Reaching the limits of ones own self
(1.000 kilometres afoot through Death Desert)

One of the most incredible success stories of our "Great Journey" must be the passage through the largest adherent sand desert in the world: Death Desert, also called Taklamakan in Western China.

Hundreds of towns are said to be buried by the sands - locals call them ghost towns. Paper scripts as well as marvellous mural paintings survived more than two millenniums in these ruins. One of the highlights of this trip of ours was visiting the sunken city of Karadong.

Together with seven camels, we struggled our way through an ocean of sand for a distance of 1.000 kilometres. We conquered Death Desert without any help from outside, despite its reputation of being the desert of no return.

In the near future, I will make use of the category "Diaries Taklamakan" to issue an ample abstract of our book "Die große Reise an die Grenzen des Ichs" ("The Great Journey to the Limits of ones own Self") published in 1998. That way you will be able to read detailed and suspenseful accounts, unpublished to this day.

		Taklamakan/China 1995 Expedition through the Taklamakan, also known as Death Desert. Tanja und Denis Katzer struggled their way through an ocean of sand of approximately 1000 kilometres on foot and together with seven camels. The Death Desert was thus conquered by the smallest expedition ever, and in fact without any kind of supply from outside.

The Great Journey > The route so far > Taklamakan, China