What the Goliath Expedition Taught Carl Bushby About Happiness

Carl Bushby was 29 years old when he left his hometown of Hull, England, to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. With $500 in his pocket and some survival gear, he embarked on a mission unlike any other in history. It was about walking uninterrupted paths around the world.

Bushby’s journey, known as the “Goliath Expedition,” began in 1998 in Punta Arenas, Chile, a city near the southern tip of South America. He traverses continents such as the Americas, Asia, and Europe, eventually ending with the goal of returning to England.

“My goal was just to get home without any form of transportation,” Bushby told CNBC’s “Make It.”

Throughout his travels, Bushby has followed two rules. One is that you can only walk or swim without using any form of transport, and you cannot return to Hull, England until you arrive completely on foot.

“These sounded like two simple rules in the early days, but when those two rules fit into real-world realities, things can get very complicated, especially with visas, difficult governments and regimes, and some of the controversial borders (I) had to cross,” he said.

After walking about 30 kilometers a day and experiencing some unexpected setbacks, Bushby told CNBC Make It that she is now on her way to Europe and plans to return to the UK after completing her journey next year.

Bushby has always been an adventurer. He says he and his brother spent the day exploring before returning home for dinner.

Growing up in a military family, he was influenced by his father, who served in the British Army. Bushby also joined the Army at the age of 16 and served in a parachute regiment for about 12 years before going on an expedition.

At some point during his time in the British Army, Bushby became bored.

“I spent my 12 years in the British Army looking forward to going to places I had never been before, outside of 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 mysterious and mischievous,” he said. “At some point, I started drawing lines on maps and daydreaming about faraway horizons, and one thing led to another.”

One day, Bushby drew a line that ran from England, across Europe and Asia, through Siberia, across the Bering Strait, into North America, and all the way to the bottom of South America.

“Once you put it on the map, there’s no going back…the old hairs on the back of your neck stand up,” he said.

So in 1998, Bushby left the British Army and began a long journey. From Britain, he took a military plane to the Falkland Islands, then took a civilian plane to Punta Arenas, Chile, where he began his expedition.

“The first day you stepped on the road is a day you’ll never forget, because at that point you were a long way from home. You had burned all your bridges. You were telling everyone that you would rather die than go home,” Bushby said.

“You have about $500 in your pocket, you have no support, you don’t know how it’s going to work out, just the absolute belief that somehow it’s going to work out. And you’re on a path that’s about 36,000 miles long and you have very little idea what’s going to happen. So… at that point, you’re even further away than the human mission to Jupiter,” he said.

Bushby’s travels over the past 27 years have seen many close encounters.

He famously crossed the Darien Gorge, was captured by Russian authorities, imprisoned in Panama, nearly froze to death in Alaska, and spent 31 days swimming across the Caspian Sea.

On top of all this, he walked many miles, went days without food, relied on strangers for medical help, and spent many nights alone in a tent pitched on the side of the road.

“The psychology of hunger is interesting. It’s something that most of us aren’t very familiar with. When we don’t know where we’re going to get our next meal, we become obsessed with finding something to eat,” Bushby said.

“There’s food everywhere, every shadow, every rock looks edible. You end up mostly running around chasing hallucinations,” he said.

Despite all the challenges he overcame, one of the biggest lessons he discovered throughout his journey had little to do with physical pain or perseverance. Rather, it was about happiness and how it ultimately comes from relationships.

“If you ask me what’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done in the last 27 years, it’s definitely losing the women you’ve fallen in love with. That’s the hardest thing you deal with…physically. Pain is easy, but suffering is different,” Bushby said.

On the other hand, he added, “I was happiest when I was in that kind of relationship. When I was with someone else.”

He also learned that people are generally very hospitable in all cultures and regions around the world. He says he was taken in, fed and cared for many times during his journey by strangers who asked nothing in return.

“You don’t even speak the same language. So it’s just a smile and a nod and then they send you on their way…It’s just one story after another and it spans every culture, every country,” he said.

“This world is much friendlier and nicer than it seems.”

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