Paul Salopek is setting off on a seven year walking tour of the world. After more than two decades traveling the world as a journalist, he’s now going to spend the next seven years walking from Africa to South America and finding stories to cover along the way.
Why?
“The short version is I’m interested in narrative, I’m interested in storytelling,” Salopek, speaking by satellite phone, tells Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep. “After jetting around the world as a foreign correspondent, after flying into stories, after driving into them, helicoptering in, even, I thought about what it would be like to walk between stories. Not just to see the stories we were missing by flying over them, but to understand the connective tissue of all the major stories of our day.”
via What Do You Pack For A Seven-Year Trip? : NPR.
Interestingly, his wife will also travel the world, arriving ahead of him at places where she can find a few months’ work. Then Paul will spend weeks walking to her. Very romantic.