Brit finally nears home after extraordinary 28-year walk around world
Former paratrooper Karl Bushby is finally closing in on home after a 28-year adventure that has taken him through jungles, across frozen seas and into some extraordinary scrapes along the way.
A British adventurer who left home 28 years ago with an extraordinary plan to walk back from the bottom of South America is finally just days away from completing his epic journey.
Former paratrooper Karl Bushby has crossed jungles, deserts and frozen seas, faced gunmen and a polar bear, been arrested in Russia and even swum two major stretches of open water during a journey spanning tens of thousands of miles.
The 57-year-old is now on the final stretch towards Hull, where The Yorkshire Post reports crowds are preparing to give him a huge welcome on Monday, November 2.
ITV caught up with Bushby on October 22 when he was around 100 miles from home. His Goliath Expedition will not officially end until he reaches the same family home he set out from almost three decades ago.
Journey began with £280 and an audacious idea
Bushby left Punta Arenas in southern Chile on November 1, 1998, intending to make his way back to Hull along one continuous route without using motorised transport to move himself forward.
Reports from the early years of his expedition said he began with a budget of just £280. What was originally expected to take around 12 years has instead consumed almost three decades.
His strict rules have meant that when visas, money or world events forced him to leave the route, he later returned to the point where he stopped before continuing.
Bushby has now travelled through 29 countries and covered more than 30,000 miles, with the journey taking him north through South and Central America before crossing North America, Asia and Europe.
Guerrillas, jungle and one of the world's toughest crossings
Among his earliest major challenges was the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama, a notoriously difficult stretch of jungle where there are no conventional roads linking South and Central America.
Bushby crossed the region at a time when Colombia was gripped by conflict and later accounts of his expedition describe encounters with armed men and guerrillas.
He continued through Central America, the US and Canada before reaching Alaska and confronting one of the most extraordinary sections of the entire expedition.
In 2006, Bushby and American adventurer Dimitri Kieffer spent 15 days crossing the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia over shifting sea ice, swimming sections where necessary.
Contemporary reports described how ice beneath their tent began breaking apart during the crossing. Bushby also carried a handgun as protection against polar bears in the Arctic wilderness.
Arrested hours after historic Bering Strait crossing
Reaching Russia should have been a huge triumph, but Bushby's expedition was thrown into doubt almost immediately.
He and Kieffer were detained after entering the remote Russian region of Chukotka without the correct passport stamps. A court initially ordered Bushby to be deported and barred from returning to Russia for five years, a decision which could have wrecked his attempt because his own rules prevented him simply choosing another convenient starting point.
The deportation order was eventually overturned, although his problems with Russian bureaucracy were far from over.
Years later, after further difficulties obtaining permission to continue through Russia, he even walked from Los Angeles towards the Russian Embassy in Washington DC in an attempt to secure a visa.
Expedition stalled for years
Visa restrictions repeatedly reshaped the expedition and Bushby had reached Turkmenistan by 2019 when another border problem brought progress to a halt.
The Covid pandemic then closed borders around the world, adding another lengthy interruption to a journey which had already survived financial problems and changing international relations.
But Bushby kept returning.
Reuters reported last year that his setbacks over the decades had included financial crises, war, geopolitical changes, Covid restrictions and visa disputes.
He then SWAM across the Caspian Sea
One of the most extraordinary solutions came when Bushby's route encountered the Caspian Sea.
In 2024 he joined a team which swam from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, covering around 184 miles across the world's largest inland body of water over 31 days.
It was another record-breaking chapter in a journey already far removed from the simple walk Bushby imagined when he left Chile in 1998.
Then came the final major barrier between continental Europe and Britain.
20-hour Channel swim finally brought him back to Britain
Bushby had hoped to cross the Channel using the Channel Tunnel, but his request to use a service route was refused because of safety and operational concerns.
Instead, the 57-year-old took to the water.
After securing special permission for the unusual France-to-England crossing, Bushby completed the Channel in stages over three days, spending about 20 hours in the water before finally reaching Shakespeare Beach near Dover on October 5.
It was the first time in 28 years he had stood on British soil.
"It feels good to have UK soil under my feet after all these years," he told ITV after arriving.
Huge Hull welcome planned
The final challenge now looks rather more straightforward: walking the remaining miles north to Hull.
Bushby is due to arrive at Queen Victoria Square at around 11am on Monday, November 2, where Hull Volunteers and the city's Lord Mayor are expected to welcome him in front of crowds.
After a reception at Hull City Hall, he will set off on the last part of a journey that has taken most of his adult life to complete.
His destination is not a famous landmark or finishing arch. It is his mother's home, the place Bushby walked away from in 1998 and where, 28 years later, the Goliath Expedition will finally end.