Customer Reviews

Walking the Gobi: 1,600 Mile-trek Across a Desert of Hope and Despair

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I could barely put this book down. The adventures that Helen Thayer and her husband encountered as they walked across the Gobi Desert are bigger-than-life. As a reader, you feel as though you are on the trail with them, step for step, sweating, thirsty, tired and dirty. Sprinkled throughout the book are wonderful and heartfelt encounters with Mongolian nomads who share what little they have with these two American travelers. Scorpions, snakes, smugglers, rifle-toting border guards -- it's all here. What makes it all the more amazing is that Helen Thayer was in her early 60s and her husband in his 70s when they made this trek.

It is so refreshing to read an adventure tale from a woman's point of view. Helen's voice is authentic and down-to-earth. Yes, she can walk 1600 miles through the desert with the best of them, despite a serious hip and leg injury, but she also frets about the animal carcasses she sees along the way, wondering about the creatures' painful last moments. She worries about the plight of the nomad families they meet, but also recognizes and appreciates their quiet strength and close connection to the land. She'll make you laugh at the antics she and her husband go through to avoid eating some of the food and drink given to them by the warm and welcoming Mongolians. And you may find yourself in tears as their once-in-a-lifetime journey draws to an end. A wonderful adventure tale!

Another Helen Thayer (Polar Dream and 3 Among the Wolves) non-fiction thriller that takes the reader on an adventure of discovery and inspiration. The heart-felt understanding and sincere admiration of the Mongolian culture she clearly admires and grew to love shines throughout the book. For 81 days and 1,600 miles she and her husband Bill endured hardship, sometimes life-threatening, in one of the harshest places on earth. Crossing this dry, desparately hot desert in summer temperatures over 120 degrees would test even the hardiest soul. But these two walked all the way at age 63 (Helen) and 74 (Bill). Their close personal relationship as husband and wife never wavered throughout even the worst encounters with extreme thirst, scorpions, snakes and smugglers. Thayer's gift of vivid description takes the reader along as if walking at her side all the way. I laughed with her as she described some of their antics and I cried with her when they tried to save a dying animal they encountered. And I wanted to reach out and pat their two beloved camels they called Tom and Jerry. This is an "I can't put it down" book of not only an enduring close personal relationship of a husband and wife, but also of a thrilling adventure, and an oportunity to learn more about a remarkable culture. A truly inspirational read!

I want to invite Helen Thayer over to dinner. Mainly I want to hear her stories again, and more of them. As soon as I closed Walking the Gobi and set it down on my kitchen table, I felt at the same time winded and awed, but hungry for more.

If you're reading this review, I'm sure you've read the synopsis: two people over age 60 decide to walk across 1500 miles of one of the least-studied deserts in the world. And they do it in the summer.

When Helen Thayer sat down to write this real-life adventure story, she must have known that she had something good. After all, the idea itself is impressive; it tugs at the ear and challenges the imagination. But Thayer does much more in Walking the Gobi than recount a long trek in a string of stories or patronize the reader by giving only summary and analysis of the journey's meaning.

Thayer's descriptions are careful and organized, educated and intuitive. She gives us the gift of recreating each day so we can experience them with her. Each day is numbered and recorded with useful detail- pointing out the unique moments that set it apart from the rest and reinforcing the monotonous heat, wind, and regional dangers that made the journey long and at times overwhelming.

Helen Thayer accomplished a truly great feat when she crossed the Gobi, but what's even better is that she wrote a book about it.

Happy adventuring!

Modern day adventurers do exist. This is the first thing the reader will realize wehn reading "Walking the Gobi" by Helen Thayer. Ms. Thayer brings the reader with us as she traverses one of the most dangerous places on earth, the Gobi desert. It details a journey she and her husband made across the Gobi desert. From page one, I could not really put the book down. With her we meet Mongolian tribesman, smugglers along the Chinease border, rare Gobi bears, desert scorpions and the occasional Mongolian bureaucrat. Throughout, Ms. Thayer never lets the reader forget how truly amazing and beautiful this part of the world is. Any expedition like this would be a challenge for any healthy individual, but Ms. Thayer manages her journey with an injured leg throghout most of the book. Through sheer mental fortitude Ms. Thayer wills herself to complete her journey across one of the most hostile environments on earth, on step at a time. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys the spirit of adventure.

"You're going WHERE?"

"WHY?"

These are the questions Helen Thayer is asked by the people she meets in Mongolia's Gobi Desert.

The answer to the first question is--walking across the Gobi Desert from west to east at its widest spot. One thousand six hundred miles in 81 days, to be exact.

The answer to the second question is more difficult to answer:
Because it's never been done before.
Because Mongolia has at last been opened to travelers, after nearly 80 years of isolation under Soviet rule.
Because there is no better way to challenge yourself (at age 63) or your husband (at age 74).
Because the Gobi is one of the least hospitable places on earth.
Because its people, few as they are, are among the MOST hospitable on earth.

Already established as one of the greatest explorer-adventurers of our time, Helen Thayer, with her husband Bill, travel across the world's second-largest desert with only two intransigent camels as companions. No radio contact, no support team; just a single local pilot whom they must meet at pre-established coordinates every twenty days for resupply. Over 81 days of hiking, they must encounter border guards, smugglers, wolves, thirst, scorpions, giant spiders, and sandstorms. In return, they meet perhaps the kindest and most gentle people on earth, who are more than willing to share what little they have with strangers.

Alternately sad, incisive, moving, and exciting, Helen's narrative keeps you turning the pages until--too soon--the journey is over.

Now what do we do? Go there ourselves?--no, few of us could survive that. So we do the next-best thing and read her older books--and eagerly await her next one.

In 2001, at age 63, the author achieved her life's goal of crossing Mongolia's Gobi Desert, accompanied by her 74-year-old husband and two camels. They walked 1600 miles in 126-degree temperatures - and WALKING THE GOBI recounts their adventure, which was undertaken without the usual support team, sponsors or even radio contact. The people and cultures of the Gobi desert come to life in this fine adventure read, a pick for any general-interest library where adventure travel is prized.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Helen and Bill Thayer, in their sixties and seventies respectively, walked across the Gobi Desert accompanied only by two camels. This book chronicles their journey.

It's fascinating to read about the Gobi, one of the harshest environments on the planet, and the wildlife that survives there. The pack camels are a surprise -- intelligent animals with distinct personalities.

It's depressing but instructive to read about the crushing poverty of the native people and the Orwellian militarism of the Chinese border stations.

It is rare to have someone write their personal adventure book well enough to really be interesting but Helen Thayer reaches that goal admirably. Walking the Gobi if a fascinating read as she details her and her husband's experiences arranging and then completing this trip. One of the things that makes the book so interesting is her ability to write in a style that draws the reader into the experience as a friend. Likewise, her stories of interaction with nomads and border agents are at times very personal and at other times scary. Through her writing you feel her compassion as well as her fears. Walking the Gobi is a fascinating trip and one not to be missed by those with an inquisitive personality.

Excellent! Just an Excellent read. I had read Helen's first book of her solo trek to the Polar North Pole and at that time was in awe of her determination and ability to overcome difficult and dangerous odds. I found this adventure tale even more impressive. Helen starts this trek out with an injured hip and knee from an accident she has just before the trip, but was determined to go ahead with the journey anyway. How this woman walked across the entire length of the Gobi with this injury still amazes me. The pain and suffering she must have endured is beyond unthinkable. I found this story very interesting in so many ways. I learned so much about the ecosystem, the climate, the animals and of the wonderful Mongolian people they encountered along the way. The Mongolian culture was fascinating, the people delightfully friendly and hospitable to both Helen and her husband. The desert trek was grueling but in many ways gorgeous, peaceful, serene and yes ..scary too. If you are a fan of adventure travel narratives, and have read Helen's other books, you will love this and will find you cant put it down as you follow her up, down, and over each sand dune, mile after mile after mile. You will fall in love with the crazy and often persnickety camels that lead their way, you will find yourself extremely thirsty when the two travelers encounter unbearable days of intense heat, you will feel cold when they experience frost in the evenings, and you will at times wonder as you turn each page if they will survive, feeling their fear of death as they walk forward day after day, week after week, feeling every grain of sand invading their pores to the point of suffocation. If you have read Michael Asher's book on his trek across the Sahara, or Charles Blackmore's riveting account of his crossing of the Taklamakan desert of China, then this story is right up your alley.

Walking the Gobi by Helen Thayer

This book is an enthralling account of the fulfilling of a lifelong dream to cross the Gobi desert.

This book relates the various stories of the adventure, however it was the introduction that compelled me to read the entire book. I had selected this book by accident not sure I wanted to read about the activities of a 63 year old woman and her 74 year old husband. After reading the introduction, I was hooked and needed to read on. I thought how incredible the rest of the book must be if their 1500 mile trek through Death Valley and 4000 mile trek across the Sahara were mentioned in a single paragraph under the title of "Preparations", and then knowing that their accident 9 months before their planned departure, which needed two paragraphs to barely mention their various torn ligaments and muscles, ruptures and bruises, didn't keep keep them from their attempt.

Helen Thayer helps us feel the pain, the thirst, and the emotional highs and lows of their journey not only to complete the trek, but even to just survive it. However I think she is at her best when she is describing the many encounters they have with the Mongolian people, from officials to nomads. My favorite passage is when she describes an interrogation when they are imprisoned as suspected smugglers. She becomes irritated after being threatened with being shot and this leads to her chastising the officials with being disrespectful to their elders and shaming them for their rudeness. This description filled me with wonder and admiration for the sheer spunk and determination of this amazing woman.

Read this book if you want to read about an incredible adventure. Be prepared if this book leads you to dream bigger dreams, and leads you also to question any misconceptions you have about the life you can choose to live in your senior years.