By Olesya Dmitracova
Moscow - A British adventurer will resume his unprecedented walk around the globe on Thursday after overcoming red tape that forced almost a year's break in his journey, his father said on Tuesday.
Border guards stopped former paratrooper Karl Bushby and his temporary companion American Dimitri Kieffer last April on Russia's remote Chukotka peninsula after they crossed the sea ice bridge between Russia and Alaska.
A court then ruled they would have to leave Russia after failing to get their passports stamped on entry, threatening to put an end to Bushby's bid to follow an unbroken route on foot from the southern tip of South America back home to Britain.
But Bushby and Kieffer won on appeal.
Bushby began his 60 000km trek in 1998 expecting it to take at least 12 years.
After returning to Alaska to regroup and restock, Bushby planned to return to Russia in winter - when frost makes walking south on bogs much easier - to pick up his adventure from the point where he was first stopped.
"Unfortunately, because of problems we had obtaining permits for the Chukotka region... Karl and Dimitri never got the permits until just a week or two ago," Bushby's father Keith told Reuters by telephone from Britain.
Bushby will fly from Nome in Alaska to Chukotka's capital Anadyr on Thursday. He could not be reached for comment.
"He's pretty matter-of-fact about it," his father said. "He has been doing it for eight years. It's what he does now, it's like his job. It's another day at the office."
He added that Bushby had won the support of the Chukotka governor, Roman Abramovich, better known as Russia's richest man and the billionaire owner of London soccer club Chelsea.
"The governor's office have been a great help out there, they really have. They've more or less solved the problem."
From Chukotka, Bushby plans to trek west across Russia to Ukraine and across Europe to England.