'Where have you been?': Karl Bushby's mother greets him at her Hull home after his 28-year walk from Chile

Karl Bushby, 57, completed his 31,000-mile "Goliath Expedition" on Monday, walking into Hull's Queen Victoria Square to cheers from hundreds before covering the final three miles to his childhood home in Sutton Park. His mother Angela, whom he had not visited since setting off in 1998, greeted him with a hug at the door. A prime ministerial message of congratulations was read out by Hull East MP Karl Turner at the civic reception. Bushby, who imposed a strict rule that he could never return home even if family or friends died, told the crowd: "I didn't do this alone — that's what it took."

Bushby's son Adam, now 36, was just eight years old when his father left for Chile in 1998.

The former paratrooper set two world records along the way, surviving armed gangs in the Darien Gap, jail in Panama and a polar bear in Siberia.

Bushby told reporters his absence was worth it: 'We're in a better state right now than most families are who haven't' done something like this.