After 28 years, British adventurer Karl Bushby returned to his hometown in northeast England on Monday, at the end of a 50,000-kilometer journey that took him from Chile through 29 countries on foot, without ever resorting to any means of transport.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 12:09Modified on: 02/11/2026 - 15:01

After 28 years of walking around the world and some 50,000 kilometers traveled, British adventurer Karl Bushby arrived on Monday, November 2, in his hometown of Hull, in the north-east of England, where he was cheered by several hundred people.

This 57-year-old man, a former British army paratrooper, left southern Chile in 1998 and set two rules for his journey: not to use any means of transport to advance, and not to return home before completing the challenge.

"I didn't do this alone (...) you can't imagine the number of people who were involved in overcoming the obstacles", from visa refusals to crossing the Channel, declared Karl Bushby, standing on a podium in front of Hull town hall.

He traveled on foot across the entire American continent, crossing the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia, then trekking through Central Asia and Europe, in landscapes ranging from jungles to mountains to deserts and seas of ice.

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Several hundred residents waited for their hero in front of the town hall, with a banner reading “Welcome home, Karl”.

"I find Karl incredible. I've been following him for eight years, and he's been walking since I was born, it's great," Erin Anderson, a 28-year-old marketing executive, told AFP.

“Everyone is proud of you, proud of your courage,” greeted the mayor of Hull, Maria Coward.

After this brief ceremony, the explorer must complete the very last stage of his epic, towards the house of his mother, Angela, where he will find his son Adam, 36, and his 12-year-old granddaughter whom he has never met.

This adventurer had already been acclaimed on Sunday when he crossed the Humber Suspension Bridge, about three hours on foot from his home, in thick fog.

The former soldier said he was “absolutely overwhelmed” by the welcome he received.

Karl Bushby began his adventure at the age of 29, after the breakdown of his marriage and the departure of his wife for Northern Ireland with their son.

In nearly three decades, his journey has been interrupted several times. Moscow notably refused him a visa for years, and other visa problems, the financial crisis of 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic will have cost him a total of 14 of his 28 years of travel, he told AFP at the end of September.

During these periods, Karl Bushby put his travels on hold, living in particular in Mexico, then continuing where he left off once the situation had recovered. He crossed 29 countries.

"We stood up to governments. We faced some very difficult challenges (...) It was a global, planetary effort," he said on Monday.

He reached the UK earlier in October by swimming across the English Channel from northern France. A small group of friends and family, including his father, greeted him on the beach near Dover in southern England.

“It’s good to feel British soil under my feet again after all these years,” Karl Bushby commented in a press release. “It wasn’t easy, but that was the whole point: to prove that I could do more than I thought I was capable of. We can all accomplish much more than we imagine,” added the adventurer.

German director Werner Herzog and a film crew accompanied Karl Bushby on his return, with the filmmaker preparing a documentary about his trip called "Walk of Life".

The film's production company has supported the progress of the former paratrooper for 16 years, providing him with financial and logistical assistance.

In an interview with AFP in northern France last month, Karl Bushby expressed some apprehension about returning to normal life in the United Kingdom. “I will have to try to reintegrate into the adult world,” he admitted.

With AFP

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