Conquering the desert
Pretoria-based ultra-marathon runner and mountain biker Nicolette Booysens recounts her 400km journey through the unforgiving Asian dessert
01 December 2024 - 00:00
More than 1,300 years ago, a Chinese Buddhist monk undertook the pilgrimage of a lifetime. In a bid to seek sacred Buddhist scriptures, the scholar Xuanzang began a journey across Asia, braving the vast wilderness and unrelenting weather of the Gobi desert. A boundless expanse of rugged terrain, sand dunes and mountain ranges, the Gobi desert stretches across central Asia and both China and Mongolia. Now, in 2024, the desert plays host to a different kind of traveller: the ultra-marathon runner. ..
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