US journalist Paul Salopek is going to spend the next seven years walking from Ethiopia to the tip of South America, retracing the journey of the early humans out of Africa and around the world.
Along the way he’ll be writing articles, shooting videos and tweeting.
Salopek insists he’s not doing this as some kind of extreme sport, his walk is being paid for by National Geographic and although the journey will take seven years he will not be walking every day.
“There will be places where I shall settle for weeks if not months. There will be places where I’ll walk though as quickly as possible said Salopek.
Obvious first question why?
I can understand someone being interested in tracing the routes walked by the first human’s, I can understand wanting to see some of the world’s best locations, I can understand wanting experience different cultures, but why on foot.
To me it’s quite clear cut he just sounds like he wants to be in the Guinness book of records, because he knows no-one else would be remotely interested or sane enough to contemplate attempting to surpass what he’s about to do.
If he completes his journey and gets back after seven years most people are going to be interested in what he has to say for about seven seconds and then they’ll switch off and just do that polite smile and nod thing that you do when you’re in conversation with a total bore.
Or maybe there’s a different reason, National Geographic are paying for his trip, why for the pictures? They could send anyone to any location he’s going to visit anytime they wanted, so maybe they just want to get him out of the office.
Bizarrely his wife has agreed to this, despite the fact that it will take seven years and the fact that he admits he will be vulnerable to criminals, as western tourists have been kidnapped in areas where he’ll be passing through.
Paul seriously get a hobby, build model trains, take up a sport, do something anything, honestly some people have way too much time on their hands and this is the result.
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