The December 2017 issue of National Geographic features the sixth print installment of the Out of Eden Walk journey across the globe. Photographed by John Stanmeyer, “Spirits of the Silk Road” describes Paul Salopek’s trek east from the Caspian shore along the ancient corridor that carried goods and ideas back and forth across the heart of Central Asia.
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Water. Clean fresh, drinkable water.
For more than three years I have struggled to find it. I am crossing the world on foot. I am retracing the vanished trails of the first human beings who explored the planet in the Stone Age. At my journey’s starting line in Ethiopia, I walked from camel watering hole to muddy salt seep. I have plodded from oasis to oasis in the Hejaz desert of Arabia. In the winter peaks of the Caucasus, I have grown thirsty surrounded by tons of water—the vital liquid frozen to rock-hard ice.
But never before have I encountered this: Someone has dug up and looted my resupply cache. A shallow pit that once held 15 precious gallons of water. My water. I cannot tear my eyes from the emptied jugs, rocking gently in a scorching wind.
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