Karl Bushby arrives home in Hull after 28-year walk from South America

Adventurer Karl Bushby has finally arrived home in Hull, 28 years after setting out on foot from the southern tip of South America, bringing to an end one of the longest journeys ever attempted by a single person.

The former British Army paratrooper stepped onto a stage in Queen Victoria Square on Monday in front of hundreds of well-wishers, many of them former military personnel, and could hardly believe it was over. "Is that it? Is it done?" he joked, according to The Yorkshire Post.

Two rules, 28 years

Bushby left Punta Arenas in Chile on 1 November 1998, on what became known as the Goliath Expedition. He set himself two rules: never use transport to move his journey forward, and never return home until the mission was complete.

Over the following decades he walked through 29 countries and across four continents. He crossed the frozen Bering Strait between North America and Russia, and swam the Caspian Sea and then the English Channel, reaching Dover on 5 October this year. Along the way he nearly drowned, nearly died of thirst, was threatened at gunpoint and was held in custody in Russia.

He told the crowd it had taken "two world records" to get back, including one for the longest unbroken journey on foot.

"It took a world to get me here"

Bushby was full of gratitude. "They say it takes a village to bring up a child - it took a world to get me here," he said. "The kindness of strangers, from individuals, nation states, to get me back. I didn't do it alone."

His short speech kept coming back to one word. "This is the last day, the last moment, it has been a week of lasts," he said. "The last day in the tent, the last day on the road alone. The last steps almost to my mother's house very shortly."

Hull East MP Karl Turner read a message from Prime Minister Andy Burnham praising his courage, resilience and bravery.

A cup of tea with his mum

After a few minutes Bushby went into City Hall to see his family. He had not seen his mother, Angela, for 12 years, and has met his son Adam, now 36, only a handful of times. He then completed the very last stretch on foot to his mother's house, for a long-awaited cup of tea and a biscuit.

On Sunday, crowds had lined the Humber Bridge through thick mist to cheer him across. "I'm just a homeless guy pushing a shopping trolley, and the next thing you know is this," he told BBC Radio Humberside, nodding at the crowds.

What next?

Bushby admitted he would miss "everything" about life on the road: "being self-directed, not knowing where I will be sleeping the night - all that wanderlust stuff, the next unknown town, people you have never met before, constantly moving."

The next chapter is already taking shape. At the homecoming he introduced the documentary maker Werner Herzog, who is making a film about him, and he also has a book to write.

For a country that loves a story of grit and stubborn determination, few could match the one that ended in Hull on Monday.