He went for a walk back in 1998, and only arrived home almost three decades later. When Karl Bushby originally set off from Chile, he knew it wasn't going to be a quick journey. The British adventurer had vowed to cross the world on foot but seems to have underestimated just how long it would take him.
Bushby had planned to arrived in the UK twelve years after the start of his expedition. He finally made it onto home soil this week, after traveling nearly 36,000 miles through 29 countries. A visibly-aged Bushby walked onto Shakespeare beach, south of Dover, on 5 October 2026. But his epic journey is not over yet...
Most people would fly from Chile to the UK but one man decided he was going to walk
Nearly 3 decades later and more than 30,000 miles, Karl Bushby has finally arrived on home soil
Bushby, a former paratrooper, completed his round-the-world trip without using any motorized transport whatsoever. The now 57-year-old left Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998. At the time, he said he’d find a way to get to his mother’s home near Hull in northern England sans planes, trains, boats, cars, etc.
Bushby had just a few hundred dollars on him, and planned to follow a path he’d drawn on a world map. It was a journey he believed should take around twelve years. But the adventurer didn’t foresee the countless obstacles he would face along the way. Over the past 28 years, Bushby has had to pause his expedition several times.
Bushby swam from France to the UK, after being denied permission to walk through a service tunnel
According to the BBC, Hushby spent three days at sea recently, including 20 hours in the water between rests. "You have to have respect for the real swimmers who do this swim with very tight rules. They can't even touch the [support] boat, and are moving at twice the speed I was," he told journalists. "There was no training at all. I tested the wet suit to see if it fit and then it was just go."
The adventurer admits that he doubted himself at times. "After an hour in the water I was already cramping up and I was really thinking, 'am I going to be able to pull this off?'"
The 57-year-old has faced numerous obstacles and delays during his epic journey
His adventure has seen him walk the length of South America, cross the treacherous Darien Gap and head north to Alaska. He then crossed the Bering Strait on foot, and swam some parts when he needed to. Bushby walked across Siberia and the rest of Asia before swimming across the Caspian Sea.
He finally crossed into Europe at the end of 2025 and made it to the English Channel last month.
“[It] feels good to have U.K. soil under my feet after all these years,” he told the BBC after arriving at Shakespeare Beach in Dover on 5 October. “It hasn’t been easy, and that’s part of the point; proving I’m more capable than I give myself credit for.”
He's had to put his expedition on pause several times. "Visa restrictions, the 2008 financial crash which cost him sponsors, Covid-19 and geopolitics having all stopped him in his tracks," reports the BBC.
However, though it all, Bushby has always vowed not to quit until he reaches his mother's house.
Bushby was in his 20s when he took the first step of what he calls "the longest journey home"
"A line drawn on a map: four continents, a frozen sea, deserts, mountains, jungles, and over 50,000 km of unknown," his website reads. "The plan never changed: keep walking, swim when he must, until the line reaches his mother's front door. No transport to advance. No compromising the route. Stay on mission, get home."
It states the two rules the adventurer set for himself back in 1998: No transport to advance, and no going home, except on foot.
"Looking at that unbroken line, he knew he had found his life's mission..."
According to Bushby's site, the epic adventure was inspired by a birthday card he'd received from his father in the mid-1990s.
"[It] carried a note about two soldiers arguing over an impossible feat: walking from London to New York by way of the Bering Strait," explains the site, adding that Bushby "grabbed a marker, walked to his wall map, and drew a single line — from England, across Europe and Asia, over the frozen strait, and all the way down to the southern tip of South America."
Bushby says he hasn't broken either of his two rules during the 10,000 days he's been on the move.
But his journey is not over yet. The final leg will see him travel from Dover to his mom's home in Hull, which is expected to take him another few weeks. According to the BBC the adventurer should complete "the longest journey home" by early November.
He's already preparing himself for a whole new set of challenges.
“I’ve got to try and get established in the grown-up world again, because I’m going to arrive home with nothing,” he told AFP in September. But no matter what life throws at him, the past three decades have taught him that he can overcome anything.
"All of us can accomplish more than we will ever imagine," he says.
You can watch Karl Bushby's return to the UK here:
Many praised Bushby, and some had jokes
