Karl Bushby wants to go home, but he has to walk across Russia in order to get there.
In 1998, the then 29-year-old British paratrooper began walking from Punta Arenas, Chile, carrying everything he owned in a cart called ‘The Beast,’ with a few hundred dollars in his wallet.
Since then, he has crossed the Andes in Patagonia and spanned the deserts of Peru. He’s survived jungles in Colombia and silently navigated ominous South American military zones. He has floated out to sea on islands of ice and skied the Bering Straight into Russia, logging 20,000 miles, with 15,000 more to go.
And he does it all for the challenge.
“There’s no nicely packaged one-liner,” Bushby said. “‘Why?’ is the most common question, and it’s probably the most difficult to answer. Once you get it under your skin, you can’t let go of it.”
After being picked up without proper permits to enter Russia, he was detained in a Siberian village for 58 days, then received a five-year ban from returning to the country to continue his odyssey.
Now, with support from filmmakers in Los Angeles, he’s walking across America to arrive at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he will plead for his visa in person.
Bushby said he always dreamed of walking across continents, but it wasn’t until his father, also a member of the British special forces, sent him a birthday card revealing that the Bering Straight could be done.
“Once I had drawn that on the map,” he said, “boom, that was it. That’s the whole damn world. I can remember going cold and clammy looking at the route. This is something worth committing your whole life to.”
He follows just two rules: forward progress may only be made by walking, and he will only return home on foot.
“So, that’s it,” he said. “The whole point is to create a continuous foot path from the tip of South America all the way back to London.”
Bushby, now 44, with a sun-kissed complexion, boyish eyes and inviting laugh, said the biggest hardships are behind him.
Images of incomprehensible blisters on his feet dot his social media sites, which he started using only recently at the request of his sponsors.
A recent stop in Vegas offered comforts, but he said what he really needs are waterproof bags and maybe a sleeping bag liner.
He has eaten prepackaged and planned meals for a better part of 15 years.
“I have enough,” he said. “I’m pretty good.”
Heading toward Wolf Creek Pass, he is aware of what lies ahead, but considering his previous travels, he’ll take it in lieu of guerrilla armies, jungle river basins or Arctic blizzards.
Crossing the infamous war-torn Darian Gap between Colombia and Panama was no small feat, physically or emotionally, for Bushby.
“I remember reaching the end of that jungle in Colombia, after hacking through it for 10 days,” he said. “I just sat and sobbed like a child. I was done.”
In Alaska he twice drifted off shore, once surrounded by sea lions, before winds blew him back to land. The other time, while he was traveling with a famed French adventure racer, they pitched a tent during a two-day storm and woke up 30 miles out to sea.
“The Arctic is pretty scary,” he said.
Bushby said his adventure inspires others, but the real message is the generosity he finds in the world.
“I’ve come across people living on the side of the road in Peru, and they’ve got a shack made out of car doors strung together,” he said. They’d just be overwhelmed to feed me a bowl of rice.”
He said kindness is everywhere.
“That didn’t change in South America, North America or Russia,” he said. “From the poorest of the pot to the richest of the rich.”
If he is awarded his visa to return to Russia, he will continue east across China and Mongolia. Then, he wants to go south, through Iran.
“A lot of people freak out, and I have my own concerns,” he said. “But from what I’ve gathered, I will see the same thing I’ve seen in other parts of the world.”
Amid what he calls an amazing experience, he hasn’t lost sight of his goal.
“Whatever I’m doing,” he said, “it’s all about getting home. And that won’t change.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com
On the net
Follow Karl Bushby’s journey: www.bushby3000.com
