Karl Bushby completed his 28-year, 31,000-mile walk around the world on Nov. 2, returning to his mother’s home in Hull, England. He set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998. Along the way, the former paratrooper crossed four continents and 30 countries on foot, refusing to let boats, planes or any other transport carry him forward.
His mother, Angela Bushby, had not seen him in a decade, The Associated Press reported. When he finally reached her gate, she asked him simply, “Where have you been?”
What Happened and What Bushby Said
Bushby held himself to two rules for the entire trip, according to the AP. Nothing could carry him forward but his own body, and he couldn’t go home until he got there on foot. Keeping both meant some extraordinary workarounds. He picked his way across moving ice on the Bering Strait, then swam the Caspian Sea and, in October, the English Channel.
After greeting his mother, Bushby thanked the people who helped him along the way.
“They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me here,” Bushby said, according to the AP. “The kindness of strangers, so many, from individuals to nation states to get me back here today. I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”
Earlier that day, hundreds of supporters gathered outside Hull’s City Hall for a civic welcome. Bushby told the crowd the past week had been full of endings. “It’s been a week of lasts. The last day in the tent. The last day on the road,” he said, the AP reported. “After 28 years you couldn’t ask for more than this. This is the last of the last few steps almost to my mother’s house.”
He also told the crowd, “There has never been a welcome home like this, I am sure,” the BBC reported. He called the scene “absolute madness” and closed with “just an enormous thank you,” according to LBC.
Once he reached his mother’s house, the moment left him reeling. Bushby said he was “still processing” being back, the BBC reported, and described the day as “one great big, blurry mess” inside his head, according to the Yorkshire Post.
Why the Walk Took 28 Years
Bushby once calculated the distance could be covered in about five years, though he knew that number was unrealistic, the AP reported. His team expected 12 years or more. Instead, it took 28, and Bushby told the BBC he spent only about 15 of those years actually walking. The 2008 financial crash, which drained his sponsor money, and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic both stopped him for long stretches, along with years of border paperwork, according to the AP.
Russia alone consumed nearly a decade. Visa trouble and brutal weather that allowed only a few months of travel each year kept him stopping and starting, the AP reported. After Russia refused him a visa in 2012, Bushby spent a year walking roughly 3,500 miles from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., in protest. It worked. He eventually got his paperwork.
He started out as what the BBC called a “penniless backpacker,” sometimes getting by on handouts or food people had thrown away by the roadside. The trip began after his marriage ended and his wife returned to Northern Ireland with their son, AFP reported.
What’s Next for Bushby
The homecoming came with a few family firsts. Bushby reunited with his 36-year-old son, Adam, whom he rarely saw during the journey, and met his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time, the AP reported.
As for long walks, he’s done. Bushby told AFP he’s “hanging my boots up.” He’s scheduled to tell his story on stage at Hull New Theatre on Nov. 13 and York Theatre Royal on Nov. 22, according to the Yorkshire Post. German filmmaker Werner Herzog is also making a feature-length documentary about the journey, titled “Walk of Life.”
More Human Interest news from Total Apex Entertainment.
Don't stop here
Every Score. Every Story. One Home.
Breaking sports, entertainment and news from across the Total Apex network, updated all day.
Get the Full Story →
