How Karl Bushby battled English Channel doubts

British adventurer Karl Bushby says he battled self-doubt to complete a gruelling swim across the English Channel with no training, ticking off the final, major hurdle on his 28-year journey.

The former paratrooper set off from Chile, South America, on 1 November 1998 with two self-imposed rules - not to use transport to advance and not to return home to Hull until the journey is complete.

On Tuesday, he announced he had reached Dover, where he was welcomed by family after three days at sea, including 20 hours in the water between rest stints.

He said: "Getting in the water that first day, I thought 'have I taken too much of a bite here? But you dig deep. Keep on keeping on. You find a rhythm."

Despite encountering a "glassy" English Channel, the 57-year-old said he found the swim physically and mentally draining, magnified by a lack of training.

He said: "You have to have respect for the real swimmers who do this swim with very tight rules. They can't even touch the [support] boat, and are moving at twice the speed I was.

"There was no training at all. I tested the wet suit to see if it fit and then it was just go.

"After an hour in the water I was already cramping up and I was really thinking, 'am I going to be able to pull this off?'"

Swimming at night brought "intense moments", he said.

"The support boat was just off to the side... I was laid on my back looking straight up at the sky. You got the whole deal, the whole shebang.

"You're far away from light pollution and have the whole night sky in front of you.

"It gave me something to think about and took my mind off the pain and aches. It was amazing."

His team secured necessary permissions to make the crossing at the "eleventh hour".

"Everyone was very tense," Bushby recalled. "I was mentally preparing myself to knuckle down for another hard fight. It all happened very quickly. Before I knew it, I was in the water."

Bushby has covered more than 30,000 miles (48,000km), including 29 countries.

He walked the length of South America, crossed the treacherous Darien Gap and continued north to Alaska.

From there he crossed the Bering Strait on foot, swimming where necessary.

Bushby then traversed Siberia and the rest of Asia before swimming across the Caspian Sea, which took 31 days to complete.

He crossed into Europe last year and arrived at the English Channel last month, where he was left with no choice other than to swim after Channel Tunnel bosses vetoed his request for access to a service tunnel.

Bushby is expected to resume his journey on Friday, aiming to arrive at his childhood home in Hull, where his mother still lives, by early November.

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