Kon-Tiki adventurer dies
Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian adventurer who accomplished what was thought impossible by crossing the Pacific ocean from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa log raft in 1947, has died in Italy aged 87.
Heyerdahl, whose book Kon-Tiki about the harrowing 101 day feat made him world famous, died peacefully in his sleep, relatives said tonight.
He stopped taking food, water or medication in early April after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour at a hospital near his family retreat in Colla Micheri in northern Italy.
Thor Heyerdahl Jr said his father died at 1710 GMT today.
He spent his final days surrounded by family at Colla Michari, a Roman-era Italian village he bought and restored in the 1950s. His permanent home since 1990 was on the Spanish island Tenerife in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco.
Though he lived and worked abroad for decades, Heyerdahl was a national hero in his homeland, where one newspaper crowned him Norwegian of the Century in a millennium reader poll.
Heyerdahl is succeeded by his third wife Jaqueline, four of his five children, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
