Digital maps made some forms of navigation easier. Online platforms allowed supporters to follow the expedition and helped Bushby raise money. At the same time, constant visibility created new pressure.
An adventurer once known primarily through books and occasional news reports could now be questioned daily about delays, route decisions and the finish date.
Bushby had to learn the language of online storytelling while still completing a project conceived before that language existed.
The Caspian Sea
By 2024, another body of water blocked the route.
Geopolitical and visa constraints complicated the overland options around the Caspian Sea. To preserve the human-powered line, Bushby and expedition partner Angela Maxwell undertook a long staged swim across the water.
The crossing covered approximately 184 miles and required weeks of effort.
The swimmers used flotation equipment and rested aboard a support vessel between sessions. As with other aquatic sections, the boat did not carry them forward as part of the route. They returned to the point where each swimming stage ended.
This approach illustrates how Bushby interpreted his no-transport rule. Safety support was allowed. Mechanical movement along the expedition line was not.
The Caspian crossing expanded the meaning of an expedition commonly described as a “walk around the world.” It was more accurately a continuous human-powered route, with water crossed by swimming when necessary.
It also prepared Bushby for the final geographic barrier between continental Europe and Britain.
The Channel problem
Bushby originally hoped to walk through a service tunnel beneath the English Channel.
Eurotunnel rejected the request on safety and operational grounds. The service tunnel is infrastructure, not a pedestrian route, and allowing such a crossing would have created significant risks.
The refusal left him with a difficult alternative: swim from France to England.
This was not an ordinary Channel attempt. French rules restrict swims beginning on the French side, so Bushby needed special permission and coordination with authorities on both sides.
He was also not a specialist open-water swimmer. In interviews before the attempt, he spoke candidly about his limited enthusiasm for swimming.
Nevertheless, the Channel represented the final break in the expedition’s land route. Flying, taking a ferry or riding a train would violate the central rule.
Swimming became the only acceptable solution.
Twenty hours in the water
Bushby completed the crossing in stages over three days, spending approximately 20 hours in the water.
He wore a wetsuit, used hand paddles and relied on a flotation device. Rather than using the traditional front crawl throughout, he spent much of the effort swimming on his back because he considered it the most energy-efficient technique available to him.
A support boat allowed him to rest and sleep between sections. Each new stage resumed from the previous endpoint so the human-powered route remained intact.
Wind, tides, shipping traffic and cold water made the Channel dangerous despite its relatively short distance compared with the rest of the expedition.
On Monday afternoon, October 5, Bushby reached Shakespeare Beach.
Family members and friends were present, but the timing had not been widely publicized in advance because safety had to take priority over a large public reception.