This Man Walked 31,000 Miles Over 28 Years and He's Finally Almost Home

In 1998, Karl Bushby left Punta Arenas, Chile, with about 500 dollars and a promise to his mom: he’d come home to Hull, England, and he’d do it entirely on foot. No planes. No trains. No rides. Twenty-eight years later, he’s roughly 250 miles from her front door.

The numbers alone are staggering. Bushby, now 57, has covered around 31,000 miles across 29 countries. His route included a two-week crossing of Bering Strait sea ice, the notoriously brutal Darién Gap, a Russian visa ban, and a 31-day swim across the Caspian Sea. On October 5, 2026, he completed a roughly 20-hour English Channel swim across three days, wading ashore at Shakespeare Beach near Dover, where he said it felt good to have UK soil under his feet after all these years.

He’s expected to arrive in Sutton Park, Hull, within the next month, and filmmaker Werner Herzog is documenting the final stretch for a documentary called Walk of Life. After nearly three decades of walking, the last 250 miles might be the most emotional ones. What’s the longest you’ve ever stuck with something that mattered to you?