Where does a 31,000-mile walk end?
For Karl Bushby, it was his mother’s house in Hull, a port city on the east coast of England. He had walked around the globe for 28 years.
Mr. Bushby, 56, spoke to a crowd in the city center on Monday before he strolled the final miles to see his mother, Angela Bushby, who had decorated her yard with Union Jack bunting and a banner welcoming her boy.
It had been decades since Mr. Bushby was in his hometown. He began his walk in Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998, heading north to the Bering Strait, which he crossed on foot in March 2006. He continued across Asia and Europe.
Along the way, he traversed some of the world’s harshest landscapes, like the jungle of the Darién Gap. He was arrested and deported, and he got lost.
He had self-imposed rules for the walk, which included that he would not set foot in Britain until his journey concluded. This made it difficult to see his son, and his son’s daughter. She is 12, and Mr. Bushby had not met her before Monday.
Another rule was that Mr. Bushby would not use a mode of transport, like a car, a boat or a plane, to travel. So, in order to conclude his journey, he had to swim across the English Channel in October.
He made it to England, and arrived Monday in Hull with his main companion: a modified golf trolley that he has used to haul camping supplies, clothing, toiletries, food and water.
The documentarian Werner Herzog was there to welcome Mr. Bushby and his trolley. Last week, Mr. Bushby said on social media that Mr. Herzog would be making a documentary about him.
At a news conference on Monday, Mr. Bushby said he would be kept busy for the next year with the documentary and a book he is planning to write.
First, though, he had to process what it meant to be back in Hull.
“It’s difficult to explain how all that felt today,” Mr. Bushby said. “It’s all still one great big, blurry mess at the moment in my head.”
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