British adventurer Karl Bushby returns home after a 28-year walk around the world

Walked by Karl Bushby since 1998

50,000 km

Karl Bushby, 57, reached his mother's house in Hull, northern England, on Monday after walking some 50,000 km through 29 countries.

The route home

• North through the Americas and the Darien Gap
• Across the ice of the Bering Strait to Russia
• Through Mongolia and China
• Swimming across the Caspian Sea
• Swimming the English Channel in October

He set out from Punta Arenas, in southern Chile, in November 1998, with one rule: no motorized transport to move the journey forward.

Visa refusals, the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic stretched what he expected to be a 12-year journey into 28 years.

“They say it takes a village, but literally it took a world to get me here,” Bushby said as he arrived in Hull.

— Karl Bushby

What's next

German director Werner Herzog is making a documentary about the journey, Walk of Life, and Bushby plans a speaking tour around England in the coming weeks.