Preparation -- Mongolia, my beginning -- Central Mongolia -- Gobi Desert -- Gobi Desert--second attempt -- China -- Gobi Desert--third attempt -- Siberia -- Laos -- Thailand -- Northern Australia -- Southern Australia

One woman, 10,000 miles on foot, 6 countries, 8 pairs of hiking boots, 3,000 cups of tea, 1,000 days and nights. Not since Cheryl Strayed's adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail has there been such a powerful epic by a woman alone. In Wild by Nature, National Geographic Explorer Sarah Marquis takes you on the trail of her ten-thousand-mile solo hike from Siberia to Thailand, at which point she was transported by boat to complete the hike at her favorite tree in Australia. Against nearly insurmountable odds and relying on hunting and her own wits, Sarah Marquis survived the Mafia, drug dealers, thieves on horseback who harassed her tent every night for weeks, temperatures from subzero to scorching, life-threatening wildlife, dengue fever, tropic ringworm, dehydration, and a life-threatening abscess. This is a story of adventure, human ingenuity, persistence, and resilience that shows firsthand what it is to adventure as a woman in the most dangerous of circumstances, what it is to be truly alone in the wild, and why someone would challenge themselves with an expedition others would call crazy. For Marquis, her story is about freedom, being alive and wild by nature.--Adapted from dust jacket