Journalist to retrace human migration on 7-year walk

Paul Salopek stands by the supplies he will be taking in the village of Herto Bouri, Ethiopia, in this photo taken January 9, 2013. / John Stanmeyer,AP Photo/National Geographic

NAIROBI, Kenya On the eve of an unimaginably long walk - one that starts in Africa, winds through the Middle East, across Asia, hops over to Alaska, goes down the western United States, then Central and South America and ends in Chile - one question nagged journalist Paul Salopek: Should he take his house keys?

Salopek on Thursday departed a small Ethiopian village and took the first steps of a planned 21,000-mile walk that will cross some 30 borders, where he will encounter dozens of languages and scores of ethnic groups. The 50-year-old's quest is to retrace man's first migration from Africa across the world in a go-slow journey that will force him to immerse himself in a variety of cultures so he can tell a global mosaic of people stories.

The Ethiopia-to-Chile walk - which took human ancestors some 50,000 years to make - is called Out of Eden and is sponsored by National Geographic, the Knight Foundation and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, the American plans to write one major article a year with periodic updates every 100 miles or so.

"Often the places that we fly over or drive through, they aren't just untold stories, but they are also the connective tissues between the stories of the day," Salopek told The Associated Press by satellite phone from the village of Herto Bouri, his starting point, late Wednesday.

This graphic released by the National Geographic Society on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, shows the route Paul Salopek will take on his planned 21,000-mile walk.

/ AP Photo/National Geographic

Those fly-over places explain how environment or education are connected to the economy - stories that are more nuanced and complicated "that take slowing down to explain," he said.

Though Salopek's planned walk may be among the longest in modern times - Guinness World Records doesn't track "longest walk" because such a feat can't be standardized - such long, investigative walks have been done before.

Rory Stewart, now a British parliamentarian, walked across Iran, Pakistan, Nepal, and then circled back to post-Taliban Afghanistan to walk from Herat to Kabul, a journey chronicled in the 2005 book "The Places In Between." Stewart's walk took 21 months.

"The best thing about it for me was simply that it gave me access to people and communities. It forced you to stop every 20 or 25 miles. It forced you to spend nights in village homes," said Stewart, who spends six weeks every year walking through his political district. "For me the real great thing about this kind of journey is that we live in a world which is very focused on destinations, a city or a tourist site, which ignores 99 percent of the country."

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[mljonfoot]

Great story... Last time I spoke to this guy he said he was going to cycle the journey... This was when I told him I was going to walk from Beijing to London this year.

http://www.michaelleejohnson.com for more information.

Seems like he changed his plans... Weird. I wonder if it's because I was going to walk... Well, I won't go there, that's another subject all together (I hope not), however, good luck to him. He will need it. The straits and Darien Gap are not an easy stretch by any means.

[eroteme2]

Another 'journalist' with half a brain.

[inketolstoy]

Good luck, Saolopek. I am jealous.

[nohater]

why? he is apparently someone with too much time on his hands. if he is walking the 21k miles in 7 years as people did long ago, as much as possible, then maybe. but thinking he will be having many modern conveniences with him including net access, clothing, food, medicine or access to it.

[mrsherman]

All he would need for immediate access to help if he needed it would be a smart phone with GPS. He's not out to retrace the path like it was originally done, but to note what that path is like today, including all the people. Even being an American, he is of no or little political interest to those who are anti-american as that anger is towards the government and not the individual. He is travelling as a neutral and could acquire a temoporary passport from Canada or some other nation for crossing borders. The people there want their story heard as much as anybody else and he would be providing it for them.
I would enjoy meeting him when he comes through my part of the country.

[leftcoastrocky]

Very interesting. Hope he has a safe journey. And hope he learns and shares interesting insights with us.

[stopkillingourwilderness]

Amazing and courageous. I am very excited to follow his travels and learn from his insights. Sad to read how backwards other commenters are, though.

[legalbutunjust]

Look at the bright side, the prevailing winds will (hopefully) be at his back. LOL!

[jnostromo]

Well at some point he will encounter terrorist vermin kidnapped and have to be saved by American forces

[ballwyllo]

I hope he gets a shoe contract out of this.

[dking100]

Why?????????????

[ToolMangler1]

Because you have no clue, maybe following the adventure will give you one...