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Karl Bushby, a former British paratrooper, has outlined the concluding leg of his extraordinary 36,000-mile (58,000km) journey on foot. Beginning in November 1998 from Chile, South America, Bushby embarked on a mission to traverse the globe solely by walking, with the ambitious goal of returning to his hometown of Hull by 2012 without using any means of transportation. Recently, he reached the town of Gyor in Hungary, just a few days’ walk from the Austrian border, and hopes to reunite with his mother, Angela, at the family home this October.
Currently, Bushby is in Mexico, where he regularly returns to comply with visa regulations. He plans to resume his trek near the Hungary-Austria border in March. Reflecting on the completion of his journey, he commented, “This thing needs wrapping up. But I have mixed feelings.” He further described this moment as “a hard stop; the end of a life,” expressing uncertainty about what lies ahead once the walk concludes.
Throughout his long expedition, Bushby has faced numerous obstacles, including geopolitical tensions, conflicts, and stringent visa restrictions that limit his stay to 90 days out of every 180 in a given country. He explained, “If I had it my way, I would keep going. But the rules mean that I have to visa bounce.” Despite these challenges, he continued his route after overcoming the dangerous Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia and later made Mexico his temporary base following setbacks during the 2008 global financial crisis. Reflecting on that period, Bushby said, “I lost a sponsor along with a potential sponsor in the financial crash… Mexico seemed the ideal place to base myself as we tried to get things moving. I ended up staying there two years. The cost of living is cheap here, the people are awesome and all I need are T-shirts, shorts and flip flops.”
As Bushby prepares to return to Hungary and continue the final stretch of his epic walk across Europe, his daily distances have gradually decreased from 30km (19 miles) to around 20-25km (12-16 miles). He looks ahead to crossing into Austria soon, before passing through Germany, Belgium, and France en route to the UK. Bushby is also hoping to engage with the Channel Tunnel operators to gain permission to walk through a service tunnel back to Britain, marking the end of his decades-long adventure
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