Rating: 
Summary: A Taste of Adventure
Review: I read this as research for my own upcoming trip to Baja -- I don't plan on roughing it quite so much, but I found a lot of good advice and insight here. About the only complaint I have is there's no epilogue to let us know what happened to Mackintosh after he made his trip!
Rating: 
Summary: a classic adventure
Review: This a wonderful account of a crazy Brit's decision
to walk around the Baja Peninsula. The great thing
about it is that he had never done anything at all
adventurous in his life prior to embarking on this
trip. It almost killed him. Author captures the real spirit of the place.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent adventure for Baja fans.
Review: This book totally captivated me. I was familiar with most of the areas traveled and found him to be right on target with his descriptions. I love Baja and enjoyed learning the experiences he encountered and how he tackled all the many hardships he faced.
Rating:
Summary: very good book, quite informative
Review: this is not a typical tourist book on baja. this one give you the reader a view of the real baja and its people that most tourist don't ever see. you actually feel like you are walking with the author as he makes his trip. i reccomend this one.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, entertaing account of unusual travel.
Review: This story is so wonderfully refreshing when compared to the many stories of adventure travel on the market today. If you like the unusual in travel, then this will be a fun book as the author takes you along on his 3,000 mile trek around Baha California relating the story in his own, uncomplicated style. You'll feel just like you are walking beside him, as he encounters, rattlesnakes, scorpions, cactus thorns, thirst, hunger and lonliness. You'll rejoice with him as he comes upon the many small fishing camps along the way and meets wonderful, friendly local fisherman who share their meager food and water with him so he can continue onward. The highlight of travel is often those you meet along the way and this story is no exception. For a first-time author, he does an exceptional job in relating this story in a simple, understandable way, just as if he was talking with you personally. It's truly remarkable that a person with no previous hiking or trekking experience could pull of such a feat. His determination and upbeat attitude pushed him to the conclusion of his quest. If you like travel and adventure, this is a good one.
Rating:
Summary: The Triiumph of the Ordinary
Review: Travel books about daring trips to places filled with hardships erupt like volcanic ash from the "featured on sale" sections of bookstores. Authors fill the shelves, as they have for a dozen decades, with endless sagas of how they climbed-a-mountain-and-everybody-died, why they sailed-the-Pacific-in-a-sea-of-storms, and even all-the-good-reasons-why-people-should-not-do-the-dangerous-pastime-the-author-does."Into a Desert Place" features many of the hallmarks of this unfortunate genre of "we nearly died" non-fiction. Baja California's alien landscapes, spiked with impassable mountains, rattlesnakes and boojum trees, certainly qualifies in many regions as a "need a sense of high adventure and a contempt for danger to tour there" area. Yet, "Into a Desert Place" does not repel in the way that "body count on Mount Everest" books can. On the contrary, this book simply charms. "Into a Desert Place" is a complete revelation--an accessible, winning account of how adverse conditions can be met by those most basic values--determination, a good attitude and, indeed, a good heart. Mr. Mackintosh manages to convey the hardships of the trip, the kindness of most of the people he met along the way, and his own struggles to complete his quest, all without undue sentimentality or boastfulness. The book has a folksy, simple feel about it, but it is anything but a simple book. Instead of the usual travel book conceits based on machismo or "sheer pluck", we see Baja through the eyes of Everyman. We need more books like "Into a Desert Place" and fewer books about how many innocent tourists drowned at sea. We all belong in the desert place to which this book removes us. After reading this book, the reader may not wish to walk around Baja, but the reader might well wish to find that place of quiet, and think a bit.
Rating:
Summary: The Triiumph of the Ordinary
Review: Travel books about daring trips to places filled with hardships erupt like volcanic ash from the "featured on sale" sections of bookstores. Authors fill the shelves, as they have for a dozen decades, with endless sagas of how they climbed-a-mountain-and-everybody-died, why they sailed-the-Pacific-in-a-sea-of-storms, and even all-the-good-reasons-why-people-should-not-do-the-dangerous-pastime-the-author-does. "Into a Desert Place" features many of the hallmarks of this unfortunate genre of "we nearly died" non-fiction. Baja California's alien landscapes, spiked with impassable mountains, rattlesnakes and boojum trees, certainly qualifies in many regions as a "need a sense of high adventure and a contempt for danger to tour there" area. Yet, "Into a Desert Place" does not repel in the way that "body count on Mount Everest" books can. On the contrary, this book simply charms. "Into a Desert Place" is a complete revelation--an accessible, winning account of how adverse conditions can be met by those most basic values--determination, a good attitude and, indeed, a good heart. Mr. Mackintosh manages to convey the hardships of the trip, the kindness of most of the people he met along the way, and his own struggles to complete his quest, all without undue sentimentality or boastfulness. The book has a folksy, simple feel about it, but it is anything but a simple book. Instead of the usual travel book conceits based on machismo or "sheer pluck", we see Baja through the eyes of Everyman. We need more books like "Into a Desert Place" and fewer books about how many innocent tourists drowned at sea. We all belong in the desert place to which this book removes us. After reading this book, the reader may not wish to walk around Baja, but the reader might well wish to find that place of quiet, and think a bit.
Rating:
Summary: The Triiumph of the Ordinary
Review: Travel books about daring trips to places filled with hardships erupt like volcanic ash from the "featured on sale" sections of bookstores. Authors fill the shelves, as they have for a dozen decades, with endless sagas of how they climbed-a-mountain-and-everybody-died, why they sailed-the-Pacific-in-a-sea-of-storms, and even all-the-good-reasons-why-people-should-not-do-the-dangerous-pastime-the-author-does. "Into a Desert Place" features many of the hallmarks of this unfortunate genre of "we nearly died" non-fiction. Baja California's alien landscapes, spiked with impassable mountains, rattlesnakes and boojum trees, certainly qualifies in many regions as a "need a sense of high adventure and a contempt for danger to tour there" area. Yet, "Into a Desert Place" does not repel in the way that "body count on Mount Everest" books can. On the contrary, this book simply charms. "Into a Desert Place" is a complete revelation--an accessible, winning account of how adverse conditions can be met by those most basic values--determination, a good attitude and, indeed, a good heart. Mr. Mackintosh manages to convey the hardships of the trip, the kindness of most of the people he met along the way, and his own struggles to complete his quest, all without undue sentimentality or boastfulness. The book has a folksy, simple feel about it, but it is anything but a simple book. Instead of the usual travel book conceits based on machismo or "sheer pluck", we see Baja through the eyes of Everyman. We need more books like "Into a Desert Place" and fewer books about how many innocent tourists drowned at sea. We all belong in the desert place to which this book removes us. After reading this book, the reader may not wish to walk around Baja, but the reader might well wish to find that place of quiet, and think a bit.
Rating:
Summary: I Could Not Set It Down
Review: Wow, I recomend this book to anyone that is thinking about, or has travelled in Baja. It is not only inspirational but informative as well. Buy it you will love it.
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