Around the world adventurer says he 'had to float down river for days' to avoid jungle war

Around the world adventurer says he 'had to float down river for days' to avoid jungle war Exclusive: Karl Bushby, 57, heard soldiers 10m away in the treacherous jungle of the Darien Gap, a stretch of rainforest between Colombia and Panama. He got away by floating down a river using empty Coke bottles as floats. A Brit walking the longest unbroken path in human history had to float down a river for four days - using empty pop bottles to stay afloat. Karl Bushby, 57, heard guerrilas 10 meters away in the treacherous jungles of the Darien Gap, a roadless stretch of rainforest and swampland between Colombia and Panama. He took some old Coke bottles and sealed them before using them to float down a river for four days to escape the warring factions and traverse the jungle. The Mirror told how Karl swam the Channel to reach home soil on Monday after a 28-year, 30,000 mile journey around the world. He had walked across 29 countries after he left Chile, South America, on November 1, 1998. He vowed to follow two self-imposed rules: not using transport to advance and not returning home until the journey was complete. The Channel swim was the final, major hurdle of his journey back to his childhood home in Hull, where he set off for Chile on Oct 5, 1998. He is likely to cross the Humber Bridge with his dad Keith, 79, and brother Adrian, 54, to see mum Angela, 79, sometime early next month. Karl's dad, Keith, 79, a former SAS soldier of Hereford, said that getting through the Darien Gap early in his travels was one of the most dangerous periods of his 28 years on the road. He told the Mirror: "It was controlled by guerillas but there was army in there and right wing militia. He passed through about three frontlines. "He had his hammock up for the night in thick jungle, in the dark, and he heard the militia going past, he could hear them going by with equipment on a nearby track. "The problem was that they were on the path that he was about to go down and they would have ambushed him. "So he them spent four days swimming down a river. He used the empty Coke bottles and floated down the river for four days. "It was quicker than getting through the jungle on foot. He could hear the guerrillas moving near him, about 10m away, in the jungle at night. "It was another place they said he would never get through. The authorities made him record a message saying that he would do it at his own risk." Karl became the first Briton to cross the Bering Strait, the treacherous 58-mile frozen sea between North America and Russia, on his epic journey. He was guided by Keith, who kept an eye on satellite images showing the movement of the ice floes. His dad recalled: "He got through somehow. "They said he would not get through there either. Even the local Inuit people had not crossed the Baring Strait. He does not like walking and he hates swimming. So he did have some very dodgy moments in the water.. "He rang me at 6am and I could give him a picture of where the ice was moving for the day. "It helped him plan his route." Karl swam for 20 hours over three days to cross the Channel, making landfall at Shakespeare Beach, just south of Dover, on Monday. HM Coastguard said it "liaised with French authorities and maritime sector partners to ensure safety protocols were met". Karl's team said a small gathering of friends and family, including his father, and he is now on his way to Hull, where he will see his mum Angela, 79, for the first time since 2015. They last got together in Berlin, Germany, where he went to collect a visa.