Karl Bushby, a 57-year-old British former paratrooper, finished a 28-year journey around the globe on foot Monday, reaching his mother's house in Hull, England, after roughly 31,000 miles without riding any motorized transport forward.
His mother, Angela, wrapped him in a hug outside her terraced home beneath a banner that read Welcome Home Son. The two had not seen each other in a decade. Earlier, hundreds of supporters had cheered his arrival at City Hall.
Bushby told the crowd he owed the feat to strangers, individuals and entire nations who helped him along the way, and said he had not done it by himself.
They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me here
Karl Bushby, British adventurer
He set off from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998, at age 29, with a tent, a few hundred dollars and a cheap plastic camera. The trek, which came to be called the Goliath Expedition, spanned four continents and 30 countries.
Ice, jungle and jail
Heading north through the Americas, he pushed through the Darién Gap, the roadless jungle and mountains linking South and Central America, in 2001. Panama then held him for 18 days after he entered a restricted border zone.
In 2006 he tackled the 56-mile Bering Strait crossing with American adventurer Dimitry Kieffer. After an airlift to safety, the pair tried again, facing down a polar bear, falling into freezing water and nearly losing their supplies when their sleds went into the sea. Once across, they were jailed and threatened with deportation for entering Russia illegally.
Crossing Russia took him nearly 10 years, slowed by visa troubles and weather that permitted travel only a few months a year. When Moscow refused him a visa in 2012, he staged a protest march on foot across the United States, starting in Los Angeles and ending at Russia's diplomatic mission in the U.S. capital, a move that eventually got him the documents he needed.
From there he moved on through Mongolia and China. To avoid boats or planes, he swam the Caspian Sea and, last month, the English Channel, the final major barrier before the last stretch home.
The last day in the tent. The last day on the road. After 28 years you couldn’t ask for more than this.
Karl Bushby, British adventurer
Delays stretched the plan
Bushby first figured the route would take about five years, though he knew that was optimistic and expected 12 or more. The 2008 global financial crisis cost him major sponsors, compounding delays caused by red tape, funding gaps and harsh terrain.
The idea took shape in the mid-1990s after his father, Keith, an army veteran, sent him a birthday card describing a debate among special forces troops over whether a person could walk from London to New York by way of the Bering land bridge.
A feature-length documentary about the journey is in production, and Bushby plans a speaking tour around England in the coming weeks. He was also expected to meet his son, Adam, and his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time.
