No. 1 lesson the Goliath Expedition taught Karl Bushby about happiness

By Finance News On Dec 30, 2025

Karl Bushby has been walking around the world over the last 27 years.

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Karl Bushby was 29 when he left his home city of Hull, England and took off for the adventure of a lifetime. With $500 in his pocket and some survival gear, he went on a mission that no one else in history had ever completed: walking an unbroken path around the world.

Bushby’s journey, called the “Goliath Expedition,” began in 1998 in Punta Arenas, Chile, a city near the southern tip of South America. It’s brought him across continents including the Americas, Asia and Europe, and ultimately ends with the goal of arriving back in the United Kingdom.

“The objective was simply to get home unassisted by any form of transport,” Bushby told CNBC Make It.

Throughout the journey, Bushby has followed two rules: He can only walk or swim, unassisted by any form of transportation, and he cannot return home to Hull, England, until he arrives entirely on foot.

“These sounded like two simple rules from the early days, but you know, once those two rules meet the reality of the real world, things can get mighty complicated, especially [with] visas and difficult governments and regimes and some of the controversial borders that [I’ve] had to cross,” he said.

After walking about 30 kilometers a day, along with some unexpected setbacks, Bushby has now made his way into Europe and expects to complete his journey and return home to England next year, he told CNBC Make It.

Life as a wanderer

Bushby has always been an adventurer. He says he used to go explore all day with his brother before returning home for dinner.

Growing up in a military family, he was inspired by his father who served in the British army. Bushby also joined the army at age 16 and served as a parachute regiment for about 12 years before taking off on his expedition.

At some point, I started drawing lines on maps and daydreaming about great distances and distant horizons, and one thing led to another.

Karl Bushby

World Explorer

At a certain point during his tenure in the British army, Bushby got bored.

“I spent my 12 years in the British army waiting to go somewhere we never really went, other than Northern Ireland,” he said. “We happened to be living through one of the most peaceful times in history,” he said.

“So we got bored and tired and became wondrous and mischievous,” he said. “At some point, I started drawing lines on maps and daydreaming about great distances and distant horizons, and one thing led to another.”

One day, Bushby drew a line from the United Kingdom over Europe and Asia, through Siberia, over the Bering Strait, into North America and through to the bottom of South America.

“Once I got that on a map, there was kind of no going back … The old hairs on the back of your neck stand up,” he said.

So, in 1998, Bushby left the British army to begin the long journey. He took a military flight from the United Kingdom to the Falkland Islands, then a civilian flight to Punta Arenas, Chile, which…