How did Karl Bushby walk from Patagonia to Hull without using any transport?

Former British paratrooper Karl Bushby set out from southern Chilean Patagonia 28 years ago to walk to his mother's home in Hull without any form of transport. A trip planned for 12 years stretched to 28 because of sponsorship gaps, a global financial crisis and border trouble. Where the land runs out he crossed on foot or swam: the Bering Strait over sea ice, the Caspian Sea and the English Channel.

• Bushby and a fellow adventurer were the first people in recorded history to cross the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia on foot.
• He swam the Channel after the Channel Tunnel refused to let him walk its service tunnel.
• Bushby said Russia wanted to jail him for five years and China almost banned him.
• Werner Herzog is making a documentary about him, and he plans to focus next on science literacy.

▸In their words

“I've met 99.999% of the very best of humanity.” Karl Bushby · at 16:50 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

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