Humanity is old. Like, really old. Our ancestors have been around for over two hundred thousand years, and truthfully that’s just a small sliver of time compared to Earth’s lifespan. Nevertheless, our creed now spans the globe and reigns over all other species. Of course, that wasn’t always the case. Humanity never fought for it’s top spot in the race for species kingship, but back during the first generation of homo sapiens the Earth was unexplored. National Geographic, in collaboration with Paul Salopek, explored the journey out of Africa, the origin of our people, and into the vast world that took centuries to trek. The trek they took can be explored in minutes with the technology we have today.

I explored three parts of Paul’s current eight year journey. You read that right, current. Paul started his journey in 2013, and through eight years of continuous venturing he’s gone 7500 of the estimated 12,000 miles our ancestors originally walked. I joined Paul in the beginning, and what really struck me was Paul’s outlook on the journey. The man had accepted this journey would be over ten years of his life, but his mind worked in a way that so that explaining the importance of his journey was understandable. Paul started in Africa, of course, more specifically Ethiopia. From the article “Let’s Walk“, we gather Paul’s initial thoughts. His journey will reflect the past, not focusing on his end point of Tierra del Fuego. He restates that to locals who ask him where he’s going. Paul’s focus is always on the next point, not the end. This adds to the accuracy of the journey as our ancestors had no true end point, they search for habitable land. They searched for conditions to live in, for flourishing land and game to hunt.

Of course this journey is nearly impossible now without boat. Continental separation and climate change over nearly two hundred thousand years made this journey sectioned off by bodies of water. The caption of this section was “Silk Road”. The formidable Silk Road was a trade route encapsulated in history as one of the most important marks of development. Paul’s “Silk Road” is no longer accurate to the Silk Road of the past, but Paul’s journey shows the modernize Silk Road. Today we have much quicker means of transporting goods, whether that be by boat, plane, or more local means like car or mail carrier systems. These our the Silk Roads of today.

https://twitter.com/PaulSalopek

Paul is nearing Eastern Asia now. The Out of Eden website is updated on his journey as of October 2021. What I have come to love about Paul’s journey is his perspective. Through seven, almost eight years of travel he has not changed his outlook and ability to describe. He has become grounded and more aware. Meeting people from along his journey has shown him different perspectives of the modern world. In his journey is reciprocate the ancestral world he has found nothing but damage. The word’s of the wise seem to go unheard. The article “Green Ark“, also the most recent from Paul, shows how passionate Paul has become along his journey. He began his journey focusing on the next destination, exploring a foot-worn route as old as time. He now sees deeper than we can imagine. He has seen development and unnatural development. In his latest article, he states that along his path in Asia “I spot a dark form flit from the ground into the trees… it is Gallus gallus, the red junglefowl, a wild Asian ancestor of what is by far the most abundant bird on Earth today: the 65 billion commercially bred chickens eaten by humans every year” (Salopek). 65 billion. If that doesn’t show the impact of commercialism and greed then I don’t know what does. If that doesn’t rattle you, then try to fathom the carbon output and pollution effect that product has.

Paul isn’t done his journey yet. You can keep up with him here: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/