Karl BushbyBook Karl

The LongestJourney Home

Karl Bushby left Chile in 1998, headed home to the UK with only two rules: no transport to advance, and no going home until he arrived on foot.

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Begin the journey
Distance49,110 kmas of 6 June 2026
Chile1998
England2026
A closing window

The walk ends in England this autumn, after nearly three decades in motion. Book the months around the finish and your room watches the story close in real time. That window does not repeat.

Book Karl to Speak
01

The Story

Twenty-eight years, one line on the earth.

The ex-paratrooper from Kingston upon Hull, England, had never done anything quite like this. Who had? On the first of November 1998 he walked out of Punta Arenas, Chile with a few hundred dollars in his pocket, turned north for home, and stepped onto the line. A line drawn on a map: four continents, a frozen sea, deserts, mountains, jungles, and over 50,000 km of unknown.

The plan never changed: keep walking, swim when he must, until the line reaches his mother's front door. No transport to advance. No compromising the route. Stay on mission, get home. Nearly three decades later the line remains unbroken and the mission is almost complete. 900 km remain, and the last geographical obstacle: the English Channel.

A journey defined by two rules

Rule one

No transport to advance

Rule two

No going home, except on foot

Kept, both of them, for ten thousand days.

02

The Journey

It began as a line drawn on a map. The route fought back the whole way: jungles, wars, frozen worlds, closed borders, love, crises, and pandemics. The world will throw everything at you.

  • Walked
  • Remaining

Where he is nowBelgium. One stretch of water remains: the English Channel, twenty-one miles between him and home.

  1. 1998

    South America

    The boys' adventure dream. From the first days the environment pushed back, and the kindness of strangers prevailed. Karl held thirty-kilometre days through the driest deserts on earth and the thin air of the high Andes, the game of survival won one meal at a time.

    Karl Bushby in the early years of the walk, hauling his cart along an empty desert highway in South America.
  2. 2001

    The Darién Gap

    Two hundred kilometres of one of the world's most unforgiving jungles, a war zone on the Colombia–Panama border. The British press called it one of the darkest places on Earth, and it had the body count as proof. A two-month saga of survival and evasion: the Gap met every expectation.

    Karl Bushby resting on the jungle floor in the Darién Gap, mud-caked and exhausted, dense rainforest around him.
  3. 2002

    North America

    North America began in heat. From the +50°C of the Mojave the world kept punching, and Karl kept walking north, proving mile after mile that he was in this for real.

    Karl Bushby with his Goliath Expedition cart on arid scrubland in Mexico, dry hills rising behind him.
  4. 2004

    The Road North

    Up through the Canadian Rockies and on toward Alaska, the cart rolling north. Every border crossed on foot, every season a negotiation, the far edge of the continent finally in sight.

    Karl Bushby hauling his cart along an empty highway through the Canadian Rockies, snow-capped peaks ahead.
  5. 2006

    The Bering Strait

    The impossible crossing. Better men had tried; none had made it. Days on moving pack ice between Alaska and Russia, hauling sled-boats across water and ice that wanted him gone.

    Karl Bushby in a survival suit among broken pack ice on the Bering Strait crossing, his sled-boats beside him.
  6. 2006

    Reaching Russia

    No one had walked from the Americas to Russia in recorded history. He had. The far shore reached and the flag raised at Uelen, the consequences of being first lit a geopolitical firestorm.

    Karl Bushby and his crossing partner in fur hats and survival suits, holding the Goliath Expedition flag after reaching Uelen, Russia.
  7. 2007

    The Frozen Years

    Across the Russian Arctic in ninety-day visa windows: advance, leave, come back, advance again. Whole years passed with the route creeping forward one season at a time.

  8. 2014

    The Closed Door

    Russia refused the visa, then barred him for years. He kept walking anyway, back across the United States, to make his case in Washington.

    Karl Bushby pushing his cart along a roadside in the United States, traffic passing on a summer highway.
  9. 2016

    Mongolia

    Deep into Central Asia on the old roads: Mongolian camel caravans, the Silk Road, the long haul toward Samarkand.

    Karl Bushby kneeling beside his cart on the frozen, wind-scoured Mongolian steppe under a pale winter sky.
  10. 2018

    China

    The second of two great geopolitical tests. China watched every step, and the route threaded through on its terms, not his.

    Karl Bushby walking out of a concrete underpass toward distant mountains in China, his cart and kit beside him.
  11. 2019

    The Wall

    The road through Asia crashed into the Iranian wall of geopolitics. No appeal, no route, no engine allowed. On the Kazakh steppe, he began to study the water.

    Karl Bushby beside his tent on the Kazakh steppe, watching forked lightning split a darkening pink sky.
  12. 2020

    The World Stops

    A pandemic froze the route for four years. He waited, off the route, and did not go home.

  13. 2024

    The Caspian Sea

    Trapped on the wrong side of the Caspian, unable to go north or south. Karl was left with one option: he and his team would swim three hundred kilometres, thirty days at sea, to Azerbaijan.

    Aerial view of Karl Bushby swimming the Caspian Sea in a wetsuit, alone in turquoise open water.
  14. 2025

    Europe

    Victory on the horizon, so close and still so far. From thousands of kilometres to hundreds. Having walked alone for the last time, he turns to the final geographic challenge: the English Channel.

03

Ten Thousand Days

Ten thousand sunrises and sunsets, witnessed from every landscape imaginable: moonrises over oceans, mountains, and deserts. I carried the dreams of ten million people with me, on the unforgettable life that is the road.

  1. 75,000,000steps · by estimate
  2. 1 ½laps of the Earth, nearly
  3. 10,000+days away from home
  4. 25countries on the route
  5. 2rules, unbroken
To the Strangers

If nothing else, this journey has shone a bright light on the nature of humanity. From the first days to now, every culture, every nation, every people has shown the very best of us. I have not done this alone — the whole world has been my support network. From the impoverished to the wealthy, from family and friends to nation states, each has played a part in keeping me upright and moving forward: nursing me back to health when I was sick, feeding and watering me on my worst days. Despite the horror of the 24-hour news cycle, the reality is we are worth the fight. Whatever challenges we face, whatever your estimate of the odds, my money is on us, every time.

“We” is what gets me across the finish line

04

The Work

Keynotes for serious rooms. Partners for the final stretch. A straight answer for press and rights.

01
For leadership teams & conferences

Corporate Keynotes

A story about staying with one thing for nearly three decades, told by the man who did it. For rooms that have heard every resilience speech and believed none of them.

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For brands & partners

Sponsor-Backed Public Events

The last miles of a walk that began in 1998 happen exactly once. Cities, venues, and brands can put their name beside them.

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For press & producers

Media, Podcasts & Rights

Interviews and podcasts: usually yes, and quickly. Documentary, archive, and film rights: a longer conversation, had carefully.

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Bring Karl to your stage

The walk ends this autumn, and the months around the finish book once. Tell us the room, the city, and the timing, and you will get a straight answer on fit, dates, and fee. The inquiry takes two minutes.

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