HULL, England (Reuters) - A British adventurer who has been walking around the world for almost three decades is due to finish his trek on Monday, ending a 31,000-mile journey at the house where he grew up.
Karl Bushby has hacked through jungles in Central America, crossed the ice between Alaska and Russia and last month swam across the English Channel on the final stretch of a voyage made entirely under his own steam.
"After 28 years, you just couldn't ask for more than this," he told the crowd, before pushing on with his few possessions in a trolley, a spare tyre which will now never be needed slung on top.
"I guess I'll be seeing you around," he added. He then headed for his family home where his mother, his 36-year-old son and a 12-year-old granddaughter were waiting.
Bushby served in the British Army's Parachute Regiment in his twenties. After the breakdown of his marriage he drew a line on a world map and set off, inspired by his father who had wondered if it was possible to walk from London to New York.
Carrying a tent, a few hundred dollars and a cheap plastic camera, he started in Chile and headed north through the Americas, crossing from Alaska to Russia, Mongolia and China, and back through Europe after swimming the Caspian Sea.
"Sometimes the monotony is incredible. You're in deserts and the landscape doesn't change for days to weeks. That can get a little mind-bending. The same with the Arctic," he told Reuters last year.
He originally expected to spend about 10 years on the road but he hadn't anticipated the obstacles he'd face, amongst them a brief imprisonment in Panama, being held at gunpoint in Mexico and detention by Russian authorities for crossing the border illegally, not to mention delays from the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID pandemic.
"This is what an odyssey in the 21st century looks like," he told the Telegraph newspaper. "Half of it is literally dealing with these bureaucratic geopolitical problems, not just the environmental hurdles. There are some times where the solution is just to wait."
Bushby told the BBC he has only spent about 15 of the 28 years walking, returning to Mexico periodically to sort out visas, logistics and corporate and media sponsorship deals.
A feature-length documentary about his journey is in production, and Bushby is planning to embark on a speaking tour around England in the coming weeks.