Paul Salopek walked the pathways of the first humans who walked the earth when they migrated out of Africa in the Stone Age. It was a 21,000-mile odyssey. Unlike our ancestors, though, Paul brought along his camera in order to document his trek. These were some of the highlights of his journey.

From chapter 2 of Paul’s Out of Eden Walk story, he reaches his first major urban trek of the walk. He reaches the largest metropolis on the Red Sea: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Until this point, Paul had only walked through miles and miles of desert, dirt, and heat. He now is surrounded by busy people, civilization, and noise. They walk 63 miles for 3 days to reach the desert rim around Jeddah. Salopek did not cover this part of his journey alone, though. He had walking partners which included Sami Nawar, historian of Jeddah and Mohamad Banounah, desert guide.

Later on, in the section titled “A Walk is a Walk. A Car is a Car”, Salopek finds his walking partner, Mohamad, in pain. Mohammad describes his pain as though he has been stabbed. They end up taking him to the hospital. He then vomits on the side of the road and is taken to the hospital in an ambulance. They get to the hospital, and Mohamad is cracking jokes the the nurses. He then tells Paul he has bad news, and tells him his name in Arabic means ‘urine’. They continue the walk after Mohamad is released.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the stories of Paul Slopek’s adventures throughout his Out of Eden Walk. I think a lot of lessons can be learned, as well as just reading it for pure entertainment. It was a very interesting story.