British adventurer finally gets OK from France to swim home across the Channel and finish his 36,000-mile round-the-world odyssey 28 years after he started

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 09:27 EDT, 5 September 2026 | Updated: 09:44 EDT, 5 September 2026 An ex-para has finally won permission from the French authorities to swim home via the English Channel, enabling him to finish his 28-year journey.Karl Bushby, 57, was earlier refused consent to swim home by the French Coast Guard, prompting jokes that he was the only man they would not let across the water.He set off from Chile in 1998 and has reached Belgium. Under the terms of the challenge he has set himself, he is unable to use transport to reach his home city of Hull, East Yorkshire.The son of an SAS soldier said he expected to take to the water on October 1, tides and weather permitting.Bushby was this summer refused access to the Channel Tunnel, which would have avoided having to navigate one of the world's busiest shipping routes.Eurotunnel said closing its service tunnel, which runs next to the main tunnel, would pose a safety risk to passengers and affect essential maintenance work.French officials also said that, under a 2018 prefectoral order, France only permits people to swim across the English Channel from the UK to France, rather than from France to the UK. Bushby, whose Los Angeles-based team has been in close talks with the French authorities, said he expected the swim to take 'three or four days'. Karl Bushby was previously told by Eurotunnel bosses that his request to walk along a service tunnel had been declined due to safety and operational reasons. Bushby pictured on his walk in Panama in 2001 Bushby, a 57-year-old former paratrooper from Hull, is nearing the end of a 28-year journey home on foot from Chile. Karl Bushby pictured on his walk in Mexico in 2002He said: 'I'm really pleased the plan is coming together. 'It's all about getting the job done and getting home alive,' he said.'We're still getting to work on the details.'Between swimming sessions, the adventurer plans to rest on a support boat.He has previously completed a long-distance swim.In 2024, he swam 186 miles (300km) across the Caspian Sea as a means of avoiding having to enter Russia or Iran due to tensions with the West.But he said there had been no time to train for this latest challenge.'I've been too busy planning the route,' he said. Bushby pictured in the early days of his challenge in Alaska in 2005 Bushby in the early days of his challenge, trekking through Chile in 1999 He also previously said he would need a suitable window of good weather for the attempt to succeed. He was also initially disappointed after his initial attempts were rebuffed by the authorities. To date, Mr Bushby has covered 30,516 miles, including crossing the dangerous Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia and the infamous Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama.Bushby became the first Briton to walk across the 58-mile frozen sea between North America and Russia, although the journey involved some swimming. However, he said securing visas and failing to gain permission to use the Channel Tunnel had been the hardest part of the expedition.'Organising how I'm going to get back into the UK has been a nightmare,' said Karl.'It's been a real rigmarole. But we're getting there and the aim is to be back in Hull by November 1st.'His mother, Angela, has promised to greet her son at the front gate to her home, where he and his brother were raised.