Is Karl Bushby home yet? The world walker's last 400 km to his mum's gate

"Finally returns home after 28 years."

That was the news on 8 October. It said a British man who set out to walk around the world in 1998 had covered more than 31,000 miles across 29 countries without transport. Within a day, the post had been seen over 940,000 times.

The man is Karl Bushby, the former paratrooper from Hull. The numbers are right. The finish line is not, at least not yet.

Bushby is in England, but he is not home. He is still walking.

Is Karl Bushby home yet?

No. He is back in Britain, which is a different thing.

On 5 October he walked out of the sea onto Shakespeare Beach, just south of Dover, after swimming the Channel from France. His father and brothers were on the sand, along with the film director Werner Herzog. We told the full story of the walk and the swim here.

But Bushby set himself one rule in 1998. The walk ends at his mother's front door in Hull, not at the coast or the border.

That gate is still about 400 km north of the beach where he landed, according to AFP.

Where is Karl Bushby now?

Somewhere between Kent and Yorkshire, on foot.

His team has kept quiet about exact locations. They chose not to publicise the Channel swim ahead of time for safety and security reasons, AFP reported. His daily progress since Dover has not been made public.

What we do know is the target. He has said he wants to finish on 1 November 2026. That is 28 years to the day after he took his first step in Punta Arenas, at the bottom of Chile.

Photo: David Anstiss / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Why did so many people think he was already home?

Because the headlines said "back on UK soil", and for most people that sounds like home.

The news spread fast after the Dover landing. Clips passed millions of views. By the time the 8 October post went out, the story had turned into "he made it". Thousands of people liked it and shared their congratulations.

The replies were a mix of joy and jokes. One person pointed out that a bicycle is also transport. Another got his name wrong entirely. Plenty just wanted to know what his mum said when he walked in.

She has not said it yet. She is still waiting.

Is it really 31,000 miles?

Yes, that figure holds up. AFP puts the whole journey at about 50,000 km, and 50,000 km is roughly 31,070 miles. The 29 countries match too.

Here is how much is left.

99%

Walked and swum since 1998	49,600.00km	99%
Dover to his mum's gate in Hull	400.00km	1%
Whole journey	50,000.00km	100%

Source: AFP, approximate figures (October 2026)

Put simply, he has finished more than 99% of it. The part that is left is under 1%. For a man who crossed a frozen sea, it is a stroll.

Did he really never use a bike or a car?

Never, as far as anyone has reported. His rules ban any transport that moves him forward. That means no cars, planes, trains, boats or bikes.

So the bicycle joke misses the mark. He did not ride one. Where the land ran out, he swam. He swam the Caspian Sea in 2024 and the Channel this month.

He also crossed the frozen Bering Strait on foot in 2006. That was the ice between Alaska and Russia. If he had to stop for a visa or a break, he went back to the exact spot and carried on from there.

How long will the walk to Hull take?

About three weeks, if he keeps to his date.

From 9 October to 1 November is 23 days. Spread 400 km over that, and it works out at about 17 km a day. That is a long walk for most of us. For Bushby, it is an ordinary day at the office.

Dates have slipped before. When he set off in 1998, he thought the whole trip would take about 12 years. Earlier this year, reports still had him reaching Hull in September. Then came the long wait for permission to swim the Channel.

About 14 of his 28 years were spent stuck rather than walking, according to AFP. Visa refusals, a five-year ban from Russia, the 2008 crash that killed his sponsorship and then Covid all held him up.

This time the road ahead is different. His route north has no ice, no jungle and no border guards. The only thing likely to slow him down is people. Plenty of them now know his face.

Photo: Hullian111 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Who will be waiting for Karl Bushby in Hull?

His mum, first of all. Angela Bushby lives in Sutton Park, Hull. She is a retired factory worker who has seen her son only three times since 1998. She has called herself his number one fan.

She already knows what she will say. She told the Mirror she will give him a hug and then ask, "What time do you call this, Karl?"

His son Adam will be there too. Adam was eight when his dad left. He is 36 now. He told the Yorkshire Post the walk only really ends at one moment.

"Once he hugs my Nana and gets to that gate," Adam said, "that is when the walk officially stops."

Then there is the youngest person in the story. Adam's daughter is 12. She has only ever seen her grandfather on video calls. Some people say all those years away were a waste of a life. She is about to meet him for real.

What happens when Karl Bushby gets home?

He will arrive broke. He has said so himself. "I'm going to arrive home with nothing," he told AFP.

He will not arrive alone, though. Werner Herzog's company has backed him for years and is making a feature film about the journey, called Walk of Life. Herzog was on the beach at Dover with a film crew.

Photo: Ian S / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

And he has his first line ready. He told the Big Issue what he plans to say to his mum when he finally reaches her.

"Told you I could do it. Now, what's for tea?"

Karl Bushby is not home yet. The world just started cheering a few weeks early. He left on 1 November 1998 with about $500 and paper maps. If he keeps his date, he gets home on 1 November 2026. Twenty-eight years to the day.