Karl Bushby has been walking across the world for 27 years. On Nov. 1, 1998, he set off from Punta Arenas in Chile. Nearly three decades later, he is back in Europe and on the final leg of his incredible journey. With just months to go, he has hit a logistical roadblock — crossing the English Channel.
When he set out on his journey, he established two rules for himself: He would only return home when the walk was complete, and he would use no form of transportation. Since then, he has crossed the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama and the Bering Strait to Siberia. He then spent years trying to cross Russia before heading into Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.
Earlier this year, he hit a huge milestone. He crossed Istanbul’s Bosphorus Bridge, officially crossing back into Europe. Since August, he has walked across Turkey and Bulgaria, and is now picking his way across Romania, but has hit a logistical snag.
His Goliath Expedition has been plagued by logistical nightmares, including visa issues, war zones, and a lack of funding. The latest issue is crossing the English Channel. Using his own rules, he cannot sail across it, so the most obvious way for a man who has been walking for 27 years is to walk through the Channel Tunnel. This is strictly forbidden. He had hoped to secure special permission to walk the 4.8m wide service tunnel used by maintenance crews, but so far, he has failed to get that clearance.
No response
His support team has made multiple attempts to contact Channel Tunnel officials, to no avail. They have not responded to his requests.
“It would be pretty miserable if it was a no. Even the Russians let me through [their country], despite world tensions,” Bushby told the BBC.
If they continue to ignore his requests or do not grant him permission to cross using the service tunnel, Bushby only has one option left — to swim the Channel. Last year, he and Angela Maxwell swam across the Caspian Sea. Again, this was not his original plan, but unable to cross from Turkmenistan into Iran, he needed to backtrack along his route to Uzbekistan, cross the Kyzylkum desert, and then swim to Azerbaijan.
The 288km swim took the pair, plus the two young Azerbaijani swimmers who joined them, 27 days. On becoming one of the first people to make the crossing, Bushby commented, “I’m definitely not a swimmer, nor do I like swimming.”
His feelings have not changed. He commented recently, “If I have to swim across, I obviously will. But it will be colder than the Caspian.”
There is still time for Bushby to get the permission he is looking for. He still has to cross Hungary, Austria, Germany, and France before reaching the Channel, but the complete lack of response so far is not promising.
