A crowd of between 500 and 1,000 people, depending on the account, greeted him in the city centre. He walked the final 3 miles pushing a cart that had been with him for about 25 years, then embraced his mother, Angela, outside her home. Waiting for him were his 36-year-old son Adam and a 12-year-old granddaughter he had never met. Hull Mayor Maria Coward called the achievement "incredible" and praised its "spirit, tenacity and dogged determination."

The route ran the length of the Americas, across the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia, and through parts of Central Asia and Europe, covering roughly 50,000 km (31,000 miles) of jungle, mountains and desert. Stops included Colombia, the US, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Russia, China and Turkey, and he reached Istanbul in 2025. To get into the UK he swam the English Channel from France to Dover over four days in early October.

Bushby held to two rules: use no transport or machine to advance, and do not return home until the challenge was complete. The trek was meant to take 12 years. A Russian visa refusal, a stint in a Panamanian jail for entering without a visa, the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine stretched it. During the pandemic he paused at a base in Mexico before resuming. In 2006 he crossed the Bering Strait with French explorer Dimitri Kieffer, and to get around the war in Ukraine he swam the Caspian Sea over 31 days.

The hardships were physical as well as political. He reported dysentery in Colombia, being held at gunpoint in Mexico, threats from armed gangs in the Darien Gap, and a polar bear encounter in Siberia. Speaking to France 24, he described the expedition as a modern-day Odyssey in which geopolitical constraints were often the main obstacles. He said he had "faced down governments" and met "some of the hardest challenges."

Bushby credited others for getting him back. "I didn't do this alone. There was a big team, the biggest team, Earth. That's what it took to get me back," he said, calling the journey a "global effort." Speaking to CBS News, he said he feels "guilt," and that parts of the world now feel more like home to him. He acknowledged the world is in a "messier time" with more wars, but said, "My bet is on humanity."

German filmmaker Werner Herzog is documenting the journey in a feature-length documentary, "Walk of Life," which its production company has supported financially and logistically for the past 16 years. As for what comes after the walk, Bushby said: "I've got to try and get established in the grown-up world again."