Karl Bushby in Turkey in November, 2025, 27 years into his Goliath Expedition odessy. Karl Bushby, 56, a British ex-paratrooper who left the tip of South America in 1998 to walk around the world without using motorised transport, is in Europe on the final leg of his “Goliath Expedition”. Along the way, Bushby spent two months negotiating the dangerous Darién Gap between North and South America – a remote jungle known for its perilous terrain, and drug cartels and criminals.
He also spent two weeks crossing the shifting ice of the Bering Strait, armed with a rifle to fend off polar bears. And after becoming stuck on the east coast of the Caspian Sea due to being unable to enter Russia or Iran, he opted to swim across it – taking 31 days to do so, with the aid of the Kazakhstan coastguard and two members of its national swimming team. He is due to arrive home in Hull, UK around September/October 2026 – by which point he will have spent almost exactly half of his life walking around the planet.
