Karl Bushby's Goliath Expedition: Punta Arenas to Hull

On 1 November 1998 Karl Bushby set off from Punta Arenas, Chile, at the southern tip of South America. The Goliath Expedition aimed to walk "with unbroken footsteps" all the way home to Hull, England. He left Hull on 5 October 1998 and expected the 36,000-mile (58,000 km) trek to take 12 years. Numerous delays stretched it to roughly 28. From here the road ran north through Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

Entering Central America meant crossing the inhospitable Darién Gap. Many locals expected Bushby to be killed or abducted by the FARC, who viewed all foreigners as potentially part of the US-backed Plan Colombia. He evaded the guerrillas and entered Panama in February 2001, though he then spent 18 days in a jail in Metetí for crossing without a visa.

Location precision: The route through the jungle is not documented; the pin marks the Darién region on the Panama side.

On 29 April 2002 Bushby left Mexico and entered the United States at Nogales, Arizona. The US brought paperwork trouble: his 90-day visa expired in Las Vegas, so he flew back to Bogotá for a six-month visa and resumed in August. On New Year's Day 2003, a day from the Canadian border, his handcart was stolen from outside a bar in Toole County, Montana.

Location precision: The pin marks Nogales; the Montana and Las Vegas episodes happened elsewhere along the US leg.

Bushby meant to leave Fairbanks, Alaska, and cross the frozen Bering Strait in the winter of 2005. He made it only as far as Unalakleet before spring arrived and his US visa ran out again. By 2006 he had covered over 17,000 miles (27,000 km), walking the length of South, Central and North America.

Location precision: The pin marks Unalakleet, the furthest point reached before the thaw.

Between 17 and 31 March 2006, Bushby and French adventurer Dimitri Kieffer crossed the Bering Strait on foot. The strait is 58 miles (93 km) wide, but ice forced a roundabout 14-day route over a frozen 150-mile (240 km) stretch from Alaska to Siberia. Russian border troops detained them near the Chukotkan village of Uelen for entering at the wrong place. An appeal court upheld his application in May 2006 and the walk went on.

Location precision: The ice route is not mapped; the pin marks Uelen, near where they were detained.

Siberian visas lasted 90 days, and the tundra could be walked only over frozen rivers and ice roads in late winter and early spring. On 25 April 2011, after about 680 miles (1,100 km), Bushby reached the town of Srednekolymsk, ending that year's leg. Visa refusals followed in 2012, a five-year ban in 2013, and a protest walk across the US to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. The ban was later overturned.

Location precision: The pin marks Srednekolymsk, where the 2011 leg ended.

Bushby crossed the Russia–Mongolia border in 2017 and on 8 August 2017 was in Ulaanbaatar. In 2018 he entered China and walked through the Xinjiang region, where local authorities restricted his progress; after British Embassy intervention he continued under restrictions and police escort. He then entered Kazakhstan, crossed into Uzbekistan in early June 2019 and reached the Turkmenistan–Iran border, where visa problems and COVID-19 halted him.

Location precision: The pin marks Ulaanbaatar; the later Chinese and Central Asian legs are not pinned.

In August 2024 Bushby began swimming the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan, aiming for Azerbaijan to avoid Iran and Russia, both too dangerous for a British passport. With co-swimmer Angela Maxwell and two Azerbaijani swimmers, he swam two 3-hour sessions a day, sleeping on support boats. The 179-mile (288 km) crossing took 31 days and 132 swimming hours.

Location precision: The pin marks the middle of the Caspian; the swim's exact line is not given.

From Azerbaijan Bushby went to Turkey in 2025 and crossed the Bosphorus Strait into Europe. In September 2025 he finished crossing Turkey and entered Bulgaria, and thus the Schengen Area. By October 2025 he was in Romania, 1,375 miles (2,213 km) from the United Kingdom.

Location precision: The pin marks the Bosphorus; the precise crossing point is not given.

On 15 November 2025 Bushby arrived in Budapest, planning to continue to Vienna. Post-Brexit Schengen rules limited his stay to 90 days in 180, so he had to leave the zone. In 2026 he waited out his allowance in Mexico, returned to Hungary, and by early June had reached Belgium. Eurotunnel then refused him access to the Channel Tunnel.

Location precision: The pin marks Budapest; he passed through several countries before and after.

With special permission from the French government, Bushby swam the English Channel and reached the UK on 5 October 2026, exactly 28 years after he left Hull. He stepped onto Shakespeare Beach, south of Dover, after about four days of swimming and resting on support boats. His father Keith Bushby and filmmaker Werner Herzog welcomed him. The team kept the time and place secret for safety.

Bushby reached his home town of Hull on 2 November 2026, completing the Goliath Expedition. He had left on 5 October 1998, hoping to finish in 12 years; it took about 28, through the Darién Gap, over the frozen Bering Strait, across Siberia and Mongolia, and over two stretches of open water. The walk ends in the city the journey left in 1998.

Location precision: The pin marks Hull city centre; the exact finishing spot is not given.