TRACKS
by Robyn Davidson
With only four camels, her beloved dog and an occasional National Geographic photographer for company, Robyn Davidson set out on a journey from sand to sea across 1700 miles of Australian desert. The story is like WILD (in real life TRACKS took place decades before WILD) in that it's all about finding your inner light by taking on incredible hardship. Ms. Davidson put it succinctly when she wrote: "I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back." Survival against all odds would change anyone, and it changed Robyn Davidson from a woman who would have lived an ordinary Australian life into someone capable of anything.
Change is what I love about survival stories, by the way. It's why I read them.
I'll confess I read these sorts of books because my secret dream involves setting out to hike the Muir trail or follow the coast of France from Normandy to Nice. (In truth I doubt I ever accomplish either because I'm too practical to sell everything I own to fund adventure.) But a secret dream is a secret dream, and since mine involves a brave walk-about, I content myself to live it vicariously through women who do things I've yet to dare. Hopefully, before I'm too old, I'll at least have grown bold enough to spend a year trotting about in an Airstream.
Having read both books and seen both movies, I can honestly say I found TRACKS to be the better film and WILD to be the better book. But if inspiration is what you seek, you'll find plenty of it in both.
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