HULL, England — You can come home again -- but in Karl Bushby’s case, it took 28 years and a journey of 31,000 miles.
Bushby, 57, embraced his weeping mother on Monday, as he returned to his childhood home in Hull, England, after walking around the world.
“Where have you been?” Angela Bushby asked, according to The Associated Press and the BBC.
All over the place, Mom.
The former paratrooper left Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998. He crossed the Bering Strait between the United States and Russia by navigating shifting ice, and swam across the English Channel, according to the news organization.
He also swam across the Caspian Sea to avoid taking a boat or plane, the AP reported.
After 28 years, 30 countries and more than 30,000 miles on foot, Karl Bushby has completed his epic odyssey around the world, returning home to Hull, England. Bushby says the kindness of strangers and the human spirit carried him through the challenges of his journey, which began when he was 29. Now, he tells CBS News' @RamyInocencio that he hopes his story inspires others to dream bigger and push themselves to do more.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 2, 2026
Bushby walked across four continents and 30 countries to reach home, according to the BBC.
“It’s almost like arriving in a foreign country,” Bushby told CBS News over the weekend. “I’ve worked with dollars for 28 years. I don’t know the brands in the stores. So I’m going around wondering what I’m going to be buying.
“A couple of times I got caught out crossing the road because I’m looking in the other direction because these people drive on the wrong side of the road.”
Bushby was not a typical tourist taking in the sights, although he told the BBC that he was seeing the world “in a lot of detail.”
“But it’s from my perspective, relevant to what I’m doing,” he told the news organization. “And it’s not like the vacation-style detail where you’re going to a place to learn the culture and the food and all that kind of thing. You kind of naturally know the food of a place because you’re living in it.
“You’re certainly not spending a lot of money on a traditional dish in a fancy restaurant with them telling you this is our traditional dish. You’re shoveling plates in someone’s house on the side of a road somewhere, but that’s their traditional stuff.”
Bushby’s journey was interrupted several times through unexpected world events, like the 2008 financial crisis that deprived him of cash, or the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the AP reported.
He also had to cut through bureaucratic tape to cross international borders.
On the final day of the journey, Bushby pushed his cart toward City Hall before setting off for the final 3-mile stretch to see his mother.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he joked to the crowd. “Is that it, is it done?”
After embracing his mother, Bushby thanked the people who made his odyssey possible, the AP reported.
“They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me here,” Bushby said. “The kindness of strangers, so many, from individuals to nation states to get me back here today. I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”
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