A great place to mention Karl Bushby whom is on his way from Punta Arenas, southern Chile to his home in the UK since Nov 1998 by mostly hiking.
He crossed the Darien Gap, the Bering sea walking on ice / glaciers / swimming, as well as swimming the Caspian sea.
In Mongolia he trained to work with camels
Had a lot of issues of course with Russia due to crossing the Bering sea, and maybe the war, as well as covid lockdown in countries, limited days issued for visas etc.
And he just left Turkey and entered Europe! so the only major challenge is swimming the channel.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby</a>
Haha, what a small world. He stayed with me in Spain, back in the good old days of Couchsurfing.<p>Not sure if I feel honoured or guilty by being able to set his plans back a day or 2 by introducing him to the local nightlife...
His book just came out:<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Journey-incredible-through-country-ebook/dp/B0D364ZTWY" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Journey-incredible-through...</a> (not an affiliate link)<p>And there's a documentary apparently coming out soon.<p>I followed his journey live on <a href="https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/" rel="nofollow">https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/</a> and it was a weird mix of inspirational and very sad. He was clearly struggling with severe depression towards the end of it, but he could not bring himself to stop, so there he was, squatting in a filthy boat for weeks on end with cockroaches crawling over his toothbrush, while he waited for the country's sole oceangoing cargo ship to be repaired so he could get the hell out of there.<p><a href="https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/blog/489-most-definitely-possibly-maybe-leaving-tuvalu" rel="nofollow">https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/blog/489-most-definitely-possib...</a>
I'm struck by his quotes. They sound like basic advice. "People are generally good, few people want to hurt you" etc. Normally people say this without thinking but with him it's backed up by so much experience. It's hard to share experience. I remember seeing a man whose son was murdered in a shooting. He kept trying to describe his pain, using simple, profound language. I felt sorry for him because of course few people in the audience could relate to him. So his words kind of went in one ear and out the other, at least for me. It's hard to know how deeply truthful something is unless you've lived it. I imagine that this guy in the article may feel very lonely sometimes. Plus it's hard to be "post adventure" etc. Olympic athletes and astronauts etc always talk about how hard it is to be on the other side of the mountain. "What now?"
An article from last month in the Guardian:<p><i>I visited every country in the world without flying. Here are eight things I learned</i><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/apr/21/i-visited-every-country-in-the-world-without-flying-here-are-eight-things-i-learned" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/apr/21/i-visit...</a>
I miss reading Blogs. Old school, detailed blogs written in a plain and simple language. It's easy to follow and almost be invested in the journey.
How many hours did he spend being interviewed for visas etc?<p>Some countries I cross off my 'worth visiting' list simply because they have a Byzantine and expensive visa process which is going to use at least a week of time and effort to navigate whilst I was only planning to visit the place for a week in the first place!<p>And some countries have a 'not allowed if you've ever been to this other country' rule, making it very hard to visit them all.
Graham Hughes did that years ago.<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Hughes" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Hughes</a>
I followed Thor's journey over the years. Great dude and a incredible achivement. Imagine planning for 4 years but hanging on for 10! He also had bad luck being stuck during covid.
Presumably including North Korea? (Due to <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44033310">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44033310</a> currently on the front page.)
How can you stay 24+ hours in Vatican City as a tourist? Are there hotels there? It seems there is <a href="https://www.residenzapaolovi.com/en/" rel="nofollow">https://www.residenzapaolovi.com/en/</a>, but it's not within the Vatican.