'Where have you been?' - Karl Bushby's mother meets adventurer on his return to Hull
Adventurer Karl Bushby arrived back in his home town after his 28-year walk from South America, with his mother asking: “Where have you been?”
Mr Bushby, now 57, was mobbed by well-wishers as he walked into the city centre on Monday, pushing his cart called The Beast.
And there were more emotional scenes when he turned up at his childhood home in the Sutton Park area of the city to be greeted by his mother, Angela, with a hug.
The first thing Mrs Bushby said to her son was: “Where have you been?”
Mr Bushby said: “Where have I been? Twenty-eight years later. Here we are.”
He then told the well-wishers and reporters: “I’m going to get myself a cup of tea.”
The former paratrooper set off from the southern end of Chile in 1998, when he was 28, vowing to walk all the way home without using any form of motorised transport.
Among the others waiting for him in the front garden of his mother’s house was his son Adam, who is now 36 but was eight when his father embarked on the adventure.
At a press conference later, Mr Bushby was asked how difficult it was for him to be away from his family, especially his son.
The former soldier explained how he had divorced Adam’s mother many years ago, and she had remarried and moved to Northern Ireland.
He told reporters: “The way I’ve squared that circle with myself and my son was – how would I be of best service and use to my son?
“And with this kind of a journey, I thought, if I can pull this off, I would be of more meaning to him than any other way. And I think we managed to pull it off.”
Mr Bushby said: “We’re in a better state right now than most families are who haven’t had a father around. So, we’ve done pretty well out of this. Me and him, we’re still close.”
And asked about meeting his granddaughter, he said: “It’s been amazing. It’s been a very interesting time. And again, we’re just at that first step here.”
He described how meeting his mother was “amazing”, adding: “That was truly an emotional moment.”
He said: “Walking down my childhood street, into my childhood home, with my mother – that’s been something.”
Mr Bushby said: “It’s difficult to explain how all that felt today. It’s all still one great big, blurry mess inside my head.”
Asked whether he had regrets about being gone for so long from his family, he said: “Regrets, no.”
He said: “Everyone understood what was going on, for the most part. They’ve all been behind me, 100% all the way.”
And Mr Bushby said: “Ever since day one, I let everybody know that I wasn’t coming home until I arrived on foot. And, eventually, they would start to take me seriously. It took a while.”
Mr Bushby said the hardest sections of his 31,000-mile (50,000km) journey were negotiating the notorious Darien Gap in Central America and trekking through Alaska and the high Arctic.
He said: “The Darien Gap is a truly special place.”
And he added: “Two-month boy’s adventure dream. Real Indiana Jones stuff. And it was kind of scary.”
Mr Bushby arrived back in England earlier this month, after swimming the Channel.
Asked what he will be doing next, he said: “I’m going to find my way. I’ve literally rocked up with very little, everything in that (the Beast), with about £40 or £50 in my pocket.
“So, I’m starting from zero here. I’ve got my work cut out for me. I have a story that I’m going to be telling a lot of late.”
He said that he is “hanging up my boots” but still has a yearning for more adventure.
“You saw that guy in the Channel sea there, paddling for his life?” he said. “I’ve still got it.”
Mr Bushby said that, for 28 years, Hull has been “this mythical place that’s been so far away, behind so many obstacles that it almost at times didn’t feel real.”
But earlier, in the city centre, hundreds of people turned out to welcome him as he walked to the City Hall led by a piper.
He told the crowds: “There has never been a welcome home quite like this.”
Mr Bushby was greeted by the Lord Mayor and Hull East MP Karl Turner, who read out a message of congratulations from Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
It said: “To walk around the world from Chile and back again is an achievement of truly remarkable proportions.
“It speaks of courage, resilience, perseverance and unbreakable spirit.”
The Prime Minister’s statement also thanked Mr Bushby for his service to the country as a soldier.
He said: “Your journey has taken nearly three decades, crossed continents and tested you in ways that most of us can barely imagine.
“But today, as you return to the city from which you left 28 years ago, you bring something far greater than any world record or remarkable personal achievement.
“You bring a story of what can be accomplished through extraordinary determination and self-belief.”