British adventurer Karl Bushby has completed a 28-year journey around the globe, arriving in the United Kingdom after swimming the English Channel from France to England. He announced his arrival on Oct. 5, ending a trek that began in 1998 and covered more than 30,000 miles across 29 countries.
While resting in Dover, Bushby described the moment he saw the Union Jack flying outside his hotel. "I’m staring at the Union Jack flying outside this hotel. I’ve seen many flags over the days, but that one is special," he said. He also shared photos on social media of his first meal back in Britain, expressing joy at eating authentic fish and chips.
The expedition started on Nov. 1, 1998, in Chile. Bushby, an ex-paratrooper, began with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. He walked north through South America and into the United States, where he waited for the Bering Strait to freeze so he could cross from Alaska into Russia. "South America, you were young, it was all new, it was the boys adventure dream," Bushby recalled.
The journey was not without significant interruptions. In April 2012, Russia denied him a visa, pausing his expedition. In protest, Bushby walked to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., in the wrong direction from his intended route. The ban was eventually overturned, allowing him to continue. From Russia, he entered Mongolia and China before swimming the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan.
Bushby’s inspiration for the walk came from a birthday card received from his father in the 1990s. The card depicted two soldiers arguing over an impossible feat: walking from London to New York via the Bering Strait. Bushby took a map and drew a single line connecting the points, identifying it as his life’s mission.
Originally expecting the trip to take 12 years, Bushby faced delays due to visa restrictions, the 2008 financial crash, the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitics, detention, and close calls. He credited strangers he met along the way for keeping him moving forward. He noted that encountering kind strangers was what allowed him to continue despite the hardships of the long trek.
Bushby now has roughly 240 miles left to walk to reach his mother’s home in Hull, which he hopes to do by the end of the month. Reflecting on his physical condition after covering such a vast distance, he noted that his knees and ankles signal it is time to stop. "We went at a reasonable pace, we did what we needed to do and it has worked," Bushby said.