After 28 years, 31,000 miles, dangerous encounters with polar bears and two stints behind bars, a British adventurer finally made it home to his mother. Her first question? “Where have you been?”
Karl Bushby, 57, completed one of the world’s most extraordinary journeys Monday, November 2, when he returned to his childhood home in Hull, England, nearly three decades after setting out to walk around the globe.
His emotional mother, Angela, 75, burst into tears as the former British paratrooper embraced her outside the same house he left in 1998. A banner reading “Welcome Home Son” greeted him, while hundreds of supporters had lined the streets to celebrate his remarkable achievement.
The reunion marked the end of an adventure that began when Bushby was just 29. Armed with a determination to travel around the world without using transportation to advance his journey, he started walking from the southern tip of Chile on November 1, 1998. He also vowed never to return home until he could arrive on foot.
What he initially expected to take roughly 12 years became a grueling 28-year odyssey across four continents and 30 countries, filled with dangers that repeatedly threatened to derail his dream.
Bushby trekked through the lawless Darién Gap jungle between Colombia and Panama, where he encountered armed conflict before spending 18 days in a Panamanian jail for crossing a restricted border area.
In 2006, he and fellow adventurer Dimitry Kieffer attempted the treacherous crossing of the frozen Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, facing a polar bear, unstable ice and near-fatal plunges into freezing water. After reaching Russia, the pair were detained for entering the country illegally.
But physical danger wasn’t his only obstacle. Visa disputes, financial troubles, the COVID-19 pandemic and international tensions repeatedly brought his expedition to a standstill. At one point, navigating Russia took nearly a decade.
Determined to honor his no-transportation rule, Bushby even swam across the Caspian Sea and, most recently, the English Channel. After reaching England on October 5, he faced one final 250-mile walk to his mother’s front door.
The homecoming was especially emotional because Bushby had not seen his mother in a decade. He also reunited with his 36-year-old son, Adam, whom he had seen only a handful of times during the journey, and met his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time.
Speaking to cheering crowds shortly before the reunion, Bushby credited the countless strangers who offered food, shelter, encouragement and assistance along the way.
“They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me here,” he said.
Now, after spending nearly half his adult life pursuing an almost unimaginable goal, Bushby faces a challenge he hasn’t experienced in decades: settling down and figuring out what comes next.
And for his mother, who waited 28 years for her son to walk back through the door, the longest journey was finally over.
Fact-checked against November 2 reporting from the Associated Press and Bushby’s official expedition history. The account confirms that he has already met his granddaughter, rather than merely planning to do so. AP News+2
It may have taken you 28 years to do it, but you were blessed that you did make it for you mom.😊❤️🙏