Interview With Karl Bushby(3/5) By Steve Rudd

(1/5), (2/5), (3/5), (4/5), (5/5).

Thankfully, you've been keeping a diary since you set off. What's more, the first volume of your diaries has been published as a book called Giant Steps. Was it always your intention to get published or has the success of Giant Steps simply been a nice bonus in the grand scheme of things? I never would have dreamed it. I have a hard time composing a simple e-mail. I'm dyslexic, and consequently struggled with aspects of my education.

Everything I write has to be 'proof read' by others before it can be circulated, (including these responses to your questions). I could never have foreseen a book, although people always talk about it. The diaries were a 'no brainer.' Anyone setting off on a journey like this would keep some form of journal. However, keeping a daily journal has been challenging, and over the years I grew to hate having to keep it up. My father saw the value more than I and would make sure I kept it up to speed. He was astute enough to see the possibilities, and of course, the book deal we secured with Time Warner paid for the Bering Strait crossing and most of stage 5 of the expedition. We'd never have been able to fund stage 5 without that book deal; it was crucial. But back in those early days I hardly knew how I was going to eat, let alone write books.

Did you undertake much pre-departure planning or are you making the route up as you go along to a large extent? The route was mapped out beforehand in what I call a 'route corridor'. This is a swath of land, containing several route options, but largely we knew in detail where I would be and had a very good idea when. The first two years I reached both year-end waypoints literally to the day predicted.

I had calculated six years for the Americas and arrived in Fairbanks on year six. From that point it was totally unpredictable as the Bering Strait is a huge unknown. The last few years have been frustrating for sure, but when you consider I expected to be bouncing off the Bering Strait for untold years, the fact I'm in Russia on the first attempt denies me the right to whine at all! How would we have funded the second attempt, third, forth, fifth sixth….

Have you found that people who you've met on the way have understood your motivations for doing what you're doing? When I truly understand the motivation for what I'm doing, then perhaps I might hope others can. Some assume they do, and others don't really care. Understanding the expedition and the 'reasons for' is a tough one.

In Latin America, locals I would meet in the villages or small towns really could not comprehend why anyone would do this. That's largely due to their circumstances and culture. Those people are too busy putting food on the table to feed families and cannot understand how or why I have the time to do this. In the western countries there are two main responses; firstly, once I tell them what I'm doing their jaws drop and eyes widen. Then there is the other group, like one guy who just shrugged his shoulders and told me his sister did that when she finished university. People get it, or they really don't.

Obviously an expedition like yours requires a certain amount of money to make such a thing possible. Fortunately, you recently gained some new sponsorship. Who was that from and did they approach you or the other way around? I tried to find sponsors before I left the UK but had no idea what I was getting into; hence I had not a cat in hells chance. It would be more than three years before we would be in a position to even think about it. I hit the ground running, un-funded, believing I could achieve Latin America and hoping that by the time I hit North America things would change, and that having provided the blood sweat and tears I could prove our worth.

That was the plan and that's just how it played out. As I reached the US border with Mexico people started paying attention and I learned of our first sponsor a stone's throw from the border. I crossed into Tucson, Arizona, and picked up a second, and everything changed. However, since then it's been a little trickier.

Continued .... Next Page (4/5)

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