Karl Bushby with his mom, Angela Bushby, as he arrives home. (Tom Maddick via SWNS)
By Jack Fifield
A British adventurer who has walked around the world on a 28-year, 31,000-mile trip has finally reunited with his mom.
Karl Bushby, 57, arrived back in his hometown of Hull after setting off on a round-the-world trip in Chile on Nov. 1, 1998 with the goal of returning home entirely on foot.
Now, photographs show the emotional moment the former paratrooper embraced his mom Angela at the gate of her home at the city’s Sutton Park estate.
Pushing his cart stacked with equipment and a spare tire, Karl was flanked by media and well-wishers as he walked the final three miles home.
British adventurer Karl Bushby is on the move between City Hall and his home in Hull, at the end of his 31,000-mile (49,890 km), 28-year trek from South America to Hull. (Tom Maddick via SWNS)
Over the years, Karl braved the infamous Darien Gap in South America, was arrested in Russia, and swam across the Caspian Sea and English Channel, to finally return home.
Earlier today, Karl was welcomed by hundreds of well-wishers at Hull’s Queen Victoria Square, while Prime Minister Andy Burnham sent his “warmest congratulations”.
Addressing the crowds in his home city, he said: “After 28 years, you couldn’t ask for more than this – this is the last few steps to my mother’s house, in a very short while.
“This is the last day, 28 years – I could not have imagined this.”
(Tom Maddick via SWNS)
He added: “They say it takes a village, but it took a world to get me here – the kindness of strangers, so many, from individuals and nation states, to get me back here today.”
Karl set off on his walk from Chile in November 1998, originally hoping to reach Hull in 2012.
But years of setbacks including arrests in Russia, and visa issues meant he had to take breaks from his journey.
Earlier this year he was dealt another blow when he was forced to swim across the English Channel after the operators of the Channel Tunnel refused him access to their service tunnel to walk across.
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