British Adventurer Completes 28-Year Journey Around World

Karl Bushby completed a 28-year global odyssey on Monday by walking to his mother Angela Bushby’s home in Hull, England, finishing an unbroken trek across four continents and 30 countries.

The former paratrooper set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998, when he was 29 years old, and arrived home at age 57 after covering roughly 31,000 miles.

His journey was governed by two strict rules: he could not use transport to advance, and he could not return to the United Kingdom until the final step.

The endeavor faced years of delays from bureaucratic visa hurdles, illnesses, the 2007 global economic crash, the Covid pandemic and regional conflicts.

Crowds and documentary crews gathered in Hull as Bushby pushed his two-wheeled cart the final miles to a hero’s welcome.

“I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team, the biggest team: Earth,” said Karl Bushby to well-wishers in the city center.

NBC News reported that the adventurer survived a polar bear encounter, freezing waters, and a jail stay after crossing a restricted border zone in Panama.

The route also included navigating the Darién Gap, crossing the Bering Strait, and swimming across the Caspian Sea and the English Channel.

“It’s good to be home. It feels surreal,” Bushby said as he reached the front door of his mother's house.

His mother had not seen her son for a decade before the reunion outside her row house, according to BBC News and NBC News.

Bushby also reunited with his son and a 12-year-old granddaughter whom he had never met before crossing the Humber Bridge.

“I’m home, but it’s not the home that I'm used to now for so long,” Bushby said, according to CBS News.

The adventurer now faces the challenge of readjusting to normal life and processing the end of his expedition.