Walk Across the World

I met this guy today.

His name is Karl Bushby and he wants to be the first one to walk with unbroken steps from the bottom tip of South America all the way back to his home country of England. His website says, "It is possible to journey by foot from the southern most point of South America back to England and leave behind you an unbroken trail of footprints!"

He seemed like a nice gentleman. He's my age, 33, and he's from Yorkshire, England. Since my dad was born in that area, we had a bit to talk about. He has already been walking for six years. He finally got to Nome a few days ago. I bumped into him in the teacher's lounge as he was waiting to talk to the high school journalism class.

His next step is to cross the Bering Strait. This is the shortest point to Russia and there is a lot of ice on the sea now. He said what he can't walk he actually has to swim a bit. Our school website says, "The distance across the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska's Seward Peninsula is approximately 55 miles, and for several periods during the Pleistocene Ice Ages the trip could be made entirely on land instead of water. During additional periods, the passage from Siberia to North America could also have been made by small watercraft moving along coastlines."

Hilariously, some of the teachers at lunch were saying good luck and going about their business. One teacher told me that every other year or so somebody comes through here thinking they are going to walk right across a nice little patch of ice. She talked about pressure ridges where the ice buckles together like the Himalayan Mountains. Remember, this is the bloody ocean. There will be a lot that is not frozen solid and almost unpassable. He says he may have to go even further north in order to make the cross, and if he does that, he has to go across way more than 55 miles. Yeah, 55 miles is nothing--it's an hour's car ride at 55 mph. Nothing. However, my mom wouldn't let me play on the ice on the little pond out back growing up half the time. That was a pond in the back yard. This is the ocean that Bushby is trying to cross on foot.

I think it is an amazing accomplishment, even though I couldn't imagine talking six years and still not being near done. If he does cross, he has to walk across Siberia and Asia, for Pete's sake. Look at a map. He's got at least six more years.

That's if he crosses. Apparently, no one has ever done it from this side. Two people supposedly did it from Russia to Alaska a few years ago but they got lucky with the icefloes. There is some kind of current issue one way or the other. The other teacher kind of shook her head and wished him well, thinking to herself that he'll never make it. People have come before, some with contraptions and vehicles and still couldn't do it.

It was interesting to meet this guy along his trek though. Just imagine that time though--six years so far. I think about what I've done in the last six years and try to put a time commitment on that. This is not just a month's vacation. This isn't even walking across the United States. I look at a map and I just think to myself that there's no flippin way.