Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Oct 13

Karl Bushby Returns to England After 28-Year, 36,000-Mile Walk Across 29 Countries

Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Oct 13

Karl Bushby Returns to England After 28-Year, 36,000-Mile Walk Across 29 Countries

Q: He began with just a few hundred dollars; how did this adventurer fund a continuous 28-year walk across 29 different countries?

Bushby financed the walk piecemeal over time, not from the few hundred dollars he started with. By his own account, he left Chile in 1998 with about $500 and no backers, then survived the early years very cheaply, especially in Latin America, while relying heavily on the kindness of strangers for food, shelter and practical help. As the expedition gained attention, he began turning the journey itself into income. He has said he funded later stages through book sales, speaking engagements, donations from supporters and sponsorship deals. Coverage from recent reports also says a documentary production company supported him for roughly the last 16 years, and filmmaker Werner Herzog is now documenting the expedition. At key points, larger sponsors helped cover especially expensive stretches. Bushby has said that once he reached the U.S. border and had built a following, he started getting offers and small deals, and later secured more substantial backing, including funding from Time Warner for the Alaska and Bering Strait phase. That support was not steady: the 2008 financial crisis reportedly cost him sponsors and left him stranded for periods, adding years to the trip. So the short answer is that he did not self-fund 28 years from his original savings. He kept the expedition alive through a mix of extreme frugality, public support, media-related income, corporate sponsorships and documentary backing, with strangers’ help often bridging the gaps.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 13

36,000 miles after leaving in 1998, Karl Bushby is back in England and has begun the final leg toward Hull, aiming to arrive on Nov. 1 — the anniversary of his departure.
Bushby says the trek stretched from a planned 12 years to 28 because of visa bans, wars, the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic and his refusal to compromise on a no-transport route.
29 countries and several extreme crossings defined the journey, including a modern-era foot crossing of the Bering Strait and a 21-mile Channel swim that took 20 hours over three days.
The expedition set a longest unbroken foot-journey record and would make Bushby the first person to walk continuously across the world when he reaches home.
At 57, Bushby says finishing the mission is unsettling as much as triumphant, with a documentary, a book and paid talks likely to shape life after the walk.