Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of gender discrimination, emotional abuse, animal illness, and death.

The camels Davidson travels with through the desert symbolize strength and beauty. When Davidson first arrives in Alice Springs, she knows next to nothing about camels. However, the more time she spends with the animals, the more acquainted with and attached to them she becomes. Her description of her camels in Chapter 1 provides insight into her deep affection for them:

I will now, once and for all, destroy some myths concerning these animals. They are the most intelligent creatures I know except for dogs and I would give them an I.Q. rating roughly equivalent to eight-year-old children. They are affectionate, cheeky, playful, witty, yes witty, self-possessed, patient, hard-working and endlessly interesting and charming (14).

This passage functions as an ode to Davidson’s camels—Dookie, Dub, Zelly (and later the calf Goliath)—her companions across the desert. Her challenging attempts to train them (as camels are “of an essentially undomestic turn of mind”) reinforce her evolving perspective on her expectations rooted in the prescribed values and biases ingrained in her by society (14). As her connection to them grows, she comes to rely on her four camels throughout her journey, emphasizing the memoir’s thematic examination of the