Karl Bushby's 28-year walk across the world is ending. A look at the trek, by the numbers

LONDON (AP) — Karl Bushby is nearing the end of an epic walk around the world that he started half a lifetime ago in 1998.

He was a young man of 29 at the start and now he's past middle age at 57 as he approaches his mother's home in Hull, England.

He has navigated the shifting ice over the Bering Strait and swam across the Caspian Sea and English Channel, but most of the trip has been on land where he traversed dangerous jungle, rainforests, deserts, frozen tundra and battled almost every type of element imaginable.

Here’s a look at Bushby's adventure, by the numbers:

If fitness trackers had been around when Bushby started his trip, it's likely they couldn't have kept up with his cumulative number of steps.

The total mileage Bushby put on his body is the equivalent of having run 10,000 5K road races (50,000 kilometers).

Bushby initially estimated the distance could be traversed in five years. “Then you just dump a whole bucket full of reality on that,” he said. “We suspected that it was 12 years plus. And the plus was a big plus. But never in our wildest dreams would we ever have imagined 28 years.” That adds up to more than 10,220 days.

When geopolitical conflicts closed off passage through Russia and Iran, Bushby decided he would swim across the Caspian Sea, the world's largest inland body of water. His 31-day crossing relied on a technique he calls “floatimming,” a hybrid of floating and swimming. He wore a flotation vest and wetsuit and plodded backward by flapping his arms in the water.

Starting in Chile and ending in the U.K., he has entered or passed through 30 foreign countries before returning home.

No country took longer to get through than Russia, where Bushby spent 10 years, was once detained and faced deportation for entering illegally after crossing the Bering Strait. Harsh weather only permitted a few months of travel each year and there were many bureaucratic delays. Russia denied him a visa in 2012, so Bushby spent a year walking 3,500 miles (5,600 kilometers) in protest from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., which eventually led to him getting the proper paperwork. Still, it ended up taking about a decade to be done with the country.

The trek has taken Bushby through South America, North America, Asia and Europe — all but three of the world's seven continents.

Bushby fell in love twice and had his heart broken each time. He carried on long-term romances with a woman from Colombia and another from Japan. But the relationships couldn't weather the toll of the road.

Bushby estimates he went through 10 pairs of shoes traveling through the Americas but then lost track. That was 20 years ago, though, so who can blame him? “After that we were just in and out of all kinds of different stuff,” he said. The total? “A lot.”

British adventurer Karl Bushby pauses near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, on the final stretch of his 28-year walk around the world to get back to his mother's home in Hull. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

British adventurer Karl Bushby pauses near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, on the final stretch of his 28-year walk around the world to get back to his mother's home in Hull. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

British adventurer Karl Bushby walks near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, on the final stretch of his 28-year walk around the world to get back to his mother's home in Hull. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — King Charles III urged more countries to value nature during a visit to Guyana on Friday, praising its efforts to protect its vast forests while generating millions of dollars from carbon credit sales.

Charles said finding ways to value nature remained a challenge.

“Everybody argues about how much. Well, it’s priceless. That’s the answer,” he said during a meeting with President Irfaan Ali in Georgetown, the capital.

The British monarch condemned what he described as endless deforestation, warning that it was “totally prejudicing our future and other people’s futures, and our health.”

“Nature has the best solutions to everything, really,” he said.

Charles arrived in Guyana on Thursday as part of a nine-day Caribbean tour. He first visited the Bahamas and is scheduled to arrive in Antigua on Friday evening ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Ali praised Charles’ leadership on nature, climate and the environment, and his support for a low-carbon development strategy.

“Nearly two decades later, Guyana has demonstrated what is possible,” Ali said.

King Charles said he hoped other countries would follow Guyana’s example in confronting the “enormous existential threats we face.”

In 2009, Norway agreed to provide $250 million to help protect Guyana’s 18 million hectares of forest.

Guyana has earned $353 million from carbon credit sales in recent years. In November 2022, it became the first country to issue such credits under a global standard aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The following month, U.S.-owned Hess Corporation, a partner in Guyana’s offshore oil sector, agreed to buy $750 million worth of carbon credits over the next decade. Guyana’s government pledged to set aside 30% of the proceeds for development projects in Indigenous Amerindian communities.

“Our ambitions continue to grow, to encompass biodiversity, sustainable cities, and a better relationship between people and nature,” Ali said.

After his brief speech, he took a sip from a freshly cut coconut before meeting with Indigenous leaders known as “toshaos.”

Earlier on Friday, Charles met veterans who served in the British Guiana defense forces before Guyana gained independence in 1966. He also visited Independence Park, where enslaved people were publicly executed in the 1800s following one of the region’s largest slave revolts.

Some Caribbean leaders have called on Britain to apologize and pay reparations for slavery, demands the British government has consistently rejected.

Britain's King Charles III inspects the guard of honor on his arrival at Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Georgetown, Guyana, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Delano Williams)

Britain's King Charles III, left, and Guyana's Prime Minister Mark Anthony Phillip attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves in Georgetown, Guyana, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Delano Williams)

Britain's King Charles III, left, and Guyana's Prime Minister Mark Anthony Phillip, center, attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves in Georgetown, Guyana, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Delano Williams)

Britain's King Charles III, left, and Guyana's Prime Minister Mark Anthony Phillip, right, attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves in Georgetown, Guyana, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Delano Williams)