Tracks by Robyn Davidson - Book Review 331

 

This book won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 1980.  It was the first such award which lasted until 2004.

I loved learning about the feral camels of Australia, the history and fringe industry around them.

I've always been fascinated by Australia.  It seems an invert of Canada to me.  In 1977 Davidson went on a cross-country walk with a dog and four camels across the Northern Territory and Western Australian deserts.  From Alice Springs to Woodleigh and Hamelin Pool on the western shore of the continent. 

She wrote about the deplorable treatment of the Australian Aborigines.  The rampant sexism. The subsistence living of cattle stations and their impact on the land. The craziness of tourism. 

Through it all she had to deal with the desire to complete the trek on her own terms and dealing with circumstances that changed how she approached the journey. 

Wild camels and her growing fame while on the trip were circumstances difficult to deal with.  But she did. 

It is a story of perseverance and adaptation to the land.

The narrative was not at all what I expected and that was a good thing.  Being challenged to see the world through another person's eyes and mind can be altering.  

This is why I read.