Tracks in the Desert

Pet Travel Thursday

Destination: Australia


Tracks (1980) by Robyn Davidson

By Pamela Douglas Webster

Why is the story of a young woman crossing the Australian bush with four camels and a dog a travel cult classic?

Thirty-two years after its publication, Tracks is widely read, discussed in book groups, and soon to become a feature film. (Note: In 2004, National Geographic Adventure Travel Magazine named it one of the 100 best adventure books.) Is it the stark but beautiful setting? The nudity (well, wouldn’t you remove your clothes to drive camels through the desert)? The discussions of aboriginal land rights?

No. What continues to resonate with readers is Robyn Davidson’s honest introspection throughout the journey. It prompts the reader to ask herself, “Would I do this?” and “Could I do this?”

The plan was simple. In Davidson’s own words, “I arrived in the Alice at five a.m. with a dog, six dollars and a small suitcase full of inappropriate clothes.”  Her next step would be to capture three wild camels, train them, and set off to cross the bush with only the pack animals and her dog, Diggity, for company.

Why or how Davidson arrived at this vision she never explains. The reader must fill in the gaps for herself.

Davidson’s obsession lead her to work for a volatile and abusive camel driver so she could learn the skills she needed to survive her quest. The tale of two years spent preparing for her trip take nearly half the book to tell. And when it seems Davidson will never set off due to one setback after another, the photographer Rick Smolan convinces her to seek the sponsorship of National Geographic magazine. With the magazine’s backing, Davidson finally sets off in the company of  Diggity and the camels, Bubby, Dookie, Zeleika, and her calf Goliath.

With daytime temperatures over 120 degrees fahrenheit, the physical demands of loading and unloading the camels’ burdens, and the very real dangers of lusty male camels drawn by the scent of Zeleika, one would think Tracks would be an adventure yarn. But it’s an introspective account of being rubbed raw by solitude and effort. Despite its very different setting, I’m reminded of Alvah Simon’s North to the Night, the sailor’s account of spending six months alone with his cat imprisoned by Arctic ice.

Uluru at Sunset, Australia

Like Simon, Davidson was transformed by the solitude of her journey. As time went on, the Camel Lady felt a part of the bush. Time became unimportant. She developed a deeper understanding of the aboriginal view of the land.

But Davidson wasn’t alone. She depended mightily on the animals who accompanied her. Her responsibilities to keep her camels fed and cared for gave her a purpose. And she learned to communicate with Diggity in a deeper way.

After finding herself lost in the Gibson desert, Davidson relied on Diggity to retrace their steps back to camp. At first, the dog didn’t understand. But as she picked up the scent and pulled her person toward familiar territory, Diggity showed excitement at understanding what was needed and doing it.

As she neared the Indian Ocean and the end of her journey, Davidson expressed a desire to continue through the desert. The solitude of the wilderness had become more comfortable than the heavily mediated world she was set to return to.

Camels on Cable Beach at the Indian Ocean

The writer had found the attention of the rare tourists she encountered enervating. The pressures became even worse once the media found out about the 27 year old woman trekking 1700 miles through some of the world’s most barren landscape. Davidson risked losing whatever peace she had gained. The last miles of her trip read like a spoof, with friends, both known and unknown, throwing the eager reporters and photographers off her track so she could reach the ocean accompanied only by the animals who made her trip possible.

I envy Davidson’s journey—the falling away of self-consciousness and the feeling of being self-contained and yet part of the surrounding landscape. It’s a trip that you can’t prepare yourself to undertake. Only by setting out do you become the kind of person who could complete it.

But what I envy even more is learning how to inhabit the world more like an animal. The camels and Diggity didn’t speak to Davidson. But they did communicate, in a language of movement, a language suited more to the solitude of the desert than to “civilization.” That’s a language I’d like to learn. And I suspect it’s one that Davidson’s other readers admire as well.

Read more about his book and the animals in it at Something Wagging This Way Comes.

I’ve illustrated this post with photos from Flickr used under the Creative Commons license. Click on the picture to learn more about the photographer and the image. The book illustration at the top and the title links in the text are links to allow you to buy this story at Amazon. Although it won’t cost you any more, we will get a small commission to help cover its costs.

 

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About Vera Marie Badertscher

A freelance writer who loves to travel. When she is not traveling she is reading about travel. When she is not reading or traveling, she is sharing with the readers of A Traveler's Library, or recreating her family's past at Ancestors In Aprons . She has written for Reel Life With Jane, Life is a Trip and other websites. Also co-author of a biography, Quincy Tahoma, The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist. Contact Vera Marie by e-mail.

3 thoughts on “Tracks in the Desert

  1. I loved the book for the candid writing style, the author’s fight with inner demons, how she described and embodied the harshness of Australian outback culture. I disliked it because of how the animals were treated. She was warned by the family at her last stop that poison baits were set out, yet made the poor decision to cut Diggity – the dog – rations. And that became fatal. Loosing a dog before to poison baits – before she embarked on the trip at all, left me baffled how you could make the same mistake twice. The treatment of the camels is so sickening I had to put the book down multiple times. And then there was the shooting of the wild bull camels, which first came to a halt when the gun jammed and the author discovered she could scare them off just as well. Of course it was written in another time.
    But I was expecting the end. On reaching the coast, the camels where left behind without a blink and the author went off to a new life … Let’s face it, the author choose camels because she couldn’t afford a 4-wheel drive.
    Still a great read though!

  2. I’ve never heard of this book before and I am sorry to have missed it. It sounds like it should be on everyone’s must-read list. I am going to look for it in the library next time I stop by. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch the film as well.

    Thanks for sharing this incredible story. Davidson must have had a hard time topping such an experience.

    1. The crazy thing is that Robyn Davidson has continued to have amazing adventures and hang with very cool people. I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity. I think you’d find her inspirational.

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