Thursday, March 15, 2007

Walk again

An explorer has resumed his record-breaking attempt to walk 36,000 miles (57,936km) around the world after a battle with Russian authorities.

Karl Bushby, a former paratrooper from Hull, had to abandon his journey when he was arrested for illegally entering Russia last April. After an 11-month legal battle the 37-year-old secured the correct permit, and began trekking again from Siberia.

Mr Bushby's father, who lives in Hereford, is financing the trip. Karl Bushby started again from the remote Chukotka region of Siberia on Thursday.

He has walked 17,000 miles (27,359km) since beginning his trip on 1 November 1998.
Mr Bushby was arrested in the remote region of Chukotka in north-east Russia on 1 April after walking across the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska.

In May last year Mr Bushby thanked British MPs and Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club who is also governor for the region, for "working behind the scenes" to get his trek back on track. However, the delays mean his route has been amended to avoid vast areas of swamp which would have been frozen over if he had been travelling during the winter as originally planned.

That has added 500 miles (805km) to this stage of his journey, which runs from Uelen to Yakutsk. Mr Bushby hopes to return home to Hull in 2009.

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