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Karl Bushby has been traveling the world on foot for 28 years and, this Monday, the British adventurer reached the end of his journey.
Bushby crossed the Humber Bridge through thick fog on the final leg of his 30,000-mile, nearly three-decade-long journey from South America to Hull, a port city in eastern England.
Bushby left Chile in 1998 to return to his home in the United Kingdom without breaking two rules that he had imposed on himself: not to return until he had completed his feat and not to use any means of transport to move forward.
The adventurer said he was "absolutely overwhelmed" by the crowds milling along the bridge.
Arriving at his home in Hull, Bushby – a former paratrooper – was met by his mother, as well as a crowd of people, including the German film director Werner Herzog, who plans to make a documentary about his adventure.
"It's good to be home. It seems unreal," Bushby said as he reached the front door.
Moments earlier, he addressed the crowd in the city centre, where he was greeted by Mayor Maria Coward, Bushby. "I'm sure there has never been a welcome home like this. It's crazy! Thank you so much," he said.
The adventurer said that the opportunity to undertake his walk arose after the breakup of his marriage, when his wife returned to Northern Ireland with their son.
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Bushby, then 29, said he left Punta Arenas, Chile, with a few hundred dollars in his pocket and headed north toward his home.
By the time he swam across the English Channel on October 5, Bushby, now 57, had crossed four continents, a frozen sea, deserts, mountains and jungles.
image copyrightKevin Shoesmith/BBC
"I'm absolutely overwhelmed," he said in an interview with BBC Radio Humberside on Sunday.
"And we're not even home yet."
By "we," Bushby could have been referring to the majestic plural, or to The Beast, the cart he has been pushing for 28 years.
"This is my Wilson," he said, referring to a volleyball that Tom Hanks' character spoke with in the movie "Castaway."
"I'm just a homeless man pushing a shopping cart, and suddenly I come across this," he said, nodding toward the crowd gathering on the bridge.
"And I really have to stop and think about what this means to other people."
12 years that were 28
When he began his journey, in November 1998, the former parachutist estimated that it would take him about 12 years.
However, its progress was slowed due to visa restrictions, the 2008 financial crisis - which caused it to lose sponsors - Covid-19 and geopolitical issues.
On its route it crossed Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and the Darién Gap towards Panama.
It passed through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico before crossing into the United States and Canada.
He crossed the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Russia, and traveled through Siberia, Mongolia, China, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
He swam across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan.
And then continued towards Türkiye before entering Europe.
image copyrightKarl Bushby
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Speaking in Belgium in September this year with BBC journalist Kevin Shoesmith, Bushby described crossing the frozen Bering Strait in 2006 with French adventurer Dimitri Kieffer, and his 300 kilometer swim across the Caspian Sea.
When talking about his trip through the Darien Gap, which connects Colombia and Panama, Karl commented: "You have to make your way through dense jungle."
"You find river systems and a lot of swamps. And, if that were not enough, there is the fact that it is a war zone," he said.
Faced with the threat of kidnapping, Karl tried to appear homeless.
"Homeless people are practically invisible: no one pays attention to them; that was our intention. I didn't want to be the blonde, blue-eyed gringo with the latest North Face equipment," he says.
And he adds: "I dyed my hair and skin, and left my clothes in tatters. I carried my things in sacks."
For years, Karl took the completion date in stride. Not now. There is a real urgency.
"It's definitely time to put an end to it," he says. "I don't want to do this much longer."
And that end came this Monday, November 2, when Bushby began the last kilometers to return to his mother's house, whom he was finally able to give a hug.
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