When Karl Bushby walked out of Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998, his destination was his mother’s front door in Hull.

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Nearly 28 years and 50,000km later, he’s finally back on English soil – although his extraordinary journey isn’t quite finished yet.

The 57-year-old former paratrooper reached Shakespeare Beach near Dover on October 5th after completing one of the final major obstacles of his round-the-world expedition: swimming the English Channel.

Bushby originally set himself two uncompromising rules when he began the challenge.

He would not use transport to advance his journey, and he wouldn’t return home to Hull until he could do so under his own power.

That has resulted in an adventure spanning 29 countries and more than 30,000 miles, taking Bushby through South and North America, across the Bering Strait and through Siberia and Asia before eventually reaching Europe.

He has crossed the Darién Gap, made the first recorded east-to-west crossing of the Bering Strait on foot – swimming where necessary – and even swam across the Caspian Sea.

But getting back into Britain presented another major problem.

After Channel Tunnel bosses vetoed his request to walk through a service tunnel, Bushby was left needing to swim across the English Channel.

Despite having done no specific training for the crossing, he spent three days at sea and around 20 hours in the water between rests before finally reaching England.

Reflecting on the start of the swim, Bushby told reporters, via BBC News: “Getting in the water that first day, I thought ‘have I taken too much of a bite here? But you dig deep. Keep on keeping on. You find a rhythm.”

He admitted that the physical reality quickly set in. “After an hour in the water I was already cramping up and I was really thinking, ‘Am I going to be able to pull this off?'”

But after emerging onto Shakespeare Beach, Bushby could finally enjoy a moment he had waited almost three decades to experience.

He told ITV News: “[It] feels good to have UK soil under my feet after all these years.

“It hasn’t been easy, and that’s part of the point – proving I’m more capable than I give myself credit for. All of us can accomplish more than we will ever imagine.”

Bushby originally expected his expedition to take around 12 years, but visa restrictions, the 2008 financial crash, the pandemic, and geopolitical complications all contributed to extending the journey.

And even after finally setting foot back in England, he isn’t finished.

Around 400km remained between Dover and Hull when he landed, with Bushby expected to continue walking north until he reaches his mother’s home.

Only when he arrives at the same front door he began heading towards back in 1998 will his remarkable journey finally be complete.

Featured image credit: KarlBushby/Instagram