Karl Bushby 'overwhelmed' at Humber Bridge welcome

Published1 November 2026

British adventurer Karl Bushby crossed the Humber Bridge through thick mist on the final leg of his 31,000-mile (49,890 km), 28-year trek from South America to Hull.

Bushby left Chile in 1998 to head home to the UK without breaking two self-imposed rules: not to return until he had fully completed his feat - and not to use transport to advance.

The adventurer said he was "absolutely overwhelmed" by the crowds who lined the bridge.

Bushby, a former paratrooper, is due to complete the challenge on Monday and will be met by his mother, his son and granddaughter when he arrives in Hull.

The adventurer has said the opportunity to embark on his walk came after the breakdown of his marriage, when his wife returned to Northern Ireland with their son.

"When I left home and I walked down south first of all to test the machine that I first had, I don't remember any of that journey except for the Humber Bridge," he said on Sunday.

"There's that mystic look to it where you can't see the other side of the river.

"It's kind of almost symbolic.

"The Humber Bridge has always been that iconic landmark in my mind."

Aged 29, Bushby said he walked out of Punta Arenas, Chile, with a few hundred dollars in his pocket and turned north for home.

By the time he swum back across the English Channel on 5 October, Bushby, now 57, had crossed four continents, a frozen sea, deserts, mountains and jungles.

"[I'm] just absolutely overwhelmed," he said on Sunday when he spoke to BBC Radio Humberside.

"And we're not even home yet."

By "we", Bushby may have meant the royal we, or The Beast, the cart he has spent 28 years pushing.

"This is my Wilson," he said, a reference to a volleyball that Tom Hanks's character talked to in the film Cast Away.

"I'm just a homeless guy pushing a shopping trolley, and the next thing you know is this," he said, nodding to the crowds lining the bridge.

"And I have to really kind of just stop and think about what this means to other people."

On Monday morning, Bushby will begin the final part of his walk back to his mother's home in north Hull.

He will set off from Hessle and walk to Queen Victoria Square, where a reception will be held for him outside the Civic Hall.

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