Karl Bushby embraces emotional mother as he completes his 28-year,
31,000-mile walk around world
[November 03, 2026]
By BRIAN MELLEY and JON SUPER
HULL, England (AP) — Karl Bushby embraced his weeping mother in his arms
Monday as he returned to his northern England home to complete a 28-year
odyssey to walk around the world.
“Where have you been?” his mother, Angela, asked as he arrived outside
the home he left in 1998 that was now decked with a banner saying
“Welcome Home Son.”
He didn’t need to tell her.
Bushby set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998, and walked
31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) across four continents and 30 countries
to get home. He navigated shifting ice over the Bering Strait and swam
across the Caspian Sea and English Channel to avoid taking a boat or
plane — or any transport — to propel him forward.
He vowed not to return until he could complete the journey on foot. It
was an eye-opening adventure full of danger and drudgery that was
interrupted for years at a time by the unexpected: the 2008 financial
crash that sapped funding from sponsors, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and
mountains of bureaucratic red tape to get across international borders.
A trek made possible by kind strangers
On the final day of the journey, Bushby pushed his cart toward a hero’s
welcome at City Hall before setting off for the last stretch to see his
mother.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he joked to the crowd of hundreds who
cheered his arrival. “Is that it, is it done?”
The ex-paratrooper said he looked like he was 10 years old when he left
his mother's row house at the age of 29. He returned at 57 — softer,
grayer and weathered, but far more worldly.
“They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me
here,” Bushby said. “The kindness of strangers, so many, from
individuals to nation states to get me back here today. I didn’t do this
alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”
The idea started with a birthday card from his dad
Bushby had a thirst for adventure, but his mission only came into focus
when his father, Keith, sent him a birthday card in the mid-90s. His
dad, an army veteran himself, mentioned an argument two special forces
troops had about the possibility of walking from London to New York over
the Bering land bridge, believed by some scientists to have been used by
early humans to migrate from Asia to the Americas at a time of lower sea
levels.
Perilous jungles, scorching deserts and frozen tundra slowed him down,
but bureaucratic holdups brought his adventure to a halt for long
periods.
Bushby originally calculated the distance could be covered in about five
years, but he knew that was unrealistic.
“You just dump a whole bucket full of reality on that,” he said. “We
suspected that it was 12 years plus. And the plus was a big plus. But
never in our wildest dreams would we ever have imagined 28 years.”
Danger on land and sea followed by border problems
He dodged Colombia's armed conflict in the dangerous Darién Gap, the
roadless and rugged jungle, rainforest and mountains between South and
Central America in 2001, and was then jailed for 18 days after crossing
a restricted border zone in Panama.
After being airlifted to safety during the 56-mile (90-kilometer) Bering
Strait crossing in 2006 with American adventurer Dimitry Kieffer, they
started again and faced a standoff with a polar bear, survived
near-death plunges into freezing waters and almost lost all their
supplies when their sleds plunged in the sea. After managing the rare
crossing, the pair were jailed and faced deportation for entering Russia
illegally.
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British adventurer Karl Bushby embraces his mother Angela Bushby as
he arrives back at her home in Hull after 28 years of his journey
walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP
Photo/Jon Super)
It took Bushby almost 10 years to make his way through Russia in
fits and starts because of visa struggles and weather that only
allowed travel a few months a year. When Russia denied him a visa in
2012, Bushby walked in protest from Los Angeles to the Russian
Embassy in Washington, D.C., which eventually led to him getting the
proper paperwork.
Family firsts and a long-awaited reunion
Bushby has met several times over the decades with family members
who have met up with him on his journey. He was greeted on the beach
in Dover by his father and brothers after crossing the channel last
month.
He reunited with Adam, his 36-year-old son from an early marriage
whom he had rarely seen, and he met his 12-year-old granddaughter
for the first time, which he said was amazing.
Bushby hadn't seen his mother in a decade, setting the stage for an
emotional and somewhat awkward reunion captured amid a throng of
cameras and a documentary film crew.
“Behave yourself, mother,” he joked, as his mother wrapped her arms
around him and wept. “Get yourself together.”
He said he had long tried to imagine that moment he would return to
find his mother at the gate where he left her so long ago. He said
it was an emotional reunion that was “one great, big, blurry mess”
he was trying to process.
“It was kind of almost shocking to see my mother after so long,” he
said at a news conference later. “She’s changed a lot. We’ve all
changed a lot in that time.”
Next steps for a man who walked millions
In the final days of his trip, Bushby spoke of his anxiety over the
trip ending, not knowing what he would do next and coming to terms
with having to live in his mom’s basement.
“It’s like stepping across the event horizon into a black hole,” he
told The Associated Press. “I have no idea what’s about to happen in
my life.”
There will be plenty to keep him busy. Six speaking engagements are
scheduled in the next two months, a sequel to his memoir “Giant
Steps" is due and German filmmaker Werner Herzog is making a
documentary on his trek.
He expects to struggle with the ups and downs other adventurers have
experienced after long journeys.
“The only way I think, you know, you get over that is just get
another mission, another passion and get busy,” he said. “That’s
what I intend on doing.”
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Melley reported from London.
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