徒步28年走完5万公里：英国前伞兵布什比回到Hull母亲家
英国前伞兵卡尔·布什比（Karl Bushby）11月2日走完最后一程，抵达位于英格兰北部城市Hull的母亲Angela家中，完成了一场全程不用任何交通工具推进的徒步环球之旅。现年57岁的布什比1998年11月1日从智利最南端的Punta Arenas出发，28年间走过约3.1万英里（约5万公里），跨越四大洲、约30个国家。
周一上午，他推着那辆装行李的手推车走进Hull市中心的维多利亚女王广场，数百名支持者在现场欢呼迎接。据路透社报道，他对人群说：「28年了，你再也求不到比这更好的了。」随后他走完最后一段路，回到母亲家——那正是他1998年离家出发的地方。据BBC报道，在家等候他的有母亲、36岁的儿子Adam，以及他第一次见到的12岁孙女。
出发那年布什比29岁，随身只有一顶帐篷、几百美元和一台廉价塑料相机。他给这场名为「歌利亚远征」（Goliath Expedition）的旅程立下两条规矩：不用任何交通工具让自己前进；只能靠双脚走回家。他原以为这趟路大约要走12年。
一路向北穿越美洲，他穿过达连地堑，在巴拿马因越过一处限制边境区被关押18天。2006年，他与美国探险者Dimitri Kieffer结伴，踏着浮冰步行横渡白令海峡，途中曾被直升机从一块漂移的浮冰上救起。此后，签证问题让他在俄罗斯进进出出、耗了近10年。陆路因地缘政治走不通时，他改走水路，用31天游渡里海。今年10月，他又游过英吉利海峡，据BBC报道于10月5日在Dover附近上岸；11月1日，他走过亨伯桥（Humber Bridge），进入Hull。
布什比对BBC说，28年里他真正在路上行走的时间其实只有约15年，其余时间多次返回墨西哥等地处理签证、后勤和赞助。途中他与北极熊对峙过，被俄罗斯当局扣留过，也被2008年金融危机和新冠疫情一再拖慢。
德国导演Werner Herzog正在拍摄一部记录这场远征的纪录长片。布什比接下来还计划在英格兰各地展开巡回演讲。
（来源：BBC、路透社、美联社）
After 28 Years and 31,000 Miles on Foot, Ex-Paratrooper Karl Bushby Walks Home to Hull
British former paratrooper Karl Bushby walked the final stretch of a 28-year journey on November 2, arriving at his mother Angela's home in Hull, northern England, and completing an unbroken trek around the world made entirely under his own power. Bushby, 57, set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on November 1, 1998, and covered some 31,000 miles (50,000 km) across four continents and about 30 countries without ever using transport to move himself forward.
On Monday morning he pushed his handcart, nicknamed "the Beast," into Queen Victoria Square in central Hull, where hundreds of cheering supporters welcomed him. "After 28 years, you just couldn't ask for more than this," he told the crowd, according to Reuters. He then walked on to his mother's house, the home he had left in 1998, where his mother, his 36-year-old son Adam and his 12-year-old granddaughter, whom he was meeting for the first time, were waiting, the BBC reported.
Bushby was 29 when he set out, carrying a tent, a few hundred dollars and a cheap plastic camera. He imposed two rules on what he called the Goliath Expedition: no form of transport could carry him forward, and he could not come home until his own feet brought him there. He originally expected the walk to take about 12 years.
Heading north through the Americas, he crossed the Darien Gap and was jailed for 18 days in Panama after crossing a restricted border zone. In 2006 he crossed the Bering Strait on foot over shifting ice with American adventurer Dimitry Kieffer, at one point being airlifted off a drifting ice floe. Visa problems then stalled him in and out of Russia for nearly a decade. Shut out of his land routes by geopolitics, he later spent 31 days swimming across the Caspian Sea. This October he swam the English Channel, landing near Dover on October 5, and on November 1 he crossed the Humber Bridge into Hull, according to the BBC.
Bushby told the BBC he has actually spent only about 15 of the 28 years walking, returning to Mexico periodically to sort out visas, logistics and sponsorship. Along the way he faced a stand-off with a polar bear, detention by Russian authorities and long delays from the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID pandemic.
A feature-length documentary about the expedition, by filmmaker Werner Herzog, is in production, and Bushby plans a speaking tour around England in the coming weeks.
(Source: BBC, Reuters, Associated Press)
来源：BBC、路透社、美联社
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：11月2日，卡尔·布什比（中）抵达位于Hull的母亲家，与母亲Angela团聚。摄影：Hullian111，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Karl Bushby (centre) arrives at his mother Angela's home in Hull on November 2. Photo by Hullian111, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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