British adventurer Karl Bushby, 57, has completed a 28-year journey on foot from Chile to England, covering approximately 50,000 kilometres. He arrived at his mother's home in Hull, northern England, on Monday, crossing the finish line to reunite with his family after nearly three decades on the road.
Bushby set off in November 1998, shortly after his marriage broke down and his wife moved to Northern Ireland with their son. He returned to Hull to reunite with his mother, Angela, whom he had not seen in about three decades, and was also due to meet his granddaughter for the first time.
Emotional Welcome in Hull
A crowd of up to 1,000 people cheered him into the city centre, a day after he crossed the Humber Bridge in thick mist. He embraced his mother, Angela, outside her house. Later on Monday, he was due to meet his 36-year-old son, Adam, and a 12-year-old granddaughter he had never met.
Bushby, a former paratrooper, set off from Punta Arenas in southern Chile on November 1, 1998, with a tent, a few hundred dollars and a cheap plastic camera. He was 29 at the time. His marriage had broken down, and his wife had moved back to Northern Ireland with their son.
The Journey's Origin and Rules
The idea came from a birthday card from his father, NPR reported. It described two UK Special Forces members arguing over whether a person could walk from London to New York through the Bering Strait. Bushby decided to try it, then to go further.
His plan had two rules: use no form of transport to move forward, and do not come home until it is finished. The route took him the length of the Americas, over the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia in 2006, then through Central Asia and Europe, past jungles, mountains and deserts. He pushed his belongings the whole way on a metal-framed cart.
Challenges and Setbacks
Reports say he caught amoebic dysentery in Colombia, was robbed in Ecuador and was jailed in Panama over his immigration status. Progress was never steady. Moscow refused him a visa at one point, and the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic caused more stops. During those breaks he lived at a base in Mexico, then resumed from the exact spot where he had stopped.
The no-transport rule had a catch: when he could not walk, he swam, including across the Caspian Sea. The last obstacle was the English Channel, where a request to walk through the Channel Tunnel was refused. With special permission from the French authorities, he swam across in early October, setting foot on UK soil for the first time in 28 years.
Final Steps and Reactions
Filmmaker Werner Herzog and a crew followed his final steps for a documentary called "Walk of Life." The production company behind it has supported Bushby with money and logistics for 16 years. "I didn't do this alone," Bushby told the crowd, calling the journey a "global effort." Hull Mayor Maria Coward said the city took pride in what she called his "incredible achievement."
Ahead of his return, Bushby told AFP he was apprehensive about life back in Britain. "I've got to try and get established in the grown-up world again," he said.
