Tracks

Robyn Davidson doesn't consider herself incredible or inspirational, although she completed a journey that few other people could have contemplated, let alone completed.

In 1977, from Alice Springs, which is smack bang in the middle of Australia, and is surrounded by deserts, she undertakes an (*almost) solo trek to the Western Australian coast, 1700 miles away, accompanied by her four camels. I say almost, because she is visited periodically by a photographer to capture images of her journey for National Geographic, and is accompanied by an Aboriginal elder for a part of the journey.

This books is divided into four parts. The first part describes Robyn's arrival in the Alice, and her trials and tribulations around trying to get work, make money, and learn enough about camels to even consider her journey. This was difficult process for her, low paid work, sometimes on a camel station with a strange overbearing man named Kurt, who despite his shortcomings, and underhand dealings with verbal contracts, taught her a lot about camels.
After writing to them on a drunken whim, National Geographic agree to partially finance her trip in return for the story, and the photographs. This gives Robyn the final cash to purchase what she needs to make a serious start to the journey.

The second part of the book covers her travelling as a trial, the first part of the trip, to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and on to Docker, an Aboriginal settlement. This is a difficult time, and a steep learning curve for Robyn. It is at Docker that she meets up with Mr Eddie, the Aboriginal elder who accompanies her for a part of her journey, and shares a lot of Aboriginal knowledge with her in the third part of the book, which chronicles their journey as far as Warburton, where Eddie heads back East.

The final part of the book is Robyn's final leg from Warburton to the coast.

This was a fascinating read for me. As well as being an excellent story of a young woman who, despite some major misgivings about her own mental state, is driven and incredibly mentally strong; it is also a covers a lot of ground with the historic and current (of the time) mistreatment and human rights abuses of the Aboriginal people, as well as extolling some of their amazing culture. As you can imagine, it is one sided commentary, but I don't doubt its accuracy.

For me, the balance is all perfect. The balance between preparation and journey; the balance between the amount of history and political treatment of the Aboriginal people interspersed with the time Robyn spends with Mr Eddie and his compatriots; the balance between the authors internal thoughts and her physical journey. In another book by Robyn Davidson, [b:Desert Places|639361|Desert Places|Robyn Davidson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387707951l/639361._SY75_.jpg|625575], for me she missed the balance, and shared way too many of her impulsive thoughts that were reversed the following day, which made that book only 3 stars. .

So in summary, no hesitation with five stars for me.

Incidentally, I happened to stumble across the film made of this story recently. Despite missing the start and the end, there were some fairly obvious rearrangements of the timelines (taking some of the events of her work on the stations and experiences in learning, and showed them as part of her journey), but the story was largely authentic.