Kon Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft

”Good day, Terai Mateata and your men, who have come across the sea on a pae-pae to us on Raroia; yes, good day, may you remain long among us and share memories with us so that we can always be together, even when you go away to a far and. Good day.”

Adventure books are a weakness of mine. It started with arctic expedition books, and is rapidly branching off to encompass anything harrowing and true that man has attempted. Cave diving, mountain climbing, shipwrecks, and now, evidently, balsa raft journeys taken across the sea to prove a point. I, too, am stubborn.

Thor Heyerdahl had a theory that the Polynesian people originated from South America. He presented his theory, well researched and thought out, and was resoundingly dismissed as being impossible. Rather than take his lumps and go home, he....built his own balsa raft, crewed it, and did the thing they said was impossible. Checkmate, doubters. This book is his story, told by him, and encompasses the roots of the journey all the way up through the fruits of his labor. We get a first-hand account of his harrowing sea voyage, which was equal parts idyllic and dangerous, and all the sea wildlife they encounter along the way. We also get quite a bit of Polynesian history, and Thor's theory about where their people came from.

Thor was a great writer, and this was a compelling book. His descriptive writing made me feel like I was there, and I loved his tongue-in-cheek humor about many aspects of his own journey. Departing accidentally without most of his crewmates because of the language barrier was one of my favorite parts.

There's definitely some dated language used here, referencing the many peoples Thor comes across in getting his boat together and sailing across the world. The language and words used wouldn't fly today, but this book was written in 1948, and I know this is a phrase used to hand-wave things away, but things were different then. I'm sure if Thor did this stuff today, he'd use different phrasings and see things differently. I don't think it detracts from the experience, and he genuinely seems to enjoy everyone he comes across. I don't think any of it was used in a derogatory fashion. I only mention it here in reference to the 1 star reviews I see left here from people.

Highly recommend this book to anyone else who enjoys a good, true, adventure story. There's evidently a movie I'm definitely going to check out next.

A riveting true adventure story about five Norwegians and a Swede sailing a balsa-wood raft from Peru to French Polynesia. The year is 1947 and there are no ships that could realistically help the crew of this experimental craft (although ham radio operators from across the world were able to relay their updates). Fascinating subject matter, clear writing style, and good pacing make this a wonderful read, even with the occasional racially insensitive language (common for the time period and not born of disrespect, as author's life attests). The original raft is now at the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo.