Karl Bushby Completes 28-Year Walk Around the World

Karl Bushby returned to his mother’s row house in Hull, England, on Monday, completing a 28-year walk around the world.

The 57-year-old ex-paratrooper left the same home in 1998 and covered 31,000 miles on foot across four continents without using any machine to move forward.

Bushby embraced his mother, Angela, after children lined the street and an honor guard escorted him the last few steps while he pushed the cart he had carried for years.

“I didn’t do this alone,” Bushby said. He set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998.

He crossed shifting ice on the Bering Strait, swam the Caspian Sea and the English Channel, and trekked through jungles, deserts and tundra while facing long visa delays that halted progress for months at a time.

Bushby plans to meet his son Adam and see his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time before readjusting to daily life in the coming weeks.

He said he still feels optimistic about the world despite its troubles and advised others to dream bigger.