Robyn Davidson | Nonfiction, 1980

270 pages

(Republished to add to website.  No content change from first posting).

Tracks presented me with a rough start. Section One, Alice Sprung, is about Robyn learning about camels, acquiring camels, and healing camels through incredibly graphic infections, contusions, anger, erratic behavior, and even one euthanasia with a gun, all in a racist and sexist culture I could not wrap my head around.  I was a bit sick to my stomach, and Section One is 107 pages long.

But then we turn to Section Two, Shedding Burdens, and the story I was waiting for begins!  The author, Robyn Davidson, finally leaves on her self-designed journey, to travel with four camels and one dog across 1700 miles of the hostile, unpopulated Western Australia outback ... an unparalleled and difficult journey.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't turn another page after page 170.  Ms. Davidson writes well, but is depressing, whining, sullen.  This book is way more about the Aboriginal vs White culture wars, the destruction of ways of life, and hostility, than it is about a physical outdoor challenge.

I am going to break my own rating rules and give it three hearts even though I didn't finish it because I believe Tracks will actually appeal to many of my readers.  So, try it on if you like, and please leave your comments here!

For those of you who are also members of the "Solo Female Hikers and Adventurers" Facebook group, this is a "group read" for July.

June 2022