(Image Credit: Central Sport/Supplied)

By Ian Gustafson

Decades-long walk home

England’s Karl Bushby set to speak to Red Deerians about 27-year expedition

Mar 3, 2026 | 1:58 PM

An Englishman set to complete a feat few would dare to attempt is making a stop in Red Deer this week to share tales of his 27-year walk home.

From Hull, England, Karl Bushby is near the end of a decades-long trek that began in 1998 in South America.

His journey, which has been accomplished on foot up until this point, is set to wrap up this year as he embarks on the last leg through Europe to his hometown.

However, before he does that, he’ll make four stops in Alberta to share stories about his trip.

One of the four stops is set for Red Deer this Thursday at Margaret Parsons Theatre on the Red Deer Polytechnic main campus.

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The one-night-only event presented by Central Sport will begin at 7 p.m., and tickets cost $25 each. The proceeds of the event will go towards helping him complete the home stretch back to England.

“Basically, it’s going to be a conversation and presentation of this 27-year journey I’ve been on,” Bushby said in an interview with rdnewsNOW. “I’m going to show you some maps, pictures, and tell you some stories.”

Bushby explained it’s fun to think back on what he’s accomplished, noting he’s going to one day be an old man with a lot of amazing stories.

“My grandchildren are going to hate me. They’re going to run every time they see me coming,” he laughed. “There are so many I thought I was going to die stories. It’s been everything I could have ever imagined this journey to be.”

What led Bushby to set out on the trip was his thirst for an incredible challenge. This all came to fruition while he was in the army, where he got a taste of seeing different parts of the world

Bushby began his incredible walk in Chile and, since then, has travelled through Panama, Colombia, Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and now Western Europe.

However, this wasn’t accomplished without a few hiccups, including crossing paths with wildlife like polar bears and dealing with repeated stops by Russian officials.

He explained one of the most challenging stretches was at the Darien Gap, which is a jungle between South and Central America. He said it was challenging terrain. At the same time, he had a lot of close calls with the Guerrillas, a left-wing group, who were in a conflict with the Colombian government.

Another stretch that stands out was his journey through Alaska. He said it took six months to go from Fairbanks to the interior and to the coast during the winter months.

“There were lots of adventures with plenty of hair-raising moments… There were some pretty intense times,” he said.

One of his biggest takeaways is that the world is actually a nicer place than some may think.

“For someone who’s been on the road alone for 27 years, I really relied on the kindness of strangers. I’ve had absolutely no end of demonstrations of how humanity can come together when we need to,” he said. “It definitely reinforced my belief in humanity.”

Tickets can be purchased on eventbrite.com.