Karl Bushby reaches Hull home after 28-year journey around the world
The British adventurer completed a roughly 50,000km expedition that began in Chile in 1998 and took him across jungles, frozen waters and international borders.
By Noah Rao ·
British adventurer Karl Bushby returned to his childhood home in Hull on Monday, November 2, completing a journey around the world that lasted 28 years. The 57-year-old covered about 50,000km, or 31,070 miles, before reaching the northern English city where his expedition was finally brought to a close.
His mother, Angela, greeted him with an embrace outside her terraced house, where a banner welcomed her son home. Earlier, hundreds of supporters had gathered in Hull’s city centre to cheer his arrival before he continued along the last stretch to the house. Addressing the crowd, Bushby joked: “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
The homecoming came almost three decades after Bushby set off from Punta Arenas in southern Chile in November 1998. With a tent, a few hundred dollars and an inexpensive plastic camera, he began what would become the Goliath Expedition. His aim was to make it back to Hull along an unbroken route, without advancing any part of the journey by motorised transport.
From Chile, his route led north through the Americas. Among the difficult sections was the dense jungle of the Darien Gap, between Colombia and Panama. He also crossed the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia, before travelling onwards through Mongolia and China. Later, he swam across the Caspian Sea and continued towards Europe.
The expedition was repeatedly interrupted by difficulties with visas and funding. Bushby was detained after entering Russia, and the global financial crisis in 2008 deprived him of major sponsors. Such setbacks extended the undertaking far beyond his original expectations: a journey he had thought would take 12 years ultimately lasted 28.
In October, Bushby swam across the English Channel. That crossing removed the final major obstacle on his route and allowed him to begin the last walk towards his home city.
On arriving in Hull, Bushby credited the many people who had helped him along the way, from individual strangers to nation-states. He told supporters: “They say it takes a village, but literally it took a world to get me here.” He also stressed that the achievement had depended on a large team.
A feature-length documentary tracing the expedition is now in production. With the journey complete, Bushby plans to start a speaking tour around England in the coming weeks.
Source: Al Jazeera
