Tracks by Robyn Davidson – Illustrated Review

One of my favourite pastimes during COVID social distancing has been reading. I especially love reading in the summer, hanging on my patio, but this year reading gave me more than just a relaxing evening. Just like in my childhood, reading is now my travel and gateway to put myself in someone else’s shoes.

I’ve been working my way through a reading list I created for Book Club – Women and Great Outdoors. I bought an eReader recently and it has revamped my reading life in a big way. I’m just ripping through books. So many fantastic tales and stories since March.

Tracks by Robyn Davidson

This is a thoroughly enjoyale book of an intrepid woman who went off exploring in the outback of Australia. She doesn’t delve deep into her past – unlike recent adventure memoirs that play into the ‘damaged person who needs to go reinvent herself’. I found this really refreshing. From how she shares her tale, she wanted to go out, experience the desert, train camels, and be solitary. I looked up Robyn Davidson’s entry on Wikipedia and it turns out she had a tough childhood, but she decides not to share that side of her in this memoir and I respect that choice.

Her story is dramatic and her challenges are numerous in Alice Springs, deep the outback where toxic masculinity rules and where she learns to train wild camels. Once she learns how to train, manage, and care for camels, Davidson embarks on a journey to cross the outback through Western Australia on her way to finish at the shore of the Indian Ocean.

Davidson also writes about her desire to connect and create meaningful relationships with the Indigenous people of Australia. She outlines the issues and injustices endured by Indigenous Australians as she has seen and experienced them. I found it interesting to read about her insights into the devastating outcomes of colonial powers against Indigenous peoples in Australia.

The part of the journey I found most fascinating were her observations regarding the experience of a solitary journey. It outlined her focusing on the basics of survival which then turns into deep meditative state and introspection into her journey up to that moment.

Davidson’s descriptions of the land in Northern and Western Australia are stunning. Her knowledge and respect for the camels is illuminating.

I would suggest reading this story if you like:

• Visually descriptive writing
• History
• Nomadic cultures
• Environment/Wilderness
• Overcoming challenges
• Introspection
• Book to Movie
  • Tracks is available on Amazon Prime – by the producers of The King’s Speech and starring Adam Driver and Mia Wasikowska.