Karl Bushby completes 28-year walk around the world in his home city of Hull

Hull, United Kingdom. British adventurer Karl Bushby finished a walk around the globe on Monday, completing a 31,000-mile route at the house where he grew up. Hundreds of supporters welcomed the 57-year-old in the square of his home city, Hull, on Monday morning.

The final stretch

Bushby cut his way through Central American jungles and crossed the frozen passage between Alaska and Russia. Last month he swam the English Channel, the closing leg of a journey completed entirely by his own muscle power.

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Addressing the crowd in Hull, he said: “After 28 years, you just couldn’t ask for more than this”. He then continued on foot, pushing his few belongings in a trolley with a spare tyre on top that will no longer be needed. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around,” he added. He then went to the family home, where his mother, his 36-year-old son and his 12-year-old granddaughter were waiting.

How the journey began

Bushby served in the Parachute Regiment of the British Army in his twenties. After his marriage broke down, he drew a line across a world map and set out. He was inspired by his father, who had wondered whether a person could walk from London to New York.

He began in Chile with a tent, a few hundred dollars and a cheap plastic camera. He travelled north through the Americas and crossed from Alaska into Russia, then continued through Mongolia and China. He returned through Europe after swimming across the Caspian Sea.

Obstacles along the way

Bushby originally planned for the trek to take around 10 years. He had not foreseen the difficulties that lay ahead. These included a short spell in prison in Panama, being held at gunpoint in Mexico, and detention by Russian authorities for crossing the border illegally. The 2008 financial crisis and the COVID pandemic caused further delays.

In an interview with Reuters last year, he described the monotony as extreme at times. In deserts, he said, the scenery could stay the same for days or weeks, which could become mentally disorienting, and the Arctic was similar.

He told the Telegraph newspaper that this was what a 21st-century odyssey looked like. By his account, about half of it meant handling bureaucratic and geopolitical problems rather than only natural barriers, and on some occasions the only answer was to wait.