British adventurer Karl Bushby, 57, has completed a 28-year journey on foot around the world, arriving in his hometown of Hull, northern England, on Monday to a hero's welcome.
Hundreds of cheering supporters gathered in the city centre before Bushby made the final stretch to his childhood home, where his mother, Angela, waited for him outside her terraced house beneath a banner reading "Welcome Home Son."
"It feels surreal. It's the end of a 28-year journey," Bushby told reporters moments after the reunion. His mother, who had not seen him for a decade, greeted him with the words: "Where have you been?" She later told the media: "It's good to have him home. I feel relieved."
Bushby said he was "still processing" being home, admitting his head was "one big blurry mess."
Addressing a large crowd in the city centre, where he was received by the lord mayor, Maria Coward, Bushby said: "There has never been a welcome home like this, I am sure. It's madness. An enormous thank you."
He added: "The biggest team - Earth - got me back here."
Bushby began what became known as the Goliath Expedition in Punta Arenas, southern Chile, in November 1998, aged 29, carrying a tent, a few hundred dollars and a cheap plastic camera. He was a former paratrooper whose marriage had broken up, with his wife returning to Northern Ireland with their son.
His goal was to reach his home city by an unbroken route, covering some 50,000 kilometres (31,070 miles) across four continents, without using motorised transport to advance his journey.
The route took him north through the Americas, across the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia, and onwards through Mongolia and China. He later swam across the Caspian Sea before continuing towards Europe.
Along the way, he negotiated the dense jungle of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama and also spent time in jail in Panama for entering the country without a visa. He was detained after entering Russia and faced repeated visa and funding problems.
The global financial crisis of 2008 cost him major sponsors, adding to delays that stretched what he had expected to be a 12-year journey into 28 years. The COVID-19 pandemic caused further delays, during which he spent time living at a base in Mexico.
Despite the interruptions, Bushby always resumed the trek at the exact spot where he had left off.
Last month, he swam the English Channel from northern France to Dover over four days, clearing the last major obstacle before beginning the final walk home.
On Sunday, when he crossed the Humber Bridge into East Yorkshire, he was met by his 36-year-old son, Adam, his 12-year-old granddaughter whom he had never met, and his father and brothers. "It was amazing," Bushby said of that reunion.
"They say it takes a village, but literally it took a world to get me here," he said upon arriving in Hull. "The kindness of strangers, so many, from individuals to nation-states, to get me back here today. I didn't do this alone."
Asked what comes next, Bushby said: "I have a story to tell." He confirmed he is working on a second book about his travels and plans to begin a speaking tour around England in the coming weeks.
Acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog is producing a feature-length documentary about the journey, entitled "Walk of Life."
In an interview from northern France in September, Bushby had expressed apprehension about returning to ordinary life. "I've got to try and get established in the grown-up world again," he said.
