The Great Dream
“Almost no white spots remain on the map of our world, all the mountains on the planet have long been conquered, and the rivers have been traversed… And it seems that for a modern adventure lover there are no chances left to accomplish something special,” is written on the main page of Karl Bushby’s personal website. “But there will always be a person who can come up with a way to amaze the world once again!”
From age 16, Karl served in the parachute troops, but there he never managed to experience the adventures and dangers he had dreamed of since childhood. And at 29, he decided to leave the service to finally do Something, namely, to walk around the world.
He began planning this expedition well in advance—back in the army barracks. There it seemed to him that everything would be easy: he just had to announce his crazy dream, and sponsors would immediately appear to help with funds, then the press would start a stir, then, somewhere midway, he would be welcomed in cities around the world, followers would appear, he could register a commercial brand, and by the end of the journey he would not only see the whole world but also earn himself a comfortable old age. In practice, however, things went somewhat differently.
First, the sponsors let him down, as they did not want to see anything original in Karl’s idea. The press also practically ignored Bushby’s undertaking. Big deal, a pedestrian traveler! If only he had been naked, like his compatriot, who, by the way, was also a former soldier, Stephen Gough.
In the end, after several months spent trying to find someone who would agree to give him money for the road, Bushby gave up and decided, like Forrest Gump, to simply set off on a hike.
In 1998, Bushby bought a one-way ticket to South America, where, according to the plan, his journey was to begin, and with $800 in his pocket, he set off. He was to be directed, as originally conceived, by a coordination center in London, with which he intended to communicate regularly and request the further route. In addition, it was implied that the center would settle possible problems that might arise when crossing borders. In the end, the role of the center was played by Bushby’s father and his close friend Andy Cooper, who promised to coordinate Karl’s journey in their spare time from work.
And so the Briton put on sturdier boots, attached a special cart behind him, loaded his equipment onto it, and walked out of a hotel in Punta Arenas, a Chilean city on the edge of South America closest to Antarctica.
Over the next seven years, as written on his website, he made his way through the wild jungles of Argentina, escaped from Colombian drug traffickers, blazed trails through the swamps of Panama, persuaded police to allow him to walk along an American highway, and finally fought snowstorms in Alaska. All this time he reported on his journey in an internet blog, through which, by the way, he found people who agreed to shelter him for the night, feed him, and sometimes give him a little money for the road. He had already resigned himself to remaining unnoticed. The world unquestioningly opened its borders to him and saw him off with a puzzled look: another oddball walking along the road, and with each year such oddballs become more numerous. Sometimes journalists took an interest in him, but more often than not it ended with a small note in a local newspaper.
Russian Hospitality
And so the Briton stepped onto the ice of the Bering Strait. For Bushby, this was the middle of the journey. He had already managed to get used to the harsh climate of Alaska and had stocked up on everything needed for an Arctic expedition: special clothing, a tent, a GPS device for navigating, and a Colt Magnum revolver of .44 caliber, bought before the start of the northern leg, which, as he was told, was very convenient for shooting back at polar bears. In addition, Karl was accompanied by another friend acquired through online correspondence, Dimitri Kiefer, a marathon runner and specialist in northern expeditions, who wanted to cross the strait with Bushby. The Briton had absolutely nothing to fear.
True, Bushby was somewhat bothered by the fact that the “coordination center” in London had never been able to obtain permission for him to pass freely through Russia. Bushby’s father spent several months tirelessly calling and writing to all sorts of Russian authorities, but there, upon learning about the “walk around the world,” they only shrugged and asked him to call back another time. Nevertheless, Bushby had a visa to Russia, and he decided to cross the strait without additional permission, since any longer and movement across the spring ice would simply become dangerous. He did not want to wait in Alaska for the start of a new winter. He had to hurry: there were only three years left until the planned end of the journey in 2009, and he still had half the world to cover.
Fifteen days after the start of the crossing, on April 1, 2006, Karl Bushby and his companion approached Russian land in a terrible blizzard. Their satellite navigator showed that they had deviated somewhat from the intended route and were approaching the new continent not near the settlement of Provideniya, where they had planned to undergo border inspection, but a little to the side. Nevertheless, both felt an incredible surge of emotion. First, because they had reached solid ground (“Terra firma!” read the message Bushby sent to London from his satellite phone), and second, Karl proudly realized he was the first Briton to walk across the Bering Strait.
When, in this wonderful mood, Karl and Dimitri entered the small village of Uelen, which had so conveniently appeared in their path, the smile, most likely, quickly left their faces. Because the local residents took them not at all for “white gods” or even for “conquerors of the Far North,” but for ordinary border violators. The appearance of Bushby and his companion was immediately reported to the local border outpost, from where an operational squad set out to arrest the unknown illegal entrants.
Then events developed rapidly and completely unexpectedly. First of all, Russian border guards confiscated a Colt and a GPS navigator from Bushby, the use of which is prohibited on Russian territory. Next, the travelers were subjected to a harsh interrogation, and Karl's stories about "walking around the world" apparently made the same impression on the border guards as the calls from Karl's father to the mythical "Russian authorities" had. An investigation into the "real reasons" for the illegal border crossing was immediately organized.
No matter how shocked the British traveler was by what had happened, on the second day he suddenly realized that the misunderstanding with the Russian border guards had unexpectedly brought him what he had been trying in vain to achieve for eight years - the attention of the world press. At first, Russian agencies reported on him as an unknown defector. Following that, London and even American mass media reacted to the phrase "British illegal," and they went to the trouble of visiting Bushby's website and writing about him as he might once have dreamed - as a legendary traveler. The British Foreign Ministry became interested in the newborn legend and began "taking measures to resolve the misunderstanding." The Russian authorities, in turn, realizing that the uproar around the Briton was taking on an international scale, stated that they would not simply let him go, since even a "legendary traveler" is not allowed to cross the Russian border wherever he pleases, without special notice.
Karl Bushby and Dimitri Kiefer were placed in a hotel in the village of Lavrentiya and were informed that their further fate would be decided by the Chukotka court. Moreover, if the judges decide that the pair of travelers illegally crossed the border with some treacherous intent, they could face deportation to their homeland and even up to five years in prison.
However, Bushby and his team were not afraid of prison. "A rest in a hotel will only do him good, and besides, he needs a good wash," the Briton's father told journalists. Bushby's further plans include a trek through Siberia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria and France, after which, crossing the English Channel via the tunnel, he would finally be home. Now it is quite possible that by that time he will have an army of fans, his own brand and the prospect of a comfortable old age. But in any case, his Great Dream, which he was not afraid to bring to life, will remain with him.