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Paul Salopek, year 2 of his 7-year historical walking tour

Two years ago, Paul Salopek began to walk the migratory path of the world's first peoples .. beginning in Africa. Today, we catch up with him as he leaves the Middle East behind where he found kindness in conflict zones and witnessed extraordinary scenes of thousands fleeing Syria on foot....
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Striding toward Bethlehem, in the West Bank, Paul Salopek is detoured by a herder’s tattered fence, one of the first human-made barriers—other than checkpoints and border gates—he’s faced in some 2,300 miles since he started out in Ethiopia. © John Stanmeyer/National Geographic
The Current25:00Paul Salopek, year two of his seven year historical walking tour - Dec 10, 2014

Two years ago, Paul Salopek began to walk the migratory path of the world's first peoples .. beginning in Africa. Today, we catch up with him as he leaves the Middle East behind where he found kindness in conflict zones and witnessed extraordinary scenes of thousands fleeing Syria on foot.

It took our ancestors millenia to make the journey out of Africa, and into every corner of the globe.

Now, Paul Salopek is doing his best to recreate that journey... on foot. And he's given himself seven years.

The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and National Geographic Fellow is two years into his improbable trek which... if all goes well.. will see him walk more than 33,000 kilometres before reaching his final destination, at the tip of South America.

We last spoke with Paul Salopek about a year ago, when he was first leaving the continent of Africa and setting foot in the Middle East. We reached him today in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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This segment as produced by The Current's Sarah Grant.

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