Karl Bushby reaches home after 28-year journey from Chile

Karl Bushby returned to his family home in Hull, England, on Monday after a journey from Chile that took 28 years and one day, ending with cheers from crowds and an embrace with his mother.

“It’s good to be home. It feels surreal,” Bushby, 57, said at the door, according to the BBC. His mother, Angela, had waited at the house in Sutton Park where she raised him. She had not seen him for a decade. “It’s good to have him home,” she said.

The former paratrooper left Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998, at age 29. He called the undertaking the Goliath Expedition and set himself two rules: He would not use transport to advance his route, and he would not return to the United Kingdom until he had completed it.

The outlets gave different estimates of the distance covered: CBS News put it at 30,000 miles, while the BBC reported 31,000 miles, or 50,000 kilometers. Bushby told the BBC that only about 15 of the 28 years were spent walking. Visa difficulties, the 2007 global economic crash and Covid delayed him, the BBC reported. CBS News also cited illness and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine among the obstacles.

His route took him north through Central America, the United States and Canada, then across the Bering Strait to Russia and onward through Central Asia. He navigated the Darién Gap, crossed the frozen strait and swam across the Caspian Sea and, most recently, the English Channel. CBS News reported that the Caspian swim took 31 days and allowed him to avoid the war in Ukraine. It also reported that armed gangs in the Darién Gap, jail in Panama and a polar bear in Siberia threatened him during the journey.

Bushby reached East Yorkshire on Sunday, crossing the Humber Bridge and meeting his son Adam, his 12-year-old granddaughter, whom he had never met, his father and his brothers, according to the BBC. “It was amazing,” he said.

Crowds greeted him in central Hull on Monday before he walked the final few miles to his mother’s house, pushing a cart he had used for about 25 years, CBS News reported. Addressing well-wishers, he credited the people who had helped him along the way. “I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team, the biggest team: Earth. That’s what it took to get me back,” he said.

The end of the expedition also brought uncertainty. Bushby told the BBC he expected to struggle with the loss of an identity built around the journey. Speaking to CBS News as he neared Hull, he said home felt unfamiliar after so long away.

“I’m home, but it’s not the home that I’m used to now for so long,” he said. “And it’s an odd feeling.”