British adventurer Karl Bushby completes 28-year global trek and returns to Hull
Karl Bushby, 57, finished a 28-year, 50,000-kilometre walk around the world and was welcomed home by his mother and supporters in Hull, England.
British adventurer Karl Bushby arrived at his childhood home in Hull, northern England, on Monday after completing a 28-year, roughly 50,000-kilometre walk around the globe. His mother, Angela, greeted him outside her terraced house beneath a banner that read “Welcome Home Son.”
Hundreds of supporters gathered in the city centre to cheer his final approach. Bushby joked, “Sorry to keep you waiting… Is that it, is it done?”
Bushby began the expedition, known as the Goliath Expedition, in Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998, carrying only a tent, a modest sum of cash and a plastic camera. He aimed to reach Hull without using motorised transport, traversing the Americas, crossing the Bering Strait on foot, and moving through Mongolia, China and the Caspian Sea before heading into Europe.
The journey involved negotiating the Darien Gap jungle, a detention in Russia, and repeated visa and funding challenges. The 2008 global financial crisis caused major sponsors to withdraw, extending the originally projected 12-year trek to 28 years. In the month before his return, Bushby swam across the English Channel, clearing the last major obstacle.
“They say it takes a village, but literally it took a world to get me here,” he said upon arrival. “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.”
A feature-length documentary about his journey is currently in production, and Bushby plans to launch a speaking tour across England in the coming weeks.