Karl Bushby's £100 meet-and-greet theatre show, documentary and book deal: 'Hero' adventurer cashes in after '28 year' walk...13 of which he spent not walking at all

On the day Karl Bushby arrived at his mother's house in Hull 28 years after he left to walk around the world, his website was updated.The ex-paratrooper, who has become the first person to circumnavigate the globe on foot, was now available for after-dinner and corporate speaking, it said, and sponsors were being sought for his newly announced run of live shows.The 57-year-old left Britain in 1998, vowing never to return unless it was under his own steam at the end of the journey.He then spent almost three decades abroad, crossing South America's remote Darién Gap, Alaska's Bering Strait and the Caspian Sea, before being hailed as a hero upon his return last week.Having completed the feat, Bushby said last week that he was now 'staring into a black hole' as a man bereft of purpose for the first time in almost three decades. As it turns out, he is already preparing for his next big adventure: turning the story of his saga into cold, hard cash.His agenda for the near future is a run of tell-all live shows with £100 meet-and-greet tickets, after-dinner and corporate speaking events, plans for a second book and the starring role in a documentary by acclaimed German film-maker Werner Herzog.But Mr Bushby and his 'Goliath Expedition' have divided the court of public opinion, and his fellow adventurers, after the specifics of his remarkable journey – and what he asked of others – came to light. Karl Bushby now finds himself in the media spotlight after completing his circumnavigation of the globe Bushby is set to embark on a six-date live tour in the coming days as he begins to cash in on his 'Goliath Expedition' The 57-year-old arrived back at his mother's house in Hull after 28 years, 15 of which were spent walking around the worldThe ex-paratrooper has admitted he was 'selfish' in leaving his ex-wife Angela Tivnen to raise their eight-year-old son Adam alone, without financial support. His self-imposed vow never to return to Britain unless it was on foot meant he only met Adam a handful of times on his journey, and did not come home after his son almost died in a motorbike accident.Mr Bushby - who told the Daily Mail he had 'no regrets' about the decision to commit himself to the walk - had also told his parents he would not return for their funerals, and met his 12-year-old granddaughter for the very first time last week.Despite this, he flew to Mexico and the US for breaks from the expedition when he ran out of money or hit bureaucratic snags. Most recently, he holed up in the Mexican state of Jalisco for a time in August after reaching Belgium. Each time, he would return to the point from which he had last walked, in order to keep the vow to walk the whole way without vehicular assistance.Along the way, he also had two long-term relationships: one, with Colombian civil engineer Catalina Estrada, lasted seven years but came to an end after she could not secure visas to join him on the road.Another relationship with a Japanese woman named Rika lasted three years in Mongolia before they were separated by the Covid pandemic as he retreated to Mexico.In all, he spent 13 years not completing the journey – and admitted in a recent interview that, upon reflection, he had lived his life 'selfishly'.In comments that hinted at some reflection upon his time away, he said: 'It has been a purely selfish way to be. People who love you, people who are important to you, they will pay an emotional price for that. 'Be careful what it is you celebrate and who your heroes are. If you look at the personal lives of people like [Ernest] Shackleton and [Captain James] Cook and the others, they were horrible husbands and fathers. Don’t go looking there.' Bushby (centre, behind his mother Angela) has admitted he has lived 'selfishly' for the last three decades, leaving his ex-wife to raise son Adam (left) who is now 36 He set off on the journey in 1998, trekking through South America from Chile (pictured in Argentina in 1999) Bushby at the Darien Gap in Panama in 2001, three years into the journey. He vowed not to return to Britain unless it was on footMr Bushby has promised to tell all about 'the personal stories, the struggles, the sacrifice, what it takes to keep one mission' in a series of tell-all live shows that begin on Thursday at Shrewsbury's Walker Theatre. Tickets are priced between £35 and £40, while front-row VIP meet-and-greet tickets are £100.Shrewsbury's event is sold out, but tickets are still available for Nottingham, York, Bury St Edmunds, Buxton – and his hometown of Hull. The promotional literature breathlessly promises a 'gripping' live event that is 'more than a story about walking... it's a thrilling, deeply human tale of courage, British grit, sacrifice and refusal to surrender'. If every ticket sells, the tour could bring in almost £200,000. Show promoter Norwell Lapley Productions promises there are 'more dates to come'.Canny-eyed adventure companies looking for some publicity can offer to sponsor one or more shows: Mr Bushby's website is accepting applications from firms selling clothing and GPS devices as well as tourism boards.The package, for which a price is not listed, also includes 'hospitality or a meet-and-greet' with Karl, and gives sponsors permission to 'use Karl's story and approved photographs from the walk in your own campaign'.Elsewhere, Mr Bushby has said he is working on a second book about his feat, after publishing Giant Steps in 2007.And film-maker Werner Herzog is assembling more than a decade's worth of video footage shot by Mr Bushby into a documentary entitled Walk of Life. The German director was sat outside Mr Bushby's mother's home to greet him as he arrived and said of the arrival: 'It's a very big, big emotional moment.' German filmmaker Werner Herzog (pictured left) was there to witness Bushby's homecoming. He is turning Bushby's video diaries into a documentary, Walk of Life Bushby pictured in Mexico in 2002. He would return to the country several times after either running low on funding or waiting out bureaucratic delays Bushby crossing the Bering Strait, a feat achieved in modern times by only a handful of people, in 2006For a time, Mr Bushby's story existed only on the fringes of the media – a story occasionally retreaded to remind the world that he was out there, still walking.But his return home has seen it offered up to the court of social media.Users on forums like Reddit and Mumsnet are split: was this a masterclass in human endeavour, or an absent father coming up with the ultimate excuse to stay away?Adventurer Johnny Ward, the only person in the world to complete the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam – every country, seven summits and both Poles – has blasted Mr Bushby for leaving his ex-wife Angela Tivnen to raise their son Adam, now 36. Mr Ward grew up in a single-parent household after he and his mother fled his abusive father, and said he knew 'how tough life is' without a male figure in the household.'There are plenty of true legends doing amazing things to follow out there,' he wrote in a social media post. 'Some guy ghosting his family and pretending he's an adventurer doesn't cut it for me.'He later told the Daily Mail that he felt the expedition had been 'misrepresented', adding: 'He had a Colombian girlfriend for seven years and a Japanese girlfriend for three years.'He had an entire life, ten years, elsewhere... but not flying back to see your family?’Fellow explorer Ed Stafford, who spent almost two and a half years trekking the length of the Amazon, has defended Mr Bushby, telling The Times: 'He deserves the recognition for doing something just out of sheer bloody-mindedness to not stop.'However, Mr Stafford completed his journey as a single man with no dependants. He says he would not repeat his own adventure now that he has children. Bushby walking on the road to Valinisty Mine in Russia, in 2008. Bushby was given a hero's welcome in Hull last week - but the details of his journey have seen it met with some criticismThe Spectator labelled the saga 'a tragedy, not a triumph', writing: 'Even Shackleton didn't desert his family for 28 years.'Niamh O'Reilly, a columnist with Irish newspaper The Journal, suggested that Mr Bushby's decision to leave child-rearing duties to his ex-wife would not have been embraced so widely had the roles been reversed.'I can’t help feeling that if a mother did anything even close to ditto, she would be less likely to come home being celebrated as a record-breaking hero with crowds cheering and more likely to be branded as a bad mother,' she wrote.And in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Bushby's ex-wife Angela Tivnen – who was not there to meet him upon his return to Hull – remained remarkably stoic, saying that neither she nor her son bore him any ill will.Mr Bushby, in his defence, kept in touch with his son when he could, made easier through advances in technology, and invited Adam to join him on the road.Teenage Adam would eventually visit his father in Alaska in 2004 alongside Karl's 78-year-old mother, Angela, and in 2014 as he journeyed across the United States.It is unlikely that anyone would resent Mr Bushby for seeking to finally cash in on a journey described by novelist Frederick Forsyth as 'an odyssey worthy of Ulysses himself'.Once the media furore calms down, he plans to consider retraining as a teacher, and is pursuing fundraising for aSIMetric, a US charity he co-founded that aims to create a space-flight simulation for schoolchildren.But the finer details of his journey continue to raise questions among those who wonder if he might have been less adherent to his own rules.Touting his after-dinner speaking credentials, Mr Bushby's website says he can 'reflect on the costs of a life-defining mission...paid for by the person who makes it and by the people around them.'Similarly, the promotional material for Mr Bushby's live show asks of theatregoers: 'What does it take to sacrifice almost everything for a promise?'Some might point out that the only person to whom Mr Bushby had made that promise was Karl Bushby himself.Representatives for Mr Bushby were contacted for comment. READ MORE: I'm the ex-wife of Karl Bushby - the 'hero' who walked around the world. I might not have traversed the jungles of Colombia but I did raise a decent, happy and well-adjusted son... while his father was off on his adventure