Karl Bushby walks into Hull after 28 years on foot from Chile, covering about 50,000 km

Arrival in Hull

Karl Bushby, a 57-year-old former paratrooper, crossed the Humber Bridge through thick fog on Sunday, 1 November, pushing a metal trolley that carries his few belongings. Hundreds of people cheered him on the bridge according to newsORF, and he told BBC Radio Humberside that he was completely overwhelmed by the crowd. He calls the cart he has pushed for 28 years La Bestia. The walk ended on Monday, 2 November, in Hull, the port city in north-east England that he calls his childhood home. His mother Angela, his son Adam, 36, and a 12-year-old granddaughter he had never met were waiting for him at her home in the north of the city. Hull's mayor, Maria Coward, was due to give him an official welcome that day.

Why the walk took 28 years

Bushby set out in November 1998 after his marriage ended and his wife moved with their son to Northern Ireland. He had estimated the journey would take about 12 years. Visa restrictions, the 2008 financial crisis, which cost him sponsors, the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical issues all stretched it out. Russian authorities refused him a visa for a long period after he walked across the frozen Bering Strait, according to newsORF. newsORF put the combined cost of visa problems, the 2008 crisis and the pandemic at about 14 of his 28 years on the road. He had set himself two rules: use no means of transport and do not go home until the walk is complete. Each time he was forced to stop, AGI reports, he resumed from the exact point where he had left off.

The route and the milestones

Bushby walked through Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, crossed the Darien Gap into Panama, and then passed through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico before entering the United States and Canada. He crossed the Bering Strait, continued through Central Asia and Europe, and swam across the Caspian Sea, according to EL MUNDO. Along the way he met a polar bear, avoided a conflict zone in Colombia by swimming through crocodile-infested waters, and was attacked by a crowd in Peru. A helicopter rescued him from an ice block that was drifting away from the coast. In early October he swam the English Channel, which BBC dates to 5 October.

Sources differ on the number of countries crossed: newsORF says 29, EL MUNDO says 30, and The Telegraph says 31. BBC gives the total distance as 49,890 km, while EL MUNDO puts it at about 50,000 km.

What comes next

Bushby admits that the end of the walk brings as much unease as joy. He said his purpose and reason for living were about to end, and he worried about readjusting to a society he no longer knows, even about having to live in his mother's basement, according to EL MUNDO. Speaking to Rai, he said he will have to find a way back into the adult world. After nearly three decades spent chasing one goal, he now has to learn how to stop. German director Werner Herzog is documenting the return for a film titled Walk of Life, according to Rai.