Man who started walking home from Chile to England 27 years ago is almost there
A man who’s been walking across the world for 27 years is finally almost home, admitting it feels ‘weird’ to be approaching the end of his mammoth journey.
Karl Bushby set off from Chile back in 1998, planning to travel all the way home to Hull in the UK in a bid to become the first person ever to walk in an unbroken path around the world.
Vowing not to use any form of transport, the ex-paratrooper has been completing the 36,000-mile trek largely on foot, with the occasional swim – including a casual 31-day dip in the Caspian Sea.
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It’s a hard route to envisage, given that many of us would assume there’s the small matter of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to cross when looking at a traditional world map.
But his ambitious mission, dubbed the ‘Goliath Expedition’, has taken him on a slightly less obvious route from the southern tip of Chile, up through South America and into North America, into Russia and Central Asia, and finally ending in Europe.
"On 1 November 1998 you're literally looking down at a road that's 36,000 miles long and have no idea how you're going to do it,” Bushby recently told BBC Radio Humberside.
"We've run into a lot of complications with visa problems, financial crises, the pandemic, we've had it all.
"It's been extremely difficult but we've always stuck to our guns and never been willing to compromise on the route."
While there have been ‘a few occasions’ where he’s feared for his life – including traversing the dangerous Darien Gap, a notorious drug-smuggling route between Colombia and Panama – Bushby said he’s always felt ‘mentally prepared’ for what the challenge has thrown him.
He’s now finally on the home stretch, with September 2026 as his planned date to arrive back in Hull.
"Getting home, I just don't know, it's weird, it's a very strange place to be in where suddenly your purpose for living will have a hard stop,” Bushby admitted.
"I'm hoping to transition into other things as quickly as possible, keeping mind, body and soul on the move."
He said being back with family would require getting ‘to know each other again’, with mum Angela previously telling the BBC she has only seen her son three times since 1998.
Bushby also has his own son, Adam, from a previous marriage.
In an Instagram update filmed on 20 May, Bushby had made it to the Rhine as he ‘headed for the border with Luxembourg/Belgium’, and was under 1,000km from the UK.
“A bit wet,” he said as he looked up to the cloudy skies, adding: “But temperatures are fine. It’s about to really warm up pretty soon here.”
Jess Hardiman