April 4, 2006
A former paratrooper attempting to walk around the world was being questioned by Russian security services today after becoming the first Briton to cross the ice bridge from Alaska to Russia on foot.
FSB border guards also detained Dimitri Kieffer, a 40-year-old endurance runner with French and US citizenship who joined Mr Bushby for the two-week trek across the 55-mile Bering Strait.
The Strait was a no-go area during the Cold War, and the only previous recorded crossing was by a Russian father and son at their third attempt in 1998. But the FSB was unimpressed by Mr Bushby’s achievement. It said that he and his colleague, who were apprehended in the remote northeastern region of Chukotka, had valid Russian business visas but had crossed the border illegally and were being held for questioning.
"The American and the Briton did not notify the Russian side through official channels of their crossing, which not only violated border legislation, but also put their lives in serious danger," said Vadim Shibayev, an FSB spokesman.
Andrei Orlov, a spokesman for the FSB’s northeastern border guards, said that the men were carrying satellite telephones, GPS navigation equipment, a video camera and a Colt Magnum pistol with live ammunition.
The British Embassy said that Mr Bushby was staying in a hotel in Chukotka while the authorities checked his story. "We hope this will be resolved quickly and that he’ll be allowed to continue his journey," an embassy spokesman said. The US Embassy declined to comment.
Mr Bushby’s father, Keith, told The Times from his home in Hereford that he had tried to get permission for his son to enter Chukotka on foot, but had been frustrated by red tape.
"We knew this was going to happen," he said "We tried phoning for months and months and we were passed around and then the phone would go dead. Karl decided that if we couldn’t talk on the phone, he’d go and see them face to face."
He said they had tried in vain to get help from Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, who is also governor of Chukotka. "It’s easier to get hold of the Queen," he said.
Mr Bushby was not too concerned that his son could be accused of spying - despite the recent "spy rock" scandal in which the FSB claimed to have exposed four MI6 agents at the British Embassy.
Karl spent 18 days in custody in Panama after walking across the border from an area of northern Colombia controlled by FARC rebels, he said.
But he said his son would be concerned that Russian authorities might not allow him to continue his journey from the exact place where he was detained.
"Karl has got to walk around the world, so if he was picked up by helicopter, he has to get back to that spot," he said. "If the Russians treat him badly and kick him out, they won’t bring any glory on themselves."
He has so far walked some 17,000 miles, crossing the Andes, the jungles of Central America, the Nevada desert, the Rockies, and the prairies of northern Canada.
He plans to complete the final leg by walking through the Channel Tunnel’s service tunnel.
He met Mr Kieffer walking across Alaska and the pair began their Bering Strait crossing on March 17, according to the expedition’s website.
The Strait is 55 miles across at the shortest point, but the two men had to take a more circuitous route to avoid open water.
Dozens of other attempted crossings have failed because the ice floes in the Strait are constantly colliding and drifting north and south at varying speeds. On one night alone, Mr Bushby and Mr Kieffer drifted 20 miles to the north. Two days later, the drifting ice took them back almost to their starting point, as well as crushing one of their sleds.
Progress was painfully slow as the two men, wearing immersion suits in case they fell in the water, dragged 180 kg of supplies and equipment over what Karl described as a "field of discarded fridges". At one point it took them four hours to advance one mile.
On another occasion, despite night-time temperatures of -30C, the ice under their tent began to break up, forcing them to run for their lives. They also spotted several polar bears, although they never came into close contact.
Karl, whose book Giant Steps comes out on Thursday, last spoke to his father shortly after reaching Russian soil on Friday. "His first words were ‘Terra Firma!’," said the elder Mr Bushby. "He was elated."