Salopek has a new pack donkey to support him as he walks across India. His name is Raju and he has no ears. Any such help will make the "muzzy brown heat waves", as he calls it, of Indian summer's 104°F temperatures more bearable as he crosses Punjab. Salopek's latest posts are about cold cola and ice cream, making us well aware that 'cooling down' is foremost on his mind. He wrote an article about ice cream, including a few amazing facts about its history.

National Geographic writer, Andrea Vale, joined him to explore the troubled communities of the Hari-ke Pattan wetland region of Punjab and an associated article about this was published.