On October 1, 1998, back when Tony Blair was settling into Downing Street and a pint in the local pub cost £1.60, Karl Bushby, a former paratrooper, set off from his mother Angela's terraced house in Hull to walk around the world.
asserted
Bushby → settle → world
BBC Look North were here to record it for posterity.
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North → record → posterity
Angela was weeping.
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Angela → weep → ?
And a small group of friends and neighbours had gathered to see him off.
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group → gather → him
But Karl, then 29, who had spent three years planning the logistics and route, was utterly focused.
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who → spend → logistics
So, after explaining to the TV reporter that 'what makes sense to me might not make sense to other people', and giving a hug to his mum and nan and a cheery wave to the rest of them, he strode off at a brisk 5km per hour, pushing a specially adapted trolley nicknamed The Beast and laden with everything he'd need – tent, maps, coffee, puncture repair kit, plasters.
uncertain
he → explain → everything
And then, he started walking back home.
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he → start → ?
'I cried and cried,' she tells me as we sat in her front room yesterday, waiting for him finally to come home.
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him → cry → room
'Because I knew he would never, ever, give up on something he'd set his mind to.
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he → know → mind
He needed to prove himself – to show everyone that he wasn't useless.'
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he → need → everyone
British adventurer Karl Bushby is greeted by his mother Angela Bushby outside her house after completing his 28-year walk
Mr Bushby shares a warm embrace with his mother.
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Bushby → greet → mother
Angela Bushby said she had 'cried and cried' waiting for him to come home
Karl strode off at a brisk 5km per hour, pushing a specially adapted trolley nicknamed The Beast and laden with everything he'd need.
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he → say → everything
His pictured here on the final stretch of his walk
Karl thought his odyssey would take 12 years, give or take a year or so.
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odyssey → picture → year
In the event, it took nearly three decades because, on top of endless delays caused by visas, wars, dictators and funding issues – some of his various sponsorship deals fell through – conspiring to spoil best laid plans, he had imposed on himself two, unbendable rules: that he would use no form of transport.
And that he would not return to Hull until he had completed his mission.
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he → take → mission
Which meant that he didn't come back when his nan died. Or when his granddaughter was born 12 years ago.
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granddaughter → mean → ?
He hadn't even met her until this week.
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He → meet → week
And, despite missing him so much it hurt, Angela actively encouraged him in this.
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Angela → miss → this
'I knew it was what he wanted.
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he → know → what
I told him, 'If I die, you don't come home – nothing will bring me back, so keep on walking.' '
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nothing → tell → me
So he did.
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he → do → ?
And for years, she followed his epic journey, first with a marker pen on the maps he had left plastered to his bedroom wall and later, as technology allowed, online.
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technology → follow → wall
When, just before noon, Karl and his trusty trolley walked into a hero's welcome in Hull city centre – welcomed by the mayor and the local MP and bagpipes and drums and standard bearers and a heartfelt message from the Prime Minister, and an enormous cheering crowd.
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Karl → walk → Minister
But not Angela, who stayed firmly on her sofa.
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who → stay → sofa
Just as she did a month ago, when he arrived in Dover after a three-day swim across the Channel.
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he → arrive → Channel
'I always said I would wait here for him to come back – that I'd be here, by the front gate when he finally came home, and so that's where I'll be,' she says.
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she → say → gate
Karl Bushby is seen arriving in Dover, Kent, after completing his English Channel swim.
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Bushby → see → swim
He has now been welcomed back home
Karl is seen here walking on the coast north of Nome, Alaska, in 2006, amid the icy temperatures
So as the most famous man in Hull marches closer and closer, to the sound of honking horns, endless cheering and jostling camera crews, we sit in Angela's very tidy lounge – 'I was up til 3am mopping and vacuuming to be ready' – and have a lovely chat.
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I → welcome → chat
To lie awake while he's swimming in freezing waters and camping on melting ice and dicing with polar bears in the 53-mile-wide Bering Strait.
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he → lie → Strait
'I am very, very proud of him,' she says.
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she → say → him
'But the only time it got a bit too much for me was when he was crossing the Darien Gap.
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he → get → Gap
This was the time, back in 2001, when Karl went into full military escape and evasion mode to cross Colombia's civil war-ravaged jungle – then the murder and kidnap centre of the world – and living on fish and coconuts for weeks.
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Karl → go → weeks
'I had to go for a check-up in hospital because I was that worried, my blood pressure was sky high,' she says.
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she → have → hospital
And it probably didn't go down very much when he finally made it out and ended up in a police detention centre in Panama for a few weeks.
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he → go → weeks
He needed to do it.
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He → need → it
I always understood that and I've never resented the worry or uncertainty
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I → understand → worry
,' she says.
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she → say → ?
'I couldn't have stopped him if I'd wanted to.
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I → stop → him
I met Karl over a couple of days in early September and we walked – at a terrifyingly fast pace – together for a day.
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we → meet → day
Karl has arrived back in Hull, Yorkshire, after his 28 year walk around the world.
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Karl → arrive → world
Photo of Karl as a child (L) with brother Adam
Karl is seen here in a photo while serving in the army.
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Photo → see → army
…and 55 more, not listed.
The Aporia
