Karl Bushby: Round-the-world walker to swim Channel on way home to Hull
Round-the-world walker Karl Bushby says he’s expecting to arrive at his mother’s home in Hull in two months’ time – after gaining permission to swim the Channel.
Bushby, 57, set out on his walk 28 years ago, with a single aim – to travel from the southern tip of South America all the way home to Hull without using transport.
The ex-paratrooper had asked Eurotunnel if he could use a service tunnel to cross the Channel, but he was refused on safety and operational grounds.
But in an update he said the French “were willing to play ball” and allow him to swim the Channel from France.
Bushby said: “It looks like now after a prolonged period of time we have managed to secure permission to swim from the coast of France.
"This has been an issue as since 1993, there’s been a law saying you can’t swim from the coast of France, so that’s a problem.
"It looks like we’ve managed to figure that out and we have found enough support from within the French government, at least my team has from Los Angeles.”
Bushby has had experience crossing bodies of water before.
He became one of the first people to walk across the frozen Bering Strait, dodging polar bears and navigating shifting ice, which took months of waiting for the right weather conditions
After Russia invaded Ukraine he found himself trapped. Unable to enter the country again – or Iran – he instead had to swim 186 miles across the Caspian Sea, the world's largest lake.
He was accompanied by members of the Azerbaijani coastguard and two swimmers from the national team for the 31-day swim.
Crossing the 21-mile wide Channel is a test of endurance, due to strong tides and temperatures of just 19C to 17C in September.
Bushby said he was now on his way back to Europe to pick up where he left in Belgium, adding: “So two months to get back to my mother’s house in Hull, it is going to be a very interesting time”.