The adventurer and former paratrooper is nearing the tip of his epic hike residence to England—however along with his plan to stroll by the Channel Tunnel sunk, he is likely to be in for a giant swim.
(Photograph: Anadolu / Contributor by way of Getty)
Printed June 17, 2026 07:08PM
The place most thru-hikers spend six months or much less chasing their objectives, Karl Bushby has been strolling for 28 years. Now, on the house stretch, he’s now dealing with one in all his journey’s largest obstacles.
By any customary, almost three many years is a ridiculously lengthy period of time to spend on a single stroll. When Bushby set off from Punta Arenas, Chile, on November 1, 1998, on what he known as the Goliath Expedition, Invoice Clinton was president, and the buyer web was extra of a novelty than a staple within the common particular person’s life. (I didn’t get to cowl the start of Bushby’s stroll as a result of, sadly, I had simply turned 10.)
Over the previous three many years, Bushby has walked tens of hundreds of miles, mountaineering the Americas south to north, and crossing the frozen Bering Strait into Russia (and getting detained by border authorities for his hassle). He spent years untangling visa points that threatened to sink the whole enterprise. As Invoice Donahue wrote in his 2012 Backpacker characteristic on Bushby, “The Lengthy Means Dwelling,” the previous British paratrooper has steadfastly refused to both use transportation to make ahead progress or go to his childhood residence in Hull, England, till he reaches it with unbroken footsteps and swim strokes.
The most recent, and sure final, problem got here up earlier this week. On June 16, the authority answerable for the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK and France introduced that it will not permit Bushby to finish his stroll by mountaineering by its service tunnel. Bushby had beforehand voiced hope that he would be capable of entry the tunnel to bypass the English Channel, the final main geographic impediment between him and the tip of his expedition. However chatting with the BBC, a spokesperson for Eurotunnel, the authority answerable for administering the tunnel, stated that “regretfully [Eurotunnel was] unable to accommodate Mr Bushby’s needs.”
“The Channel Tunnel’s Service Tunnel is a devoted security and upkeep route,” Eurotunnel stated. “Closing the Service Tunnel for a interval of 15 hours, or over two days, would pose a security threat to passenger companies and influence important upkeep work.”
Whereas Bushby instructed the BBC that he and his workforce had been nonetheless processing the information, the denial appears to go away him with only one technique to get residence by the principles of his expedition: swim the Channel.
“I could have to begin paddling once more,” he stated.
It wouldn’t be the primary time that Bushby has needed to swim his means round an impediment. Moreover tackling stretches of open water throughout his Bering crossing, Bushby swam 179 miles throughout the Caspian Sea in 2024 to keep away from having to stroll by Iran or Russia. Your entire crossing took him 31 days, throughout which period he swam 6 hours a day and rested on a assist boat at evening.
Bushby expects to achieve Calais in September; from there, relying on whether or not he can persuade Eurotunnel to reverse its resolution, it’s both a simple 31-mile stroll or a grueling swim of about the identical distance to English shores. What’s ready for him on the opposite facet? His mom, childhood residence, and (we’re guessing) a Goliath-size case of the post-thru-hike blues are ready for him, for starters. Past that, it’s anybody’s guess.
“Karl Bushby refused to half along with his grand plan, and the diagram of his life displays that call. He has skilled moments of triumph, to make certain, however he has additionally paid dearly for his stubbornness, as have others round him. When he set out on his hike virtually 14 years in the past, he left behind an eight-year-old son. Alongside the way in which, in Colombia, he met “the one girl who ever mattered to me.” They’re not collectively, although, and now Bushby passes the time in limbo right here in Melaque. He’s accountable to nothing however his dream. However does this make him the last word inspiration for journey visionaries? Is Karl Bushby a latter-day Thoreau who dared to stay intentionally? Or is he as a substitute a tragic case of arrested growth: a freeloader who has did not see that even one of the best hikes should finish?”
