Karl Bushby, 57, is due to arrive back home in Hull this morning, completing a 28-year walk around the world that has drawn both praise and criticism online. He set off from the southern end of Chile in 1998, when he was 28, vowing to walk all the way home without using any form of motorised transport.
A 31,000-Mile Journey
Bushby crossed the notorious Darien Gap in Central America and traversed the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia on the frozen sea on his way back to Britain. The adventurer more recently swam the English Channel. He is expected to make his final stop at Queen Victoria Square in the centre of Hull at around 11am before returning to his mother's house, officially completing a 31,000-mile (50,000km) journey. He will later return to Hull City Hall for a press conference in the afternoon.
Criticism Over Family Sacrifices
Karl previously told the Telegraph that his journey was a "selfish" one. His son is now 36-years-old, and he has a 12-year-old granddaughter who he has never met. He said: "All I've had to think about every goddamned day for 20 years is getting me fed, watered and moved 30km down the road. And other people will pay a price for that.
"People who love you, people who are important to you, they will pay an emotional price for that. Be careful what it is you celebrate and who your heroes are. If you look at the personal lives of people like Shackleton and Cook and the others, they were horrible husbands and fathers. Don't go looking there."
Some have speculated that 30,000 miles in 28 years equates to around three miles travelled per day. @justalexoki wrote on X: "abandoned his 8 year old son to walk 3 miles a day. has never even met his 12 year old granddaughter. what a piece of s***."
@pqa added: "walked 31,000 miles and none of them were to his kid's house." @saintsofthefall posted: "Why do people who do stuff like this ALWAYS have kids? If you want to devote your life to BASE jumping, swimming across the Pacific Ocean, or walking around the world in 28 years, fine; but don't have children and then abandon them…"
@sororcane wrote: "None of these news stories explain how he has managed to live for over a decade without working; I would also like to know who has been funding this man who abandoned his children." @jakobjas12 typed: "Yeah this isn't one of those amazing Guinness World record type things. He basically just left his family to be a nomad."
@ishibi23 wrote: "Yeah, the guy walked the world for nearly 30 years and basically ditched his kid to do it. Cool story for the adventure, but pretty rough on the family side." @SimiBGood added: "3 miles a day? my 83 year old mom walks more than that daily." @Unclephillya typed: "3 miles a day? Tf has he been doing? I used to walk 3 miles to school there and back." @piper_w3 joked that Karl "forgot to get milk while he was out".
Support and What Comes Next
But some stuck up for him. @ladygreenkirtle wrote: "I think if he made lots of cool new discoveries and sent his family really long interesting letters and weird presents from around the world, and became a sort of living legend, it's kind of fine, assuming his family had enough money to live without him."
A spokesperson for Karl said: "He's feeling like it's the end of his life as he knows. It's quite emotional. He doesn't really know what's out there for him for the rest of his life because this has been 28 years of focusing on getting to the next step, and that whole journey will be over on Monday. He says that it's going to be interesting to see how he feels and what happens after, what happens next."
