Karl Bushby Reaches UK After 28-Year, 30,000-Mile Global Walk

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 · Fox News · Oct 12

Karl Bushby stepped onto UK soil after swimming the English Channel from France, bringing his 28-year round-the-world trek back to Britain.
About 240 miles remain before the former paratrooper reaches his planned finish line at his mother’s home in Hull by month-end.
Bushby began the journey in Chile on Nov. 1, 1998, and has since covered more than 30,000 miles across 29 countries, including a 2024 swim across the Caspian Sea.
The expedition, originally planned for 12 years, stretched out after visa problems, the 2008 financial crash, COVID-19, geopolitics and a 2012 Russian visa denial that temporarily halted him.