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Karl Bushby reached his mother’s home in Hull on Nov. 2, 2026, ending a 28-year, roughly 31,000-mile walk from Chile. Here’s his route, his two rules, why it took so long and what he plans next.
Liafi Studio Editors
Karl Bushby is home. On Monday, November 2, 2026, the 57-year-old former British paratrooper walked up to his mother’s front door in Hull, England, ending a journey on foot that began in Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998. By the count used by the BBC and Al Jazeera, he covered roughly 31,000 miles (about 50,000 km) across four continents without once using transport to move himself forward.
His mother, Angela, who had waited at the gate of his childhood home as she had promised years earlier, greeted him with a question many people have been asking for decades: “Where have you been?” Here is what the Goliath Expedition actually involved, why it took 28 years instead of 12, and what Bushby says comes next.
Bushby grew up in Hull and served as a paratrooper in the British Army. According to the Guardian, he was 29 when he left the army to walk the world, on what he expected to be a 12-year trip. He has told the BBC he always had a “wanderlust,” and that the chance to go came after his marriage ended and his wife returned to Northern Ireland with their son.
He set off as what he called a “penniless backpacker,” with a tent, a few hundred dollars and a cheap plastic camera, Al Jazeera reports. Over the years he picked up sponsors, a book deal and, eventually, a documentary.
Bushby gave himself two self-imposed rules from day one, and he kept both for 28 years:
That second rule is why the route was so unusual. Where most travelers would simply fly or take a ferry, Bushby had to find a way across on foot or by swimming.
Starting in Punta Arenas, the southernmost city on the South American continent, Bushby walked north through the Americas. The key stretches reported by the BBC, the Guardian and Al Jazeera include:
The roadless jungle between Colombia and Panama is one of the most notorious crossings on Earth. Bushby made it through on foot, one of the early milestones of the expedition.
To get from Alaska to Russia without a boat or plane, he crossed the frozen sea of the Bering Strait in 2006. Entering Russia that way led to one of his hardest chapters: he was detained, held in custody and sentenced to deportation, and the Guardian notes he was even convicted of being a spy.
From Russia he continued through Mongolia and China. Later he swam across the Caspian Sea before pushing on toward Europe.
In October 2026 he swam the English Channel, clearing the final big obstacle. On Sunday, November 1, he crossed a misty Humber Bridge into East Yorkshire, on the same date he set off in 1998, according to the Guardian. The next day he walked into Hull city centre and on to his mother’s house in Sutton Park.
Bushby has been open that he was not walking for most of that time. He told the BBC only about 15 of the 28 years were spent actually walking. The rest went to waiting out problems he could not walk around:
Between stints, he often retreated to Mexico, where living costs were low, the BBC says. Under his rules, he would then return to the exact point where he had stopped and carry on.
You will see two numbers in the coverage. The BBC, Euronews and Al Jazeera put the journey at about 31,000 miles, or 50,000 km. The Guardian uses 36,000 miles and says he passed through 29 countries. Either way, it is longer than the roughly 25,000-mile circumference of the Earth, and the Guardian reports that it makes him the first person to walk continuously across the world. Bushby himself told the crowd in Hull: “we had to create two world records just to get back here.”
For most of the walk he pushed a heavily loaded trolley. The one he brought into Hull is nicknamed “the Beast 2,” because the first one broke down, and it carried essentials like medicine, sleeping bags and head torches.
A crowd of up to 1,000 people cheered him in the city centre, Euronews reports, where he was received by the Lord Mayor, Maria Coward, in Queen Victoria Square. “There has never been a welcome home like this, I am sure,” he told them. He credited strangers and governments along the way: “I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham sent a message, read on stage by local MP Karl Turner, calling the feat “truly remarkable.” The German filmmaker Werner Herzog, who is making a documentary about the journey, appeared alongside Bushby during the welcome.
The family moments drew the most attention. On the Humber Bridge on Sunday, Bushby was met by his 36-year-old son, Adam, his father and brothers, and his 12-year-old granddaughter, whom he had never met. On Monday his mother, Angela, who had not seen him for a decade, was waiting at home under union flag bunting. “It’s good to be home,” he said at the door. “It feels surreal.”
He is done with long walks. “I’m hanging my boots up,” he said at a press conference after the reunion. Asked what comes next, he told the BBC, “I have a story to tell.” His plans so far:
He has also been honest that settling down will be hard. “You’re going to have the old identity crisis, because Karl is this [an adventurer] and has been for half his life,” he told the BBC, adding that he expected to struggle in the coming weeks as he adjusts to ordinary life.
Few people will ever walk across a frozen sea, but Bushby’s journey has struck a chord because of how ordinary parts of it sound: a long goal that kept slipping, money trouble, paperwork, a family waiting at home, and a promise kept anyway. Some people online have questioned the decades away from family, and Bushby has never pretended the trade-off was easy. If his homecoming has you thinking about your own next trip, you don’t need 28 years. A weekend soak at one of the hot springs in Iceland, a slow week at sea on one of the best cruises for an unforgettable adventure, or a day of city adventures with the kids can scratch the same itch.
He finished on Monday, November 2, 2026, when he reached his mother’s home in Hull, England. He had crossed the Humber Bridge into East Yorkshire the day before.
The journey lasted 28 years, from November 1998 to November 2026, though he says only about 15 of those years were spent walking.
Most outlets, including the BBC and Al Jazeera, put it at about 31,000 miles (50,000 km). The Guardian reports 36,000 miles across 29 countries.
It is the name Bushby gave to his unbroken walk from Punta Arenas, Chile, to Hull, following two rules: no going home before the end and no transport to move forward.
Yes. Werner Herzog is making a feature-length documentary about the journey, and Bushby is also working on a second book. No release date had been announced at the time of writing.
Featured image: Karl Bushby’s homecoming in Kingston upon Hull, November 2026. Photo by Hullian111, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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