GONE WALKABOUT:

36,000-mile trek hits speed bump (Seattle Times, 4/05/06)

A pair of British and American adventurers who say they crossed a 56-mile stretch of the frozen Bering Strait on foot from Alaska, with brief periods of swimming in protective suits, have been detained in Russia's far eastern Chukotka region for violating border regulations, authorities said Tuesday.

Karl Bushby, a Briton who is on a well-publicized attempt to walk from the tip of South America to Britain, was picked up with Dimitri Kieffer, an endurance racer who has lived in Seattle, after entering the small settlement of Uelen, according to Keith Bushby, Karl's father, who spoke by telephone from Britain.

Uelen is near the point where the Bering Sea meets the Chukchi Sea, about 560 miles northwest of the provincial capital, Anadyr.

Bushby, a former paratrooper, set off in 1998 and hopes to reach Britain in 2009 after walking about 36,000 miles, according to a Web site run by his father and other supporters. The feat has never been accomplished. Bushby has covered 17,000 miles.