The Camel Lady
(Update)
When Ms Robyn Davidson (known as the came lady), was 27 in 1977, she set out on a solo trip that would span 1,700 miles of the deserts of Western Australia. She had no human companions but was accompanied by four camels and a dog.
To give them their full deserved credit Diggity the dog was rescued from certain death in a medical research laboratory as a pup and went on to alert her to various dangers such as snakes and other humans. Then there were the camels, Dookie (a large male), Bub (a smaller male), Zeleika (a wild female), and Goliath (Zeleika’s son). These were wild camels that she took two years out to train and learn to look after.
It was an audacious, daring feat requiring the fearlessness and lack of consequence awarded to the young to accomplish it. She herself has said since that ‘I have become a coward in old age.’
One can only adore the idea of a ‘beautiful journey undertaken purely for it’s own sake’ as one reviewer for the film depicting her epic endeavour put it.
Her lust for an unconventional way of living may have been moulded in some part from her personal experience as a child. Her mother committed suicide when she was 11 years old and in the parental void, there probably occurred the lack of societal brainwashing that limits the scope of most people and indeed most women in her youth. She was raised by her unmarried aunt (as it was unthinkable for a widowed man to raise children at that time) and then was shipped off to boarding school.
The Journey
What seems achingly refreshing in retrospect is that she wanted to do the journey for herself and by herself. Unlike the way folks live today, she needed no audience. She needed no approval. She describes it as ‘a completely private and personal gesture.’ She had no money to buy a truck and therefore having felt the call of the desert decided to train feral camels instead. Her consequential involvement with the National Geographic Magazine brought her the funding she needed for the trip.
She kept a journal of her journey which was chronicled in the National Geographic Magazine and by photographer Mr Rick Smolan who would every so often drive out to meet her and take photos of her. He later released a photographic book called ‘From Alice To Ocean.’
She also wrote a best selling book ‘Tracks’ about her experiences which has been made into the aforementioned 2013 film starring Ms Mia Wasikowska
Perhaps the most poignant summation of the unnecessary brilliant madness of her journey was made by Ms Davidson as she describes the morning of departure:
‘The night at Glen Helen was normal enough… But oh how different the dawning. We all woke up with tight forced smiles which soon enough disintegrated into covert then overt weeping… I knew they all had that sinking feeling that they would never see me alive again, and I had the sinking certainty that I would have to send messages from Redbank Gorge the same day, saying, ‘Sorry, muffed it on the first seventeen miles, please collect.’
‘The last sight Robyn’s friends and family had of her was a simple wave and the camel’s packs disappearing over the hill.’ ~ Rick Smolan.
Her Words
- ‘It seems to me that the real question is why don’t people do strange and interesting things with their lives more often? I think it is a wonderful, exciting, challenging beautiful thing to do, so why wouldn’t I do it?’
- ‘The two important things I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavor is taking the first step, making the first decision.’
- ‘I’d like to think an ordinary person is capable of anything.’
- ‘I wondered what powerful fate had channeled me into this moment of inspired lunacy. The last burning bridge back to my old self collapsed. I was on my own.’
Nuff Respect
This stunning film, (which came out in 2014), looks like a glorious panoramic nod to nature as much as one person’s intimate journey, we decided that we rather like Ms Davidson. It is our passion to bring to our audience subjects and people of substance, interest and difference. We adore folks who continuously ask ‘why?’ as much as those who ask ‘why not?’ Also, an integral part of her process was to ensure that the animals enjoy a rather nice life after their involuntary interaction with their human. Respect must be given.
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The film is called Tracks.
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Much thanks to the following:
Sources:
Author:
Photographer:
Rick Smolan – ‘From Alice To Ocean’
Wikipedia
Daily Telegraph quote
The Age.com reference