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He set out to walk around the world. After 27 years, his quest is nearly over
- mitchbob 10mo agohttps://archive.ph/2025.12.09-165741/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2025/12/05/karl-bushby-walk-around-world/ https://archive.ph/2025.12.09-165741/https://www.washingtonp...
- bolasanibk 10mo agoIt was not one continuous hike. He takes frequent breaks. But travels back to where he last stopped and continues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby Still very impressive, but a little less impressive than I first thought.
- keiferski 10mo agoI don’t really think this would be possible given the nature of visas. Many countries require you to apply for a visa from your country of residence, not merely the nearest embassy. I guess with infinite funds he could fly back and forth to handle that, but doesn’t seem practical.
- rimeice 10mo agoBig community of people who motorbike around the world non-stop. It’s definitely possible to prepare beforehand and actually more admin getting a vehicle through borders.
- alexey-salmin 10mo agoBiking is faster, you can arrange for all visas for 6 months in advance but not for years. Even for 6 months to have them all approved with no gaps requires either a lot of luck or a very strong passport or both.
- LorenPechtel 10mo agoYeah, it used to be that you could get a visa from the local embassy of the country you were currently in. These days, not so much. There are a lot more obstacles to long duration travel now--there are not enough long duration travelers for the system to be set up for it.
- hn_throwaway_99 10mo agoIt would be impossible to do without taking breaks, as explained in the article: > Due to visa limits, Bushby has had to break up his walk. In Europe, he can stay for only 90 days before leaving for 90, so he flies to Mexico to rest and then returns to resume the route. Given that he literally swam across the Caspian Sea in order to avoid Russia and Iran because of legal issues, nevermind bring imprisoned in Russia due to what sounded like bureaucratic BS, it's more impressive than I first thought.
- reisse 10mo agoFrom Wiki: > They were detained by Russian border troop officers while they were crossing the Russian border near the Chukotkan village of Uelen, for not entering Russia at a correct port of entry. Illegal border crossing is absolutely not bureaucratic BS in any country.
- tennisflyi 10mo agoVery common hiking technique - section hiking
- ericmcer 10mo agoTotally valid if you are just doing like the PCT in sections for fun, but for a sponsored grand adventure that you write books about I don't think section hiking is valid.
- ericmcer 10mo agoI was gonna say the same, it sounds like he did 17k miles in his first 8 years. That sounds tremendously far but it works out to ~5 miles a day. So either he was only walking for 2-3 hours a day or he was only walking every couple days. After that he really slows down to a crawl and has long periods away from the trail entirely. Whats crazy is that he doesn't like... go home to visit his son and family or try to somehow help the people in his life, he just goes to South America until he can continue. The fact that when he was forced to take extended (3mo+) breaks he still refused to go home is a bit telling.
- hi41 10mo agoDoes anyone know of he has a wife and kids? Such a trekking lifestyle would be very difficult with a family.
- compounding_it 10mo ago>The world is a much kinder, nicer place than it often seems. I realize that a lot these days. People are not inherently so bad but greed is a nasty drug that has the potential to ruin the best. When you have nothing to offer but kindness and compassion, it is very simple to see the humanity side of things in this world and it can feel really amazing.
- Panzer04 10mo agoIdk, people are usually nice in my experience. News, forum opinions and youtube videos are not remotely representative of how things work in real life.
- keepamovin 10mo agoWhy do you think that is? The reality distortion field of the internet I mean
- survirtual 10mo agoA group of very mentally ill, insecure people with a lot of material wealth control the internet and media. They get to write the narrative. We can analyze just one small tool in the belt of narrative control: censoring. If you've been warned or banned on Reddit, you can imagine how this works. If you've said something against the mold of what they allow, you will get censored. With so many people commenting, some subset of people will always say what you want to see. You censor or derank opinions you don't want, and boost opinions you want. This is a defensible form of writing a narrative without actually having to artificially write anything. Of course with AI, you can now just write anything and seed ideas. Give such sick people the reigns, and you get a false reality has little connection to what's really happening.
- keepamovin 10mo agoOK, but applying the idea from critical legal theory that "the purpose of the law is the protect status quo power" to mental health to infer that diagnoses must similarly reinforce archetypes with social/economic/political utility for the system - how does that gel with the idea that people capable of aquiring great wealth (a measure of 'system utility') are highly mentally ill? Aside from that, I'm not saying you're wrong or right about that theory, I'm just wondering how it falls down around that idea. On this topic of interenet behavior, maybe I'm not really sure or maybe I am, but my view is it's less about some sort of diempowering imposition of external/elite evil upon a innocent and good mass population, but rather about the medium itself enabling latent negativities in the populus to surface. Which doesn't mean the population is itself not good and innocent - it is also multifaceted. Thus, such dynamics might operate in a "Stanford Prison Experiment" kind of "cover and permission" way. My view of many of these dynamics are its more about emergent self-regulating properties of a system than it is about top-down control. In a sense, that's a lot more liberating and empowering for people, because then they are not cast as victims of some evil from on high, they are the architects of their experience, for good or bad. The view you espouse, while seeming to empower the downtrodden by taking aim at hidden sources of evil power, I feel in fact disempowers by playing up the fake victim narratives that disempower and confuse people. In other words, your idea, while seemingly edgy and incisive, may in fact be what any such extant "evil elites" would want you to think, if they hope to have control! Haha :) Anyway, I'm not trying to cut down your idea here in this topic - personally I believe people are very much in charge of their experiences, that's what I've found in my life - but in this kind of mass topic, who knows? Anywa, thanks for responding. Just some food for thought and maybe discussion. Have a good one :)
- imcritic 10mo ago[flagged]
- dmje 10mo ago[flagged]
- cwillu 10mo agoIf he said “I did the math” then he did the damn math, regardless of what country he's from or how you think he should be speaking.
- dmje 10mo agoI’ve of course got absolutely zero evidence and you’re taking this more seriously than I’d hoped people might, but I bet he didn’t. Us Brits just don’t say “math”. Or “Legos”. Of course he may have been indoctrinated by 27 years away from home but I thought it was more likely that he’d been misquoted / adapted for the WP audience. Anyway, it wasn’t a serious point, just a light hearted one. As you were ;-)
- mykowebhn 10mo agoA couple of Youtubers who are also round-the-world travelers whom I enjoy watching, one a Dutch motorcyclist and the other a German cyclist. Noraly, the motorcyclist, has already traveled through South and North America, Africa, and Asia, some multiple times. Currently, I believe she is in Tajikistan about to enter Kyrgystan. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEIs9nkveW9WmYtsOcJBwTg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEIs9nkveW9WmYtsOcJBwTg Max Roving, the cyclist, has already cycled through Afghanistan and he is currently trying to ride Africa north to south. He just completed Algeria and is about to enter Morroco. https://www.youtube.com/@MaxRoving https://www.youtube.com/@MaxRoving
- mykowebhn 10mo agoThere's also this couple, each has their own channel, who are filming their walk from England to Vietnam. https://www.youtube.com/@chubbytrekka https://www.youtube.com/@chubbytrekka https://www.youtube.com/@SophieTangTravels https://www.youtube.com/@SophieTangTravels
- patresh 10mo agoI also enjoy watching Charles, a French-Canadian cyclist currently cycling from Canada to Europe. As a geologist he regularly explains rock formations and rock types he encounters. https://www.youtube.com/c/Charlesenv%C3%A9lo https://www.youtube.com/c/Charlesenv%C3%A9lo
- tasuki 10mo ago> currently cycling from Canada to Europe. Isn't there, like, the ocean? Or does he go the Karl Bushby way over the Bering Strait?
- sgt 10mo agoAnd they've been very safe, as far as I've heard. I think generally you can use common sense and be extremely safe all around the world. Unfortunately there are some exceptions and I believe the highest risk area is India. A lady vlogger on motorcycle was recently gang raped there by 7 men.
- bncndn0956 10mo ago[flagged]
- tomalbrc 10mo agoWhile utterly failing but we don’t talk about that, right?
- lawn 10mo agoOn one hand we have this amazing personal achievement. On the other hand we have sycophants like yourself, spending your time to brown nose the richest man in the world.
- bncndn0956 10mo agoWhat did you get done last week?
- nrhrjrjrjtntbt 10mo agoNot 5 but 7 I repeat 7 tickets moved to Done.
- bncndn0956 10mo agoComparison I made before raises a good question. Should we deliberately force ourselves to move faster towards the future? Or let things unfold at their own pace like Europeans do i.e. leisurely?
- HeckFeck 10mo agoI wrote 100,000 LOC using Grok, where's my christmas bonus?
- jve 10mo agoAmazing This reminds me of an adventured died just a few months ago at age of 40 after suffering insult. He has crossed ocean on a rowboat and more. https://boredofborders.com/adventures/ https://boredofborders.com/adventures/ DeepL Translation of wiki: Bardel's largest and most notable expeditions involve crossing oceans and traveling around the world without external assistance. On May 4, 2016, he and his traveling companion Gints Barkovskis set out to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Namibia to Brazil. After 142 days, they safely reached the coast of South America, becoming the first two-person crew to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat. [6] During the voyage, both men encountered serious health problems (vitamin deficiency, skin inflammation) and Barkovskis broke his ribs, but neither wanted to interrupt their journey, and the expedition ended successfully. [6] After crossing the Atlantic, Bardelis continued his journey in South America and began a new stage in 2018. From Brazil, with the support of Gints Barkovskis, he traveled by tandem bicycle through South America to Lima, Peru, completing the approximately 5,400 km stage in 102 days. [7] Bardelis then set out alone in a rowboat to cross the Pacific Ocean in June 2018. He covered a distance of approximately 26,000 km from South America to Malaysia, spending a total of 715 days on the journey; with this achievement, he became the first person in the world to cross the Pacific Ocean from South America to Asia in a rowing boat. [7] During this sea expedition, he had to overcome several stormy periods and was forced to stop at islands, but in the end, Bardelis became known worldwide as the first ocean rower in this direction. [7] https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%81rlis_Bardelis https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%81rlis_Bardelis
- yolo3000 10mo agoSad to hear. Just watched his documentary 'Beyond the deep' on Prime this year. Trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFlSp17rTjY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFlSp17rTjY
- fransje26 10mo ago> This reminds me of an adventured died just a few months ago at age of 40 after suffering insult. I did not understand what was meant with "suffering insult", so with the help of DeepL and his wikipedia page I could determine that he passed away due to a brain tumour. An other link: https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/19.11.2025-farewell-to-adventurer-karlis-bardelis.a623019/ https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/19.11.2025-farewe...
- fhd2 10mo agoQuite a fascinating adventure, even if it's not continuous. Good teaching moment for why estimates of big endeavours tend to be off, too. He appears to have slightly overestimated his average walking speed and greatly underestimated breaks (only some of which were by choice from what I gather). The total journey appears to be 58,000 km (36,000 miles). Expectation: 8 years, which translates to a daily average of almost 20 km (~12.5 miles). That's about 4-6 hours of walking time at my speed. Every. Single. Day. In sickness or in health, on country roads or through frozen wastelands. Seems optimistic even without anticipating any delays? Reality: After 8 years, he had actually finished about half the distance, which I already find impressive. As of October, he has 2,213 km (1,375 miles) left. That means he traveled 55,787 km (34,664 miles) in around 27 years. That puts him at a daily average of almost 6 km (~3.7 miles), so probably 1-2 hours of daily walking time. That's actually not bad considering all the delays, but quite a bit less than anticipated. New estimate: He expects to be home "by 2026", let's say January. Based on that premise, his new estimate is that he will walk 2,213 km in ~4 months. That's a bit more than 17 km (~10.5 miles) per day. Relatively close to his original, comparatively uninformed estimate, funnily enough. All that said, I don't think I'd have the willpower to see this through, especially considering all the setbacks. Mighty impressive.
- 9dev 10mo agoThe rest of the journey is going to take him through the EU though, no major obstacles to expect here, so the 17km daily seem very much doable.
- Ylpertnodi 10mo ago> ...take him through the EU though, no major obstacles to expect here... But, but...stifling of innovation. Gdpr. Etc.
- junon 10mo agoIsn't this the guy that abandoned his wife and kid to do this? This isn't heroics. EDIT: Yeah same guy, this was posted to Reddit a while back. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1pfdkfs/comment/nsj8sp5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1pfdkfs/...
- koakuma-chan 10mo agoHad to go around the world to find milk
- gizmo385 10mo agoIs there a source for this that isn’t just a random Reddit comment?
- szszrk 10mo agoI have no such thing, but a few comments later another redditor gives a bit different perspective: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1pfdkfs/comment/nsk95tc/ https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1pfdkfs/...
- victorbjorklund 10mo agoThat is messed up.
- nrhrjrjrjtntbt 10mo agoThat would haunt me and totally fuck up any fun from travelling.
- 2muchcoffeeman 10mo ago[flagged]
- Cupprum 10mo agoI kind of agree with your comment, but it can be written in a nicer way
- corentin88 10mo agoReminds me of Mike Horn, who travelled around the globe trying to say on the equator as much as he can. That being the longest round-trip. He walked a bit, but mostly sailed though. The book (Equator) worths the read. Especially the part in Africa.
- lrkwa 10mo agoThanks for sharing. Hadn't heard of it.
- tasuki 10mo agoI admire his determination! From the photos it appears he mostly walks on busy roads... that doesn't look much fun?
- bwv848 10mo agoYeah thru hikers avoid roads like the plague. Judging by his route he could've walk a lot existing trails. Go southbound on Great Divide Trail and Continental Divide Trail, then somehow cross Mexico and central America into Andes, there you can follow Greater Patagonian Trail all the way to Tierra del Fuego. The European part can just reuse Trans European Alpine Route, then cross Black Sea and take the Transcaucasian Trail, afterwards maybe the work in progress Snow Leopard Track? It's gonna be a lot more difficult but definitely beats highway walking.
- nly 10mo agoDoing it solo, do you really want to be in isolated places all the time? If you're hungry or sick being by a road has advantages
- bwv848 10mo agoYes, in fact if I have the opportunity to walk these trails I would take it in a heartbeat. I am sorry but you really have to thru hike to understand it. Being tired and hungry all the time is the least concern
- K0balt 10mo agoWhen Karl was preparing to cross the ice from Alaska to Russia, I worked with him a bit on a kite-flown camera system to help him get a Birds Eye view of the flows to chart his course. I engineered a ruggedized wireless camera in an aluminum housing, I don’t remember much about it other than I was doubtful that the resolution would be able to give him the data he needed on on small low resolution screen. (This was before consumer drones were common or affordable). We built some devices, not sure if he ever used them or if they helped. I urged him to do a lot of testing to make sure they would be worth the weight. We spent a lot of time at college coffee house in Fairbanks Alaska working over the ideas and overall design. Nice fellow, strange aspirations, indomitable spirit. I’m glad to see his trek is nearing completion, and I wish him well on his further adventures. Good luck and Godspeed, Karl.
- japhyr 10mo agoWhen was he in Fairbanks? I bicycled around North America for a year in 1998-1999, and finished in Alaska. It was wild to live on a bike for a full year, and then meet people who had been living that way (on bikes and on foot) for years at a time. There were a lot of people just starting out on aspirational long trips, but there were also a handful of people who had already gone a long long way. Fairbanks was an interesting meeting point for many of those travelers.
- K0balt 10mo agoHonestly, I don’t really remember. More than a decade ago, but I think maybe I was already working on my sailing adventures by then and working the summer in Fairbanks? Or maybe that was before, I’m not really sure. Too many relationships, kids, and big life changes between here and there to have a sense of the thing. I’m sure you can look it up? IIRC he was in Fairbanks for quite a while. Was a bit of a fixture at the coffee house.
- JKCalhoun 10mo agoInteresting. I hitchhiked through Fairbanks four decades ago… Kind of the gateway to the Arctic Circle for a lot of travelers I suppose. Perhaps this guy was waiting out the weather—for it to turn favorable to continuing his travels.
- ourmandave 10mo agoIt's always when sad when you complete a game you love. I suppose he could do other challenges like walk the same route the other direction or whatever. Or maybe, SpaceX will drop a new DLC expansion Mars so he can keep playing.
- kalli 10mo agoFeels like the right thread to shamelessly plug my app that lets you do these types of walks/runs virtually: https://www.inthelongrun.app https://www.inthelongrun.app
- ritzaco 10mo agoThis is a cool story but I'm really confused by the details. Like he seems to fly around and do pieces of this at a time, but then there's the weird bit of him walking 3000 miles in the US to get to the embassy, though that wasn't part of his 'walk'? Also next time don't skip Africa xD
- mewse-hn 10mo agoI also got confused by the timeline of him getting deported from Russia. I think he's allowed to fly out as long as he returns and continues the journey on foot. You can see on the world map of the journey he makes steady progress from 1998-2006 but then he doesn't finish crossing Siberia until 2017.
- machomaster 10mo agoWikipedia has a really nice timeline of his troubles with Russia.
- JKCalhoun 10mo ago“99.99 percent of the people I’ve met have been the very best in humanity,” he said. “The world is a much kinder, nicer place than it often seems.” I wish everyone could experience this, internalize this. Sometime in my 20's or 30's I cast off any fears that I had about people and the world in general. And it was like a huge weight was left behind. I started to believe that it was paying too much attention to the news (especially cable news when it became a thing) that had come to shackle me with fear. Getting out in the world, traveling, making yourself vulnerable even (and nixing cable) were all things that made me start to love the world and people more. (My kids know me as the Pollyanna of the family.) I suppose I am armchair psychologizing now, but I often see fear behind a lot of people's behavior (and even some friend's) and I feel sorry for them: I see them missing out on a lot of life experiences.
- tsoukase 10mo agoI would, no thoughts, help/accompany/host him in whatever occasion I meet him in my small, distant hometown, if he happened to pass by. Of course, it plays a role that he is on foot and in the edge of survival, so he can cause no damage. I wouldn't have the same attitude with someone more luxurious. Poverty with philosophy/culture is guaranteed human.
- RickJWagner 10mo agoThe most uplifting part of the article. Great to read it.
- nabeards 10mo ago100% agreed, it’s been my experience traveling for the past ten years as well.
- Jonovono 10mo agoIronic coming from him being a dead beat dad whose son hates him
- JKCalhoun 10mo agoI had not heard that.
- quentindanjou 10mo agoThat's quite cool! How does someone get the funds necessary to do something like this? I guess there are sponsors, but before getting known, is it just being wealthy?
- gwbas1c 10mo agoThe article explains this.
- quentindanjou 10mo agoMy comment mention "before getting known". The article only mention "familly and friends" help. That's quite a light justification, just getting food every day for a year before getting sponsors is quite a big sum of money. I don't think we can say "The article explains this" while there is literally only one sentence in the article about it.
- machomaster 10mo agoHe started with $500. Friends and family helped. Got food on the road, from trees/etc. Also locals helped, hence his saying how good and helpful people are. At some poing he also got sponsors.
- hybrid_study 10mo agoI'd be more impressive if he walked it backwards.
- doodlebugging 10mo agoIf he made it all the way he would beat the record set by by Plennie Wingo in 1931-1932 when he walked from Santa Monica, CA to Istanbul, Turkey backwards. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo It was a challenging walk.
- stickfigure 10mo agoUgh, I looked this up and it completely ruined it for me: https://refuga.com/karl-bushby-the-man-who-chose-to-walk-around-the-world/?lang=en https://refuga.com/karl-bushby-the-man-who-chose-to-walk-aro... This is how much he had to sacrifice. Leaving his only son when he was just five and not being able to watch him grow up like any other normal father. He also sacrificed a father/son relationship that may never be restored. “Out of everyone I knew in this world, I knew my son least of all.” Karl didn’t have any means of communication with his son for years but managed to reach him after contacting one of his friends on Facebook. While he was away, his son was suffering from depression and self abuse and had to use medication and therapy. That's not sacrifice, that's abandonment. I have a young son not far from that age and trying to imagine how he'd feel if daddy just walked off nearly brings me to tears.
- ericmcer 10mo agoYeah that is nuts, whenever I think about doing a huge hike/bike adventure I always stop becuase... I can't abandon my dog for 4 months haha. This dude abandoned his son forever?
- DANmode 10mo agoI will never defend this guy, but, after being upset with him for, oh, about twenty comments here now, I wonder: “what was the mom like?”
- justinator 10mo agoTalk about "my dad left to get milk"
- sebastiennight 10mo agoAt this point, the milk has become yoghurt, the yoghurt has become cheese, and the cheese has become a cow again. (Is that how it works?)
- F3nd0 10mo ago
- stuff4ben 10mo agowhat a waste of a life, I can't help but feel disgust.
- ssalka 10mo agoFor those interested, National Geographic has the "Out of Eden Walk" [1], a journey along the path of historical human migration, led by Paul Salopek. He started in Ethiopia in January 2013 – nearly 13 years ago – and just recently made it to Alaska. The planned end of the trip is at the southern tip of South America. [1] https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/ https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/
- jwilber 10mo agoThe article didn’t even mention that, at 29 years old, he abandoned his 5 year-old son to go on his middle-aged crisis journey. Some person to celebrate.
- machomaster 10mo agoApparently it was his ex that took the child and moved out of his reach, to Northern Ireland, to the place he couldn't go because of his military background. Perhaps this explains his motivation to just go on a ridiculous healing journey.
- TurkishPoptart 10mo agoReally curious what his footwear of choice is.
- marcyb5st 10mo agoApart from the despicable thing (IMHO) of being an absent father, I wonder how his mental health will be once he is done. As an avid trekker myself (I did the a good 60% of E1 trail [1], Camino the santiago, Via Francigena, and others) every time I was away for a prolonged time (say longer than 2 months) coming back to normal life was really hard. I believe they now call it post-trail depression. [1] https://e1.hiking-europe.eu/en https://e1.hiking-europe.eu/en
- BrandoElFollito 10mo agoBesides the fact that he abandonned his kid, such trips through inherently hostile countries drive me crazy. People will go there willingly, then cry because they were arrested. The family would go to tv and the government is supposed to help them. We should just leave them as they are. They are adults, decided that "do not go there" does not apply to them so bad luck. The fact that we care incentives the authorities of these countries to use them as exchange money. We in France have a few people in Iran or Algeria who travelled there to discover the extraordinary culture and views. Their choice, they now have Elle time to address these topics with the guards. In contrast, this is so much different from the Belarusian oppositionist who was flying from Greece (IIRC) to a Baltic country and got hijacked as he was flying above Belarus. This one we forgot about.