Robyn Davidson, 1980
I knew that before I left for Argentina, I needed some kind of adventure book that would take my mind away on a journey outside of Latin America every once in a while, and still running on the post-adventure adrenaline that reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed gave me, I opted for another tale of female solo travel.
Tracks is a memoir by Robyn Davidson detailing a solo trip she took in the 1970's: a 1,700 mile trek across the deserts of Australia with four camels and a dog. The entire trip spans from the moment she arrives in Alice Springs to spend almost two years trying to buy and train her camels, all throughout her journey in the empty outback until she hits the ocean.
This memoir was complex but it could be summed up simply. Davidson is concise but alluringly descriptive, making months on months walking in the rugged 120F Australian desert sound like a trip for my bucket list. I am extremely glad that I read Tracks and Wild so close together in time, because I think that the stark differences between the two helped illuminate each one and are very important for a conversation about female solo travel.
Wild is a story about an emotionally lost woman reclaiming her soul through her travels on the Pacific Crest Trail, and the majority of the prose is dedicated to this justification for doing something daring and vulnerable, which is the loss of her mother. It is a beautiful and important work, but what I loved about Tracks is the Davidson seems to have no explicit reason for putting aside almost three years of her life to walk across the Australian desert. Sure, she briefly discusses that she was over her previous life and wants to move on to new things, but there was no turning point in her life except her decision. Her mother had passed away when she was young, but it was not the fuel to the fire as was the case in Wild. She just felt like traveling.
I think that accounts of adventure travel from a woman's perspective are very fun to read just as they are from a man's perspective, but it is not often that you come across the story of an emotionally traumatized man on the road for the sake of healing. He is out there because he is curious to test his limits and to see the world. I believe that women unfortunately feel that they need to be more justified in their actions of travel. People often allude that they should be home with their families, getting an education, or accomplishing other societal milestones and not off on a walkabout.
Davidson's memoir is an important feminist work while also bringing to light the struggles of the Australian Aboriginal communities she encounters on her journey and her lifetime advocacy for them. There are so many themes and causes in this book that are close to my heart that I feel I need an entire blog post about it–overall though, I highly recommend it!