American journalist embarks on a 20,000km and 7 year walk

Paul Salopek set off last month on an adventure by foot. The adventure will take the 50 year old seven years and 20,000km to complete.

By Declan Whooley

On January the 3rd this year Salopek embarked on a life-changing journey, a journey that will follow the path of our ancestors more than 60,000 years ago where they began moving from prehistoric African Eden to explore the world.

The huge task, which is being called Out of Eden, will see Salopek recreate that same journey by foot, starting from the species birthplace in Ethiopia and finishing at the southern tip of South America some time in 2020.

The National Geographic writer will be blogging throughout the epic journey, and will stop every 100 miles along the route to record his location and upload pictures and videos as well as updating the blog. You can keep up to speed on the whole adventure here, while his Twitter account @PaulSalopek is well worth a follow.

Yesterday's view in Ethiopia

Salopek will make his way from Ethiopia to the Middle East and through Asia via Alaska and down the western edge of the America’s to the southern tip of Chile. The project is partly funded by the National Geographic magazine.

The journalist says that he hopes to cover current major global stories by walking alongside the people who live them.

The beginning of the journey saw Paul asking himself what he felt was an important question. In fairness, you can never find the set of keys when you need them, but we don’t think this will be an issue for a while.

We wish Paul all the best on his adventure and hope he has decent footwear.