Karl Bushby Returns to Mother's Door After 31,000-Mile Walk

Karl Bushby walked the final few hundred yards to his mother's front door in Hull, England, on Monday, marking the end of a 28-year, 31,000-mile walk around the world. The 57-year-old man stepped off the road and into the arms of his mother, Angela, outside their row house in northern England. Bushby had left that same street in 1998 when he was 29 years old.

The reunion took place in front of a crowd that included journalists, a documentary crew, and local residents. A banner reading “Welcome Home Son” hung from the home. Bushby, who is now gray and weathered from his travels, embraced his mother in the street. He described the moment as the culmination of a journey that required the help of people and nations across the entire planet.

Bushby began his expedition on November 1, 1998, from Punta Arenas in Chile. He traversed four continents and 30 countries to return to his starting point in Great Britain. To maintain the integrity of the walk, he avoided all forms of motorized transport, including boats and planes. This rule forced him to swim across the English Channel and the Caspian Sea and to navigate the shifting ice of the Bering Strait on foot.

The route included some of the most difficult terrain on Earth. Bushby walked through the Darién Gap, a dense jungle between South and Central America, in 2001. He avoided a war zone there and was later jailed for 18 days in Panama after crossing a restricted border area. In 2006, he and American adventurer Dimitry Kieffer crossed the Bering Strait. They faced a polar bear, fell into freezing water, and lost supplies when their sleds sank. They were subsequently jailed in Russia for illegal entry.

Visa issues caused the most delays in Bushby’s timeline. He spent nearly a decade moving through Russia in short bursts because of weather and bureaucratic hurdles. In 2012, when Russia denied him a visa, Bushby walked from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest. That trek eventually secured the necessary paperwork for him to continue.

Bushby had originally estimated the journey would take five years. He later told team members he suspected it would take at least 12 years. He said he never imagined it would take 28 years. “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.”

Before arriving at his mother’s home, Bushby stopped at City Hall for a welcome ceremony. He pushed a two-wheeled cart through the city center, joking with the crowd that he was sorry to keep them waiting. He then continued on the final leg to his family’s neighborhood.

Bushby plans to see his son, Adam, whom he has visited only a few times during the 28 years. He also expects to meet his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time. The adventure began after his father, Keith, sent him a birthday card in the mid-1990s mentioning the idea of walking from London to New York over the Bering land bridge.

Bushby stood outside his mother’s house on Monday, concluding the physical phase of the project. He had walked through deserts, jungles, and tundra, and survived multiple arrests and near-drowning incidents. The journey ended at the doorstep of the home he left in 1998.