In present western society daily life has been comfortized to such a degree that most people cannot imagine what Rawicz went through. Lauren Ditolla and Ant Chapin in the Gobi Desert Mongolia Our overall view is, with the help of the locals living in the region, it was possible that Rawicz and his companions might have able to travel through the difficult terrain described in the book. The author might have distorted the timeline and embellished some of the events to make the book a more exciting read. In the end, we compared the descriptions of the people and landscapes we encountered to what Rawicz described in the book and then asked the question, was it possible? The book was written by a ghost writer Ronald Downing. In addition, we worked with Medicines Global (GB) providing medical supplies to remote communities along the way.ĭespite extensive research before and during our expedition, we found no concrete evidence to support or deny Rawicz’s story.

On SeptemLauren Ditolla, Ant Chapin and Keri Bean and I flew to Moscow to begin an 8,000-mile journey re-tracing the route taken by Slavomir Rawicz. We spent three months using various forms of transportation including our own feet, rickshaws, camels, horses, bicycles, hydrofoils, trains, planes and automobiles to re-trace Slavomir’s footsteps. Many people questioned the validity of such an epic tale of survival and I wanted to see if such a journey was possible. Later Rawicz published a book about his trek The Long Walk: A true story of a Trek to Freedom.

Rawicz and his group had no supplies except for a knife, axe, the cloths on their backs and the determination that arises when there are no other options. Over the next year they traveled on foot through the frozen tundra of Siberia, across the scorching Gobi desert and finally over the mountains of the Himalaya to India and freedom. In 1941, Slavomir Rawicz escaped from a Soviet Union gulag (prison camp) with 6 other inmates.

The long walk a trek to freedom