Hiking the Glenn Highway through Alaska. Published in Asphalt Pilgrims.
Paul Salopek
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
We saw them from a distance: linked carts piled high with hives. They were traveling beekeepers from Jizak. They spoke a dialect of Persian, and they said the season was finished. They were putting up the hives for winter. They spoke vehemently, passionately, about honey. They said the best honey came from Jizak but that the red honey of Termez was good too. When Aziz the guide informed them of his ulcer, they gave him a small bottle filled with a concoction of bee prosopolis—a mixture of bee saliva and plant resins—diluted in alcohol.
Aziz took a sip.
“Wow” he said. “Wow wow wow.”
They gave us tea. They gave us bread and salami. They gave us a jar of their hives’ crystallized honey dregs, apologizing for its low quality, for the sugar ants embedded in the whiteness. They said there was no better life than this one. Nomads are like this.
A wraparound soundscape at this Milestone
This Milestone’s location on a map
Photos of the ground under Paul’s feet and the sky above at this Milestone
A brief question and answer with the first person Paul meets at this Milestone
Botir Abdulayev
Beekeeper, age 45
Who are you?
I’m a honey maker.
Where do you come from?
Jizak city. My grandfathers came from Iran. They were traders. They came, and they traded a bit, and then they didn’t go back.
Where are you going?
We're like gypsies. We’re always on the move. Now I’m going home with my bees.
Observations from social media from the Milestone location
Few posts are available in this area: Instagram user shirinshoh post self portraits and photos of family and friends. Following the death of Uzbekistan’s president, another user reflects on the value of family.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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