Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 27, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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Karl Bushby, a British adventurer, is concluding his 27-year world trek. He navigated global changes and plans to focus on science literacy afterward.
By Krisztina Fenyo and Krisztina Than
KOMAROM, Hungary (Reuters) -Karl Bushby, a British ex-paratrooper who set out in 1998 to walk around the world, is on the final stretch of his 27-year-long trek home, and trying to cope with social media pressure in a world that has changed profoundly.
Walking in pouring rain in northwest Hungary, Bushby, 56, who started out in Chile, said he had a cheap plastic Instamatic camera with 35-millimeter film rolls to cover his journey across Latin America, and media presence was the last thing on his mind.
It was all about survival and finding enough food before traversing the dangerous Darien Gap, between Colombia and Panama, heading north.
"Back in the day, there was no social media or anything. So there was no reason to take images and pictures of everything or film stuff...it was just a whole different ball game," Bushby told Reuters, adding that he resisted TikTok until this year.
"It is almost an added layer of pressure because suddenly there's a lot of eyes. People want to know, like you can't hide anymore. But at the same time...it's a huge tool."
Bushby's journey, named the Goliath Expedition, is being made without using motorised transport. He crossed the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia on foot in 2006 and swam across the Caspian Sea in 2024.
ENDLESS DELAYS
He originally expected to finish the 36,000-mile journey in eight years, but suffered delays due to the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical shifts and visa restrictions.
"We've been through financial crises, wars, pandemics... They all seriously interfere with the expedition journey ...you just roll with it," he said, adding that he expected to get home by September-October 2026.
The mental challenges have sometimes been overwhelming, Bushby said as he pushed his cart with his tent and belongings along a muddy cycle path.
"Sometimes the monotony is incredible. You're in deserts and the landscape doesn't change for days to weeks. That can get a little mind-bending. The same with the Arctic," he said. "It (the Arctic) just feels like it's trying to kill you all the time."
Getting home, however, will pose an entirely new challenge.
"The best way to deal with finishing something like this is starting something new that's very challenging and get busy as quick as possible," he said.
"My other passion is science literacy and science engagement. So that's what I want to get into when I'm done here."
(Writing by Krisztina Than, editing by Ed Osmond)
A financial crisis is a situation where financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value, often leading to a loss of confidence in financial institutions and economic instability.
International capital refers to funds that are invested across national borders, often in the form of foreign direct investment or portfolio investment in foreign securities.
Investment portfolios are collections of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents held by an individual or institution to achieve specific financial goals.
Economic growth is the increase in the production of goods and services in an economy over a period, typically measured as the percentage increase in real GDP.
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