Karl Bushby gave 28 years to a walk around the world. Was it a waste of a life?

"What a waste of a life."

That was the whole verdict. Six words, typed on 7 October under the news that Karl Bushby had landed at Dover after 28 years on foot.

Within a day it had more than 4.4 million views, and hundreds of people had piled in to argue.

Bushby is the former paratrooper from Hull who set off from the tip of Chile in 1998 to walk home. No cars, no planes, no boats. He swam the last stretch of sea and now has a few hundred kilometres left to his mum's front door. We told the full story of his walk here.

So was it a waste? People on both sides are sure they know.

What did people say about Karl Bushby's walk?

The man who wrote the six words did not back down. He said working "in any field" was the real achievement.

"If you're going to work tomorrow you're the pillar of society, the actual hero," he wrote. He went further. "Wagecuck wife guys built the nations he spent dossing about in."

Some replies took his side. One person pointed out that Bushby "had a young kid at home". Another joked it was "all because he didn't want to clean the dishes at home".

Most of the replies went the other way.

"He experienced life his way on his own terms," one wrote. "The difference between a battery hen and free range hen."

Another said he had "lived a more fruitful life than all of us". A third kept it simple. "Circumnavigating the world is a lot cooler than Justin Bieber."

And one went for the jugular. "I know he should've spent it working in a call center and watching Love Island like the rest of the country."

What did Karl Bushby give up?

The critics have a point. The cost was real.

His son Adam was eight years old when his father left. Adam is 36 now and lives in Belfast. In 28 years, he has travelled to see his dad just four times, he told the Yorkshire Post this month.

He listed what his father missed. School. Leaving school. College. His driving tests. Birthdays. Christmas. The birth of his granddaughter.

That granddaughter is 12. She has only ever seen her grandfather on video calls.

"There were parts of my life where you just need your dad for it," Adam said. "But in my case, that couldn't really be helped."

Bushby also fell in love twice on the road. Both times he ended it, because the walk came first. "I've lost those relationships," he told the Big Issue.

Money is the other cost. He started with about $500, according to The Washington Post. Sponsors walked away after the 2008 crash. "I'm going to arrive home with nothing," he told AFP.

Did Karl Bushby really spend 28 years walking?

Not exactly, and both sides tend to miss this.

About 14 of the 28 years were spent stuck, not walking, according to AFP. Visa refusals. A five-year ban from Russia. Years waiting in Mexico, first for an Iran visa and then because of Covid.

So the "dossing about" was often the opposite. It was a man stuck in a queue, waiting for permission to keep going.

Photo: George Riggs, NASA GSFC / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

What did Karl Bushby achieve?

The other side has a list too.

In 2006 he walked across the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia. He was one of the first people known to cross it on foot. It took two weeks on moving ice.

In 2024 he swam about 288 km across the Caspian Sea, because Iran would not let him in. He does not even like swimming.

In 2025 he walked over the Bosphorus Bridge into Europe. This month he swam the English Channel in three days.

In total, AFP puts the walk at about 50,000 km through 29 countries. The Hull Story calls it the world's longest walk. Werner Herzog's company has backed him for years and is making a film about it.

His son's favourite part is the ice. "When I found out that was done, that blew my mind," Adam said.

What does Karl Bushby say about it himself?

He talks openly about the cost. He does not talk about it like a man who wants the years back.

He served about 12 years in the Parachute Regiment before he left, according to The Hull Story. He told The Washington Post that losing friends made him think about death. "There was an emphasis on the fact that life is short, and you should live it the best you can," he said.

When the Big Issue asked about quitting, he turned the question around. "When [the challenge] is your life, what are you quitting? What am I quitting to?"

He also knows the fame will not last. "When I get home, there will be 15 minutes of fame, and then it's done and it's gone," he said.

And about the people he met on the road, he is clear. "99.99 percent of the people I've met have been the very best in humanity," he told The Washington Post.

Photo: Ridiculopathy / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Why does this argument make people so angry?

Most people arguing have never met Karl Bushby. They are arguing about their own lives.

One side hears that their alarm clock, their commute and their bills count for nothing. The other side hears that wanting more than a desk is selfish.

A woman who cared for dying people wrote about this choice years ago. Bronnie Ware is an Australian former palliative carer, which means she looked after people in their last weeks. She wrote down what they regretted most.

Number one was not having "the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me". Number two was "I wish I hadn't worked so hard". She said she heard that one from every male patient she nursed.

That does not make the man with the job wrong. Plenty of people find real meaning in work and family. It may explain why one bloke on a beach at Dover hit such a nerve. If you want another life lived on its own strange rules, read about the woman who stayed in a cave for 500 days and lost track of time.

So was it a waste of a life?

His son has had longer than anyone to think about it.

As a boy, Adam wanted his dad to quit. "When I was younger, yes. I was like, just come home," he said.

At 14, he flew to Alaska to see his father for the first time since he left. On the flight back, something changed. "This is his thing. This is his journey. This is something he has to do," he remembers thinking.

Now, the boy who wanted him home is the loudest voice telling him to finish. "Regardless of what happens, regardless of what you have to do, just finish it because it's 28 years in the making."

Bushby expects to reach Hull around 1 November. Adam will be at his grandmother's gate in Hull, next to the mother who has waited 28 years.

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

Then a man who has walked through 29 countries will meet his granddaughter. For the first time, in person.