British adventurer Karl Bushby has gotten his steps in for a lifetime.
He left the southern tip of Chile with a mission: to walk an unbroken path to his hometown in England. He had two rules: no use of transportation to advance and no returning home to England until he reached it on foot.
His record-breaking mission was inspired by a birthday card his father had given him, recounting a conversation between two UK Special Forces members. They'd argued over whether it was possible to walk from London to New York via the Bering Strait.
Bushby decided to try it himself – and to go even farther.
Now, what he's called "The Goliath Expedition" is drawing to a close. Bushby recently swam the English Channel, after being denied access to walk the Channel Tunnel, and has returned to U.K. soil for the first time in 28 years.
"I'd like to drag it out longer if I could," Bushby told Morning Edition host A Martinez.
Bushby said he aims to return to his mother's home in Hull, England, by Nov. 1.
Between 2000 and 2001, his journey took him through the Darién Gap, a notoriously difficult and dense jungle between Panama and Colombia. There are no roads or paths – and at the time, the region resembled a war zone
"Between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia fighting the Colombian government and the right wing paramilitaries," Bushby said. "And then you've got the cartels and the cocaine plantations in that jungle being defended by the guerrillas."
He crossed the Bering Strait in 2006. The narrow sea ice wall connects Alaska and Russia.
It took 14 days to cross the 58 mile strait. Bushby called it the "crux of the entire journey."
He said he was always conscious of what was out there in the dark. As he slept, he'd hear a "cacophony of noise" as the ice on which he rested broke down all night.
"It's a scary environment, just crushed ice and water and extreme temperatures," Bushby said. "Very dynamic, very unpredictable. Polar bear dream, but a human nightmare."
The expedition hit snags along the way. The 2007-2008 financial crisis resulted in the loss of financial sponsorships to fund the trip. Russia denied a visa for him to enter the country in 2012. He swam the Caspian Sea in 2024 after other land routes into Europe were shut.
There's also the toll it's taken on his relationships. Bushby has seen his mother and son only a handful of times over the past 28 years as they met up with him along his journey. He has a granddaughter he's never met.
"There's people that you care for the most in the world that pay a price for your antics and for your ambitions," Bushby said. "That can be a heavy cross to bear. It gets heavier over time."
He says people sometimes ask him for advice on how to take long journeys.
"I always tell them, keep it within a reasonable time frame," he said. "Go have your adventure but if you do longer than five years or more, then you've got to be prepared [for] the fact that it's going to start to mess with your relationships and your families on a deep level."
His definition of home has changed over the years of travel. At times, he said, other places in Mexico and Colombia have felt more like home.
"I'm in my home country, but for me this is just another country," Bushby said. "I'm learning this country again. I'm in the process of reestablishing myself here."
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