After 50,000 km, British walker faces final hurdle

After 28 years and 50,000 km, British adventurer Karl Bushby faces one hurdle in his bid to trek home from South America without using transport: the Channel.
“We thought we got permission to swim from the coast of France. Turned out that is not the case,” the former paratrooper told AFP while walking towards Cap Blanc-Nez in northern France, within sight of England’s white cliffs.
“There was some internal confusion. So, right now we’re scrambling in kind of semi-panicked state.”
Bushby, 57, had hoped to walk through a service corridor in the Channel Tunnel, but said authorities appeared “set against” the idea.
He instead resigned himself to swimming from Calais, despite hating it.
“I say I swim like a cat dropped in a bathtub. It’s not funny. It’s bad. But you just do what you’ve got to do,” he said.
Earlier in his journey, he spent 30 days crossing the Caspian Sea by swimming and floating, resting on a boat without advancing.
He hopes to secure permission to cross the Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, before October 1, when winter weather would make the attempt too risky.
Setting off in November 1998, Bushby imposed two rules: never use transport to advance and return home, near Hull in northern England, only on foot.
He pushes a cart carrying his belongings, nicknamed “the Beast”.
His journey has been interrupted repeatedly. Moscow long refused him a visa after he crossed the Bering Strait between Alaska and far eastern Russia on foot, something he says nobody had previously done.
Visa difficulties, the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic account for 14 of his 28 years on the road, he estimates.
During those interruptions, he lived elsewhere, including Mexico, before resuming at the exact point where he had stopped.
Approaching England, Bushby recalls the early adventure nostalgically, particularly his trek through the Andes and the difficult crossing of the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama.
“Then slowly but surely it becomes a job. You get older, it gets harder,” he said.
A documentary about his journey is in preparation. Once home, he plans to focus on the film and giving talks.
“I’ve got to try and get established in the grown up world again, because I’m going to arrive home with nothing,” he said.
But first, he must find a way across the Channel, the last barrier between him and the home he left nearly three decades ago.
“I think we can work it out. If not, I’m living in France for the rest of my life!” he said. — AFP