Update 2: second of what became a GIS 💖 AI mini-series starting here and continuing here.
Update 1: added a cool 3D globe view of same from a GIS Educator at bottom.
Following on map trajectory posts in the main blog here and this blog here, here's another AI-assisted one from this prompt. See Author's GIS note at bottom.
On 2 November 2026, British adventurer Karl Bushby completed the Goliath Expedition: a 28-year, roughly 31,000-mile (50,000 km) journey on foot from Punta Arenas in southern Chile to his mother’s home in Hull, England.
His rule was brutally simple: no transport could advance the journey. He could fly or sail only to wait out bureaucracy, weather or funding problems—but he had to return to the exact point where he had stopped.
The route in brief
Bushby walked north through Chile, Peru, Colombia and the Darién Gap, then through Central America, Mexico and the United States. He crossed into Canada, reached Alaska, and in March 2006 crossed the frozen Bering Strait into Russia.
Russia became the expedition’s great obstacle. After reaching Srednekolymsk in April 2011, he was blocked by visa refusals and a five-year entry ban. He responded with a separate protest walk from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. After the ban was lifted, he returned to Russia, crossed into Mongolia in 2017, and continued through China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Caucasus.
In 2024 he swam the Caspian Sea from Aktau, Kazakhstan, to Azerbaijan. He then walked through Türkiye, the Balkans and Central Europe, reached Dover on 5 October 2026, swam the English Channel, and walked the final miles into Hull.
The route map
The map below shows the reported expedition milestones in time order. The lines connect those points for illustration; they are not his exact walking route and do not follow roads or trails.
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| click to enlarge, original |
Key milestones
- 1 November 1998 — Punta Arenas, Chile: the expedition begins.
- 2001 — Darién Gap, Panama: Bushby crosses one of the route’s most dangerous jungle sections.
- 29 April 2002 — Nogales, Arizona: entry into the United States.
- March 2006 — Bering Strait: an ice crossing from Alaska into Chukotka, Russia.
- 25 April 2011 — Srednekolymsk, Russia: the end of that season’s Russian leg.
- 2012–14 — United States: a protest walk from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., after Russian visa and entry-ban problems.
- 8 August 2017 — Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: the expedition resumes its overland progression after the Russian interruption.
- 2024 — Caspian Sea: a 288 km swim from Aktau, Kazakhstan, to Azerbaijan.
- 25 April 2025 — Istanbul: crossing the Bosphorus at the 15 July Martyrs Bridge.
- 5 October 2026 — Shakespeare Beach, Dover: return to British soil.
- 2 November 2026 — Hull, England: the expedition ends at his mother’s house.
The 2011–17 break
The apparent gap between Srednekolymsk and Ulaanbaatar is not a walked route. After Srednekolymsk, Russian authorities refused the visa Bushby needed and later imposed a five-year entry ban connected to his earlier Bering Strait crossing. He spent part of the interruption walking from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. in protest. Once the ban was lifted in 2014, he returned to Russia, resumed the route, and crossed into Mongolia in 2017.
Download the data
Download the waypoint GeoJSON — includes 54 mapped points and schematic connecting lines. Country-level passages without a single published coordinate are not plotted.
Note: coordinates are approximate for named towns and landmarks, not exact walking positions. The dashed line between Srednekolymsk and Ulaanbaatar marks a sequence gap, not a walked route.
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