Adventurer Helen Thayer, age 63, and her 74-year-old husband, Bill, set out to cross Mongolia’s Gobi Desert—a 1600-mile trek—with two camels carrying supplies, for no other reason than it’s been a lifelong dream for Thayer and there’s no time like the present. The story that ensues is triumphant as these two individuals put one foot in front of the other day after day for nearly three months. Along the way they lose their water supply and nearly die of thirst, fight scorpions, sandstorms, drug smugglers and isolation.

They also experience firsthand the generous culture of the nomadic people who eek out a living in this inhospitable land.

This is not the first exploration for Thayer, who was named “One of the Great Explorers of the 20th Century” by National Geographic. She has also skied to the magnetic North Pole, lived among wolves in Alaska, walked the Sahara and more, sometimes with her husband, sometimes alone. In addition to Walking the Gobi, the award-winning author has written Polar Dream and Three Among the Wolves.

Walking the Gobi catalogs the reality of the life of an adventurer, the determination to see a quest to the end no matter what must be endured, including excruciating pain, boredom, fear and occasional moments of bliss. What an inspiration.•

Available through The Mountaineers Books (Sep. 2007)