The explorer Karl Bushby has returned to England after walking 58,000 kilometers and traveling through 29 countries over 28 years, following his departure 28 years ago. The British adventurer Karl Bushby returned to his native country by swimming across the English Channel, a key stage in his around-the-world journey without using any transportation, which he began in 1998, announced his entourage on Tuesday, October 6. This 57-year-old man, a former paratrooper in the British army, had set himself the challenge of reaching the city of Hull in northeast England entirely on foot or by swimming. During his journey, which began in Chile in 1998, he has walked over 50,000 kilometers and traveled through 29 countries. Over nearly three decades, his journey was several times interrupted. Moscow denied him a visa for years after his foot crossing of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, accomplished with an American teammate. Visa issues, the 2008 financial crisis or the Covid-19 pandemic have cost him a total of 14 of his 28 years of travel, he had revealed at the end of September, while waiting for permission to perform the English Channel swim. "It was not easy," On Monday, the explorer emerged from the water at 3:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. in France) on the Shakespeare Beach in Dover, a bit out of breath but with a smile on his face. He was greeted by his loved ones as well as by the German filmmaker Werner Herzog and his film crew, who came to immortalize the event. "It is good to feel the British soil under my feet again after all these years," the 57-year-old man reacted in a statement. "It was not easy, but that was the whole challenge: to prove that I could do more than I thought I was capable of. We can all accomplish much more than we imagine." The English Channel crossing, coordinated with French and British coast guards, had been kept secret until its completion for security reasons, explains his entourage. Karl Bushby's journey is however not quite finished: he still has to cover the approximately 400 kilometers that separate him from Hull to complete the loop. Once the journey is completed, he plans to focus on a documentary and lectures.