Let me just say that I admire this woman. What she accomplished was incredible - trekking mostly alone across the Australian desert with her 3 camels. And she had to go out and get the training she needed without much help, and a lot of prejudice against women.
However, I found it hard to relate to her. I was rooting for her, but I kept thinking that I would NEVER have put myself in those situations to start with. I love to travel, but I'm not that adventurous.

This book was so inspiring, I had to order it twice. I had lent my original copy which was given to me as a gift, and the person lost it. I ordered a second copy because this book was a keeper, and foolishly I lent it out again, and lost it again. I now have a brand new copy again, which just arrived, and I will not be lending it. This is a book I will keep forever as a reference, or to read ove and over at times in my life when I need to be motivated, or need to find the strength to endure.

Well I could begin and go on for pages but let me keep this short.

A young woman heads to the edge of civilization as most people know it.
She learns about how people really are by her interaction with others who are barely making it.

Heads into the wilds of Australia where she learns quite a bit more about herself and 'the raw undercurrent of what she thought was civilization' (you like that bit there?) Interspersed with some shots of the outback. This is the story behind the great coffee table book which is filled with some great photos.

Also part of the beginning of the age of interactive CDROMS (unfortunately the CDROM will NOT play correctly on anything newer that about 1990, win95 mac os9)

Highly recommended

This story is 254 pages long and the first 100 pages are nothing but the battles Robyn fought with the townfolk and their feelings about Aborigines, her landlord, finding suitable camels and then training them.

When she finally starts her journey from Alice Springs two years after her arrival there, one is relieved to finally read about the torturous journey she undertook, both with the locals, those annoying tourists along the way, and her intermittent relationship with photographer/sex partner Richard from National Geographic. Somewhere in the middle of the book the journey lost its meaning for me, although I finished the book. It was obvious by then that Robyn made this trek to wrestle with the demons within her, to battle something she had been battling all her life.

A travelogue is always a journey of one's own soul and Robyn's soul was troubled from the start, both from loneliness and what appears to be either drug or alcohol addiction (she mentioned several times how she'd drink her whiskey hard after trouble with the camels.)

I have to admire her for finishing her journey, but she doesn't give her partner enough credit for pulling her through this. She loves her camels and her dog and yet sometimes she treats them as less than that, and like some readers have already mentioned, she paid dearly for that in the end. Some of the honesty angered me and I wanted to yell out "Woman, why would you do something like that!"

This is not an adventure I'm willing to emulate. Although Australia and its people and terrain fascinate me, I'd be much happier along the eastern shore.

The integrity of this writing, this soul-baring, reminded me of Doug Peacock's Grizzly Years: a flight from the insanities of civilization into the healing refuge of nature's raw dangers. Tracks was written by a rare bird; this is writing from the guts. For a first book, exploding out of nowhere, chronicling a soul in search of what is ultimately significant, Robyn Davidson has got the write stuff. Intrepid is the word.

The crystalline expressions of her soul match the purity and desolation of the Outback landscapes. Even a guy like Edward Abbey was swept up in admiration for the courage of this person to embark on her 9 month odyssey. Truly a remarkable book - 5 plus stars.

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts