In brief
After 28 years and more than 50,000 kilometres of walking, Karl Bushby returned to his childhood home in Hull. The 57‑year‑old crossed jungles, frozen seas, and international borders—finishing with a swim across the English Channel—before re‑entering the city where he was born. Supporters gathered in Hull’s city centre and the renowned Goliath Expedition marks a story of perseverance and global kindness.
Karl Bushby completed a 28‑year, 50,000‑kilometre walk around the world and landed at his childhood home in Hull, England, on Monday, according to Al Jazeera.
The 57‑year‑old crossed jungles, frozen seas, and borders from Chile to Russia, China, and Europe, while finishing a swim across the English Channel the month before his arrival—messaging that the journey climaxed with the final leg of walking home.
He was greeted by his mother, Angela, outside her terraced house, and crowds in Hull’s city centre cheered him as he stepped onto the final approach to his doorstep.
“They say it takes a village, but literally it took a world to get me here,” Bushby said. “The kindness of strangers, so many, from individuals to nation‑states, to get me back here today. I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”
Al Jazeera tagged the return with a banner reading “Welcome Home Son,” while local supporters waved signs noting his epic adventure as the Goliath Expedition.
The expedition began in November 1998 in Punta Arenas, southern Chile, with a tent, a few hundred dollars, and a cheap plastic camera, intending to travel a non‑motorised route back to Hull. The original plan to finish in 12 years was stretched to 28 by visa hurdles, sponsor loss during the 2008 financial crisis, and other setbacks such as a detention in Russia and dense jungle traversal in the Darien Gap.
A feature‑length documentary about the journey is in production and Bushby plans a speaking tour across England in the coming weeks.
