After 28 Years and 50,000 Kilometers, Karl Bushby Walks Home to Hull
After walking about 50,000 kilometers across four continents, Karl Bushby has returned to his family home in Hull, England, completing a journey that began in
After walking about 50,000 kilometers across four continents, Karl Bushby has returned to his family home in Hull, England, completing a journey that began in Chile in 1998. The 57-year-old former paratrooper arrived to cheers from a crowd of up to 1,000 people before embracing his mother and meeting his granddaughter for the first time.
Bushby had set himself two rules: he would not come back to the United Kingdom until he had finished, and he would not use transport to move his journey forward. His route took him through 30 countries, across jungles and frozen terrain, and over water by swimming.
A journey measured in decades
He left Punta Arenas, in southern Chile, in November 1998, aged 29. The trek spanned four continents and covered roughly 31,000 miles. Among its hardest passages were the Darién Gap’s dense jungle and the shifting ice of the Bering Strait.
He also swam across the Caspian Sea and, more recently, the English Channel, avoiding boats and planes as he pressed toward home. The Channel crossing took place in early October.
There were long interruptions. The 2008 financial crisis weakened funding from sponsors, the COVID-19 pandemic halted progress, and border bureaucracy added further delays. The trek’s duration turned a physical challenge into a test of patience and persistence, with years passing between some of its most demanding stages.
Homecoming in Hull
People gathered in Hull’s city centre to welcome Bushby as he completed the final miles to his mother Angela’s house in Sutton Park. A banner outside read “Welcome Home Son.” His mother, son Adam and 12-year-old granddaughter were there for the reunion.
“It’s good to be home. It feels surreal,” Bushby said at the door. Afterward, he confirmed that he was ending the expedition: “I’m hanging my boots up.”
He also spoke about the kindness of strangers he met along the way and said he expects the return to ordinary life to bring its own challenges. A documentary about the journey by filmmaker Werner Herzog is in the works. For Bushby, though, the immediate milestone was the one he had kept postponing for 28 years: reaching his mother’s doorstep.
