Karl Bushby, an Englishman who set out on foot from Chile 28 years ago, walked into his hometown of Hull, England, on Monday, ending a journey he called the "Goliath Expedition," CBS News reported.
Bushby, now 57, began on Nov. 1, 1998, when he was 29. He followed two rules: he would not use any machine to advance and would not return home during the trip, even if family or friends died. He was away for more than 10,000 days.
He covered the last stretch, a walk of roughly three miles, from near Hull's town centre to a neighbourhood of red-brick terrace homes north of the city. Children lined the route near his mother's home and an honour guard led the way. Bushby pushed the cart that had been with him for about 25 years, then embraced his mother in the street.
"I didn't do this alone. There was a big team, the biggest team: Earth. That's what it took to get me back," Bushby told the crowd that gathered in Hull, a port city about 150 miles north of London.
CBS News said he travelled north through Central America, the United States and Canada, then crossed the Bering Sea to Russia in what it described as the first recorded attempt. He continued through Central Asia and swam for 31 days across the Caspian Sea, another reported first, to avoid the war in Ukraine. In recent years he crossed Europe, and last month he swam the English Channel from France. British immigration officers were waiting to check his passport when he reached shore.
The trip was repeatedly delayed, at times for months or years, by illness, Russian visa restrictions, the invasion of Ukraine and the need to swim large bodies of water. CBS News said he was threatened by armed gangs in the Darien Gap in Central America, jailed in Panama and confronted by a polar bear in Siberia.
Bushby said the return feels unfamiliar. "I'm home, but it's not the home that I'm used to now for so long. And it's an odd feeling. And I almost feel guilt," he said.
He told CBS News he had worked in dollars for 28 years and no longer knew the brands in stores. Asked whether the world had improved, he said it is in a messier time with more wars, but that his bet is on humanity.
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