Twenty-eight years after walking away from his mother’s home in Hull, England, 57-year-old former British paratrooper Karl Bushby has finally completed an unbroken, round-the-world journey on foot!
Guided by two non-negotiable rules; never accept a ride in a vehicle and never visit home until reaching it under his own power. Bushby kicked off his expedition in Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998 with under $1,000. What he originally hoped would take five years turned into nearly three decades across four continents.
Along the way, the trek tested his survival at every turn:
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Brutal terrain: He negotiated armed conflict in Panama’s roadless Darién Gap, spent 18 days locked up in a Panamanian jail, and faced freezing waters and a polar bear while trekking across the frozen Bering Strait.
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Geopolitical dead ends: Visa rejections and travel bans in Russia stalled his timeline for nearly a decade, forcing extreme detours through Mongolia, China, and a weekslong swim across the Caspian Sea.
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A final swim: After officials denied him permission to walk the Channel Tunnel, Bushby took to the water, swimming the English Channel over three days to make landfall in Dover.
On his final walk across the Humber Bridge and into Hull, Bushby reunited with his mother, his now 36-year-old son, and met his 12-year-old granddaughter for the very first time.
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