use the 4.8m-wide service tunnel reserved for maintenance crews.
Speaking to BBC Radio this summer, Bushby admitted that the end of his odyssey fills him with as much uncertainty as excitement.
“Getting home, I just don’t know, it’s weird,” he said. “It’s a very strange place to be in, where suddenly your purpose for living will have a hard stop. I’m hoping to transition into other things as quickly as possible, keeping mind, body and soul on the move.”
As for his family, he recognizes that the reunion will be bittersweet: “It will be about getting to know each other again.”
News
THIS IS NO LONGER JUST A CRASH… IT’S A GOODBYE THAT’S BREAKING A NATION The remains of the two Air Canada pilots killed at LaGuardia have made their final journey home, captured on video that’s moving people to tears across Canada and beyond. In Coteau-du-Lac, grief has taken over as friends remember Captain Antoine Forest. The Air Line Pilots Association’s tribute is now traveling far, reminding everyone of the human cost behind the headlines. But for the families left behind, this return carries a disturbing finality — the kind of loss that hits different when it’s two young pilots who never got to finish their story. How do you even begin to heal from something like this? The biggest questions remain unanswered. 📌 Full story in the comments
Bodies of pilots who died in collision at LaGuardia Airport repatriated to Canada!n The bodies of the two Air Canada pilots who died in a collision on a runway at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday have returned to Canada. Pilots carried the casket of Jazz Aviation first officer Mackenzie Gunther off a plane at the Ottawa […]
EJECTED 320 FEET FROM A DEADLY RUNWAY CRASH… AND SHE’S STILL HERE. Solange Tremblay, a 26-year flight attendant, was working the late flight into New York’s LaGuardia when disaster struck. The plane hit a fire truck, instantly killing the two pilots in the cockpit. Solange was launched out of the aircraft still buckled in her jump seat, landing far down the tarmac. Her injuries are brutal — two shattered legs, fractured spine, missing skin, and the constant threat of infection. She faces multiple surgeries and intensive rehab just to stand again. Her family calls it a miracle… but the unexpected twist everyone keeps asking about is how she survived when the cockpit was obliterated. 📌 Full story in the comments
Flight attendant thrown from Air Canada plane survives in a ‘total miracle’ The pilots of an Air Canada flight are dead after a plane collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. (CNN, FNTV, THIRD PARTY) NEW YORK (AP) — A flight attendant still strapped in her seat survived being thrown from an […]
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM… INSTEAD HE ENDED THEIR LIVES. On June 15, 2023, a father in Ohio allegedly murdered his three young sons — 7, 4, and 3 years old. Their mom tried to shield them and got hurt in the process. Only their 14-year-old sister managed to run out and alert authorities. The boys were the kind of kids everyone loved — always smiling, always playing baseball. Now prosecutors are pushing for the death penalty… but the darkest question still lingers: What was really going on behind the walls of that house? 📌 Full story in the comments
Ohio Father Chad Doerman Case: The Day Three Young Lives Were Lost and a Community Searched for Answers Chad Doerman, a 32-year-old father from Monroe Township, Ohio, has been indicted on multiple charges after the brutal deaths of his three young sons. The shocking incident occurred on June 15, 2023, when Doerman allegedly shot and […]
THE FINAL ACTION THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING… Sources close to the investigation say it lasted only seconds… A single input. A sudden correction. Then silence… followed by chaos in the cabin. Passengers described confusion, not panic—at least at first. Which makes investigators focus even more on what happened upfront. Was it human error… or something deeper? The details are more disturbing than expected… 📌 Full story in the comments SAY YES IF YOU WANT TO READ THE FULL STORY ⬇️💬
Investigators focused on air-control staffing, final minutes of cockpit audio before LaGuardia collision: NTSB ‘Many, many things’ would have gone wrong for such a major incident to happen, board chair says National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators on Tuesday inspect the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet that collided with a fire truck at […]
HE GOT HUNDREDS OF YEARS… BUT IT CHANGED NOTHING. The sentence was heavy… one of the longest in recent memory. Investigators say justice was finally served—on paper. But for many, it came far too late. Because this story didn’t start with evidence… It started with a voice that was ignored. And now, one question won’t go away— How many lives could’ve been different if someone had listened? 📌 Full story in the comments
Marc O’Leary: The Serial Rapist Who Terrorized for 3 Years—All Because One Victim Was Ignored There are cases that disturb because of what was done… and there are cases that haunt because of what could have been stopped. The story of Marc O’Leary sits painfully between both. Starting in 2008, O’Leary would go on to […]
SHE DARED HIM TO DO IT… AND HE NEVER CAME BACK It was Michael Brown? The 22-year-old from that viral Jeep video… He was dancing on top of a moving vehicle during spring break—like it was nothing. But sources say it wasn’t just for fun… it was a challenge from a girl he liked. She allegedly promised to be his if he succeeded. He took the risk… the crash happened… and now he’s gone. What’s haunting people most—she’s already with someone else. 📌 Full story in the comments
Spring Break tragedy in Texas: 22-year-old Michael Brown dies after viral twerking Jeep stunt crash; driver Riley Rhoades arrested r/world24x7hr/reddit | Michael Brown caught on viral video twerking on top of a speeding SUV has died. The 22-year-old Michael Brown was filmed performing on top of a moving vehicle, has died from injuries sustained in […]
End of content
No more pages to load
