To have arrived on this earth as a product of a biological accident, only to depart through human arrogance, would be the ultimate irony.

It occurred to me that if I did not handle the crash correctly, there would be no survivors.

To me it's a question of being able to look backward and give the present a root... To give meaning to where we are today, we need to look at where we have come from.

We hope to find more pieces of the puzzle which will shed light on the connection between this upright, walking ape, our early ancestor, and modern man.

Sadly, I am not able to take part in the fieldwork myself so much anymore, as both of my legs were amputated following an airplane crash twelve years ago.

To have arrived on this earth as a product of a biological accident, only to depart through human arrogance, would be the ultimate irony.

Whether or not all this came to pass in an East African ditch, I wouldn't like to say. Perhaps it happened in North Africa or further west, but Africa was definitely the place.