Would you like to take a walk?

Over the years, I have often noticed that a lot of people are deeply concerned about my health and physical well-being.

I know this because of the frequency with which they tell me to go on a long, long walk.

But here's a guy in England - name of Karl Bushby - who was in a bar one night and bet his friends that he could walk all the way home.  

All the way home, that is, from the southernmost point in South America back to Merrie Olde England.

He was in his 20s, the prime time for men to make foolish wagers (the only foolish wagers women ever make is when they bet their man will start acting right), but when he sat down and noodled it out, he soon saw it as "doable."

So there he was a few years later at the water's edge in Punta Arenas, Chile, and he started hot-footin' it home.

That was 1998 when he headed for his town of Hull, 31,000 miles away. He figured on 12 years.

It's been 27 years, Bushby is now 56, and he's still walking, all the while thinking,  "The plan was to do something pretty extraordinary.” 

He has two feet at the other end of his body from his brain, and they have strutted through Patagonia, the Andes, Central America, Mexico, the length of the United States, Russia, Mongolia and some of Asia...deserts, jungles, war zones, cities, countrysides, he's been everywhere man, sticking to his two inviolate rules: “I can’t use transport to advance, and I can’t go home until I arrive on foot. If I get stuck somewhere, I have to figure it out.

Of course, money issues, travel bans, COVID-19, political turmoil and the occasional shortage of Dr Scholl's products have all combined to slow his pace, but never his determination.

You have to say, it looks like fun.

The new plan is to walk triumphantly into Hull next September.

When he started, he regularly clocked 19 miles on the average day, but these days, he's happy to go 15.

He appreciates the people who have come along and provided help, support, financial aid, whatever he came up needing.

"It has just continued through every culture in every country,” he said. “The overwhelming kindness of strangers was a shocker for me.”

The article I read did not mention if there was a significant other waiting for him to get back home. If there is, he is really going to have a great story or two for them!