Karl Bushby Ends 28-Year, 31,000-Mile Global Walk in Hull

Karl Bushby finished his 28-year journey around the world on Monday by arriving at his mother's house in Hull, northern England. The 57-year-old former paratrooper embraced Angela Bushby outside her row house, a residence he departed in 1998. A large crowd, journalists, and a documentary film crew gathered outside the home, which displayed a banner reading "Welcome Home Son."

Bushby left the house as a 29-year-old man, walking to a Royal Air Force base near Oxford to catch a flight to South America. He started his trek in Punta Arenas, Chile, on November 1, 1998. Over nearly three decades, he covered 31,000 miles, or 50,000 kilometers, across four continents and 30 countries. He avoided planes and boats by swimming across the Caspian Sea and the English Channel and crossing shifting ice in the Bering Strait.

The physical obstacles included frozen tundra, scorching deserts, and dense jungles, but bureaucratic delays often stopped his progress for long periods. Bushby originally estimated the trip would take five years. He later admitted the reality was harsher, noting that while his team suspected the trip would take 12 years or more, no one imagined it would take 28 years.

Specific hardships marked the route. In 2001, he navigated the Darien Gap between South and Central America, a roadless area of rainforest and mountains, and was jailed for 18 days in Panama for crossing a restricted border zone. In 2006, he crossed the 56-mile Bering Strait with American adventurer Dimitry Kieffer. During that crossing, the pair faced a polar bear, survived cold water plunges, and nearly lost their supplies when their sleds fell into the sea. They were subsequently jailed in Russia for entering illegally.

Bushby spent nearly 10 years moving through Russia in fits and starts due to visa issues and weather that permitted travel only a few months annually. When Russia denied him a visa in 2012, he walked from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest. That walk eventually secured the proper paperwork for his entry.

On the final leg of his journey, Bushby pushed a two-wheeled cart through Hull after receiving a welcome at City Hall. He joked to the crowd in the city center, asking if the journey was finally done. He then traveled to his mother's home, where he had not seen her in a decade. He also planned to meet his son, Adam, and his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time.

Bushby told the gathering that the final week contained many last moments, including his last day in a tent and on the road. He stated that after 28 years, he could not ask for more than reaching his mother's house. He credited the kindness of strangers from individuals to nation states for helping him complete the trip, saying he did not do it alone.