A Former Paratrooper Walked Around the World for 28 Years and Missed His Son Growing Up

At a pub along the final stretch of road to Hull, England, Carl Bushby tried to describe what it feels like to finish a walk that has taken half his life. He said he had never really imagined getting home, because for so long there was so much ground still in front of him.

Mr. Bushby, who once served with Britain's airborne forces, set out in 1998 from the far southern end of South America with $500 and a glorified push cart. Mr. Bushby said, "I always felt like I had something to prove." He wanted to prove it by attempting something so outlandish that few people would even try it.

What followed was 28 years and 31,000 miles through deserts, mountains, and other brutal terrain. He walked through South America, North America, Asia, and Europe, and he swam across the English Channel. He called the journey one miracle after another, including getting across the Bering Strait. Mr. Bushby said, "getting out of the jaws of the FSB in Russia and not going to jail was a freaking miracle."

It did not happen all at once. He took breaks when he had to, after deportations, wars, and the pandemic, but each time he returned to the exact spot where he had stopped and kept walking.

The cost of that persistence is measured in family time. When he started, his son was 8 years old. His son is now 36, and Mr. Bushby has a granddaughter he has never met. He said he has wrestled with what it has meant to be away that long, and he wished his long trek might give his son, who had met him at points during the walk, reason to feel proud.

Now he is due to arrive at his mother's house in Hull on Monday, if all goes as expected. He called the ending bittersweet. Mr. Bushby said, "My, you know, purpose for living is about to abruptly end." It will be a big day when he arrives, he said, and he is not sure how he will feel the next morning.