BBC Video of First Modern-Day Crossing of the Bering Strait

We've been posting here about the amazing exploits of Karl Bushby who is in the middle of an extraordinary journey to walk around the world.

As if this isn't cool enough, Karl aimed to do so by being the first person in modern history to walk across the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia.

Although no one has been able to do so in recorded history, Karl and his travel buddy Dimitri Kieffer gave it their best shot and emerged wet, cold and successful on the Russian side--where both were promptly arrested for not properly processing their paperwork upon entering the country (obviously there is no customs/border station on the shores of the Bering Strait).

That's the last I heard about the daring crossing of the Bering Strait until recently returning to Karl's website where I discovered that the BBC had been on hand to film part of the crossing and had put together an amazing program with the footage.

The program is now available in six parts on Karl's website. And let me tell you, it is amazing. Even before they get to the actual crossing of the strait, the footage shot in this remote part of Alaska is simply breathtaking. The reporter then follows Karl and Dmitri for the first couple of miles over the frozen sea before wimping out and heading back as the ice began to get thinner. Karl and Dmitri then power onwards with their own video camera capturing a surrealistic landscape and the kick-ass spirit of an adventure never accomplished before.

Much of their journey is spent swimming in float suits across bone-jaring water that looks like someone dumped a bunch of massive ice cubes into an even bigger slushy. They'd swim from ice chunk to ice chunk, heaving themselves up with pick axes and towing their gear behind them in some type of improvised floaty.

The 57 miles they had hoped to cross in a couple of days, turned into 150 miles and 14 days as they drifted north (see photo). When they did finally make it, they were arrested, put on trial, and deported--hardly the hero's welcome they expected. Everything is back in order now, however, and they are continuing the journey across Russia.

The Bering Strait video is really remarkable footage and I recommend that you spend 30 minutes viewing the entirety of the program. Until I did so myself, I never fully appreciated the challenges involved in such a journey. Simply Amazing!

Filed under: Hiking, Russian Federation