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The Crossing by Sophie Matterson Review: A Bold Solo Trek Across Australia
by Sophie Matterson
Sophie Matterson's The Crossing is a memoir about a thirteen-month solo journey undertaken in 2020, during which the Brisbane-based adventurer walked 4,750 kilometres across Australia with five wild camels — Jude, Delilah, Charlie, Clayton, and Mac — from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Byron Bay in New South Wales. Published by Allen & Unwin, it is a candid account of endurance, self-discovery, and unexpected love, and it earned Matterson the 2022 Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who love long-form adventure memoir in the tradition of solo wilderness journeys — particularly those drawn to the intersection of extreme physical challenge, the Australian landscape, and an honest reckoning with the life left behind.
Worth it if
Worth it if you responded to memoirs like Cheryl Strayed's Wild and want that same long-walk-as-self-discovery form transported to the full width of the Australian continent, with five named camels as companions and a genuine historical first at its spine.
Skip if
Skip it if you need a fast-paced, externally driven adventure narrative — the memoir's long stretches of solitude and inward reflection faithfully mirror the real journey, but readers expecting relentless dramatic momentum may find the pacing contemplative rather than propulsive.
What readers & critics say
Copperfield's Books praises the memoir as "as profound as it is moving — a tapestry of adventure, love and, of course, camels," while glamadelaide.com.au frames it as "an epic story of leaving everything behind to find purpose, adventure and love." Harry Hartog notes its echoes of Cheryl Strayed's Wild and its status as "an empowering memoir about giving up a conventional life in the pursuit of something more," and the Canberra Times published an extract situating the thirteen-month, near-5,000-kilometre crossing within Matterson's personal transformation.
Sources: Copperfield's Books, Glam Adelaide, Harry Hartog, Canberra Times4.5from 195 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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The Crossing is Sophie Matterson's account of her thirteen-month, 4,750-kilometre solo walk across Australia in 2020 with five wild camels — Jude, Delilah, Charlie, Clayton, and Mac — from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Byron Bay in New South Wales, making her the first woman to complete a camel crossing of the full width of Australia. The memoir balances vivid outback landscape with candid interior reckoning, earning the 2022 Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award and praise from Copperfield's Books as "as profound as it is moving." It is essential reading for fans of solo-journey memoirs in the tradition of Cheryl Strayed's Wild, though readers expecting a fast-paced, plot-driven adventure narrative should know the book's quieter passages of solitude and inward reflection are very much by design.
- Is it worth reading?
- For readers drawn to long-form adventure memoir that takes both the natural world and the inner life seriously, The Crossing is a compelling and historically significant work — Matterson's achievement as the first woman to complete a camel crossing of Australia's full width gives the book rare documentary weight alongside its personal depth. Copperfield's Books describes it as 'as profound as it is moving,' and the memoir's specificity — named camels, named landscapes, named emotional turning points — sets it apart from more generic solo-journey narratives. The key caveat is pacing: those expecting a tightly plotted, externally driven adventure may find the long stretches of solitude and inward reflection slow the momentum, though LuvemBooks regards this as a matter of taste rather than a failure of craft.
- Similar books
- Readers who connect with The Crossing will find natural companions in Cheryl Strayed's Wild — the most frequently cited comparison, in which a solo journey through harsh landscape becomes a woman's reckoning with herself — and Eva zu Beck's The Wilder Way: A Memoir of Adventure, Freedom, which shares the spirit of leaving behind convention for demanding self-directed travel. For more international adventure memoir in a similar vein, Fabiana Capuano and Brant Huddleston's Far and Wild: A Travel Memoir and Susanna Janssen's Once Upon a Continent: A Memoir of South American Adventures both explore landscapes and inner lives in tandem. Rachel Friedman's The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends offers a lighter but thematically resonant take on young women abandoning expected paths for transformative travel.
- Who should read this?
- The Crossing is best suited to readers who have a strong appetite for long-form adventure memoir in the tradition of solo wilderness journeys — particularly those who responded to Cheryl Strayed's Wild or the broader genre of explorers making meaning through landscape. It will also appeal strongly to readers interested in Australian geography and culture, in human-animal relationships, or in narratives about women stepping outside conventional life expectations. Those who appreciate a memoir that holds both the exterior journey and the interior reckoning in equal focus — what Copperfield's Books calls a book that allows readers to 'revel in the beauty of the Australian continent' while also being let 'into her innermost self' — will find it especially rewarding.
- What makes this journey historic?
- In 2021, Sophie Matterson became the first woman to complete a camel crossing of the full width of Australia — a 4,750-kilometre walk from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Byron Bay in New South Wales, undertaken over thirteen months with five wild camels named Jude, Delilah, Charlie, Clayton, and Mac. The journey's recognition with the 2022 Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award confirmed its place within the national record of exploration and endurance. Allen & Unwin notes that the achievement is rooted in 'giving up a conventional life in the pursuit of something more,' grounding the historic credential in a deeply personal motivation.
- What is the writing like?
- Matterson's prose is praised for its specificity and directness: she names her camels, names the landscape features she crosses, and names her emotional turning points rather than retreating into abstraction, which Copperfield's Books credits as a 'gift for writing.' The book moves through strikingly varied terrain — remote desert, salt lakes, isolated stations, coastal stretches — all rendered through Matterson's immediate, first-person perspective. Allen & Unwin's synopsis describes the memoir as a 'tapestry of adventure, love and, of course, camels,' and the structure incrementally builds compounding pressures of lockdown isolation, physical danger, and personal doubt across the full thirteen months.
- Is this more adventure or self-help?
- The Crossing is firmly a memoir rather than a self-help guide — it does not offer prescriptive advice or structured frameworks, but instead documents a lived experience from which themes of resilience, self-sufficiency, and clarity emerge organically. Allen & Unwin frames it as a story about 'giving up a conventional life in the pursuit of something more,' and the inward reckoning is grounded in specific events: the decision to leave a relationship, the daily demands of the camels, and the weeks of isolation imposed by the COVID-19 lockdowns. Readers who enjoy memoir that carries implicit lessons about self-trust without spelling them out didactically will find it more resonant than those expecting a motivational structure.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
What makes this journey historic?
What is the writing like?
Is this more adventure or self-help?
Summarize this book
In 2020, at thirty-one, Brisbane-based adventurer Sophie Matterson ended a long-term relationship, trained five wild camels named Jude, Delilah, Charlie, Clayton, and Mac, and set out from Shark Bay on Western Australia's remote coast, walking 4,750 kilometres across harsh deserts, salt lakes, remote cattle stations, and country towns to reach Byron Bay in New South Wales. The thirteen-month journey unfolded against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning Matterson often walked for weeks without encountering another person. The memoir documents not only the physical ordeal — including life-and-death situations — but also an unexpected love story that began in the middle of the Outback and a hard-won trust in her own judgement. Published by Allen & Unwin, the book was recognised with the 2022 Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award.
Follow up
What role do the camels play?
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How does COVID-19 factor in?
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Content to know about
life-and-death survival situations
pandemic isolation
Skip if You're looking for a fast-paced, plot-driven adventure with constant external tension rather than extended introspective solitude.
Our Review
A memoir of extraordinary physical and personal stakes, The Crossing chronicles Sophie Matterson's 4,750-kilometre solo walk across Australia with five wild camels — a journey completed in 2021 and recounted with what one bookseller describes as a "gift for writing."
The Crossing: A memoir of love, adventure and finding your own path by Sophie Matterson front cover
What the Book Is — and What It Puts on the Line
In 2020, at the age of thirty-one, Sophie Matterson made a series of irreversible decisions: she ended a long-term relationship, packed her belongings into saddlebags, trained five wild camels named Jude, Delilah, Charlie, Clayton, and Mac, and set out from Shark Bay on Western Australia's remote coast. Her destination was Byron Bay on the New South Wales east coast — a distance of 4,750 kilometres of rugged Australian terrain that included harsh deserts, treacherously beautiful salt lakes, remote cattle stations, and country towns. The journey unfolded against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, with each state in various forms of lockdown, meaning Matterson would often walk for weeks without encountering another person. The book documents her thirteen-month crossing in full, including life-and-death situations survived along the way, a love story that began in the middle of the Outback, and a hard-won trust in her own judgement and capabilities.
The Significance of the Achievement
In 2021, Matterson became the first woman to complete a camel crossing of the full width of Australia. That distinction alone gives The Crossing a place in the record of Australian adventure, but the memoir reaches beyond the credential. Its publisher, Allen & Unwin, frames the book as a story about "giving up a conventional life in the pursuit of something more" — the "more" Matterson describes herself as having always sensed but struggled to name. The book was recognised with the 2022 Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award, which affirms the journey's place within the national conversation about exploration and endurance. Comparisons to Cheryl Strayed's Wild — another memoir in which a solo journey through harsh landscape becomes the mechanism for a woman's reckoning with herself — have been widely drawn, and they speak to the genre The Crossing inhabits: the long-walk-as-self-discovery narrative, updated to the Australian continent and a very particular set of companions.
Matterson's Voice and the World She Describes
Copperfield's Books notes that Matterson's writing allows readers "to revel in the beauty of the Australian continent, the entire width of which she has trodden with her beloved camels, while also allowing us into her innermost" self — a description that captures the memoir's dual focus on exterior landscape and interior reckoning. The book moves through strikingly varied terrain: remote desert, salt lakes, isolated stations, and coastal stretches, all rendered through Matterson's direct perspective as the sole human presence for long stretches. The five camels are named and individual, not merely a logistical backdrop, and the relationships she builds with them form a thread running through the entire journey. The memoir is also frank about what Matterson walked away from — a conventional life her peers were embracing at exactly that moment — which grounds the adventure in recognisable human conflict.
Genuine Strengths of the Work
The memoir's most distinctive asset is its specificity. Matterson names her camels, names her route, names the landscape features she crosses, and names the emotional turning points — including falling in love in the Outback — rather than retreating into abstraction. The publisher's synopsis describes the journey as "the ultimate test of resilience and self-sufficiency," and the book's structure appears designed to deliver that test incrementally, with the compounding pressures of lockdown isolation, physical danger, and personal doubt accumulating across the thirteen months. Copperfield's describes the result as "as profound as it is moving — a tapestry of adventure, love and, of course, camels." For readers drawn to adventure memoir that takes the natural world seriously alongside the inner life, The Crossing offers both in abundance.
Who It Is For — and Where It May Not Satisfy
The Crossing will resonate most strongly with readers who appreciate long-form adventure memoir in the tradition of solo wilderness journeys — those who responded to Wild, to Tim Cahill, or to the broader genre of explorers making meaning through landscape. Readers seeking a tightly plotted narrative with external dramatic tension as the primary driver may find that the memoir's quieter passages — those long weeks without human contact — reflect the real texture of the journey rather than a narrative propulsive pace. The COVID-19 lockdown context is woven into the experience as a condition of isolation rather than as a separate subject, which enriches the solitude but means some readers expecting a conventional adventure arc may find the inward focus more dominant than anticipated. These are matters of taste and expectation rather than failures of craft; the book is precisely what its subtitle promises — a memoir of love, adventure, and finding your own path.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
- Further reading
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sophiematterson.com
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glamadelaide.com.au
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If you liked The Crossing
Why It’s Trending
Solo Camel Trek Memoir Finds New Readers as Adventure Travel Stories Gain Fresh Appeal
Sophie Matterson's account of walking 4,750km across Australia with five camels continues to draw readers looking for real, gripping adventure stories. With no strong news hook tied to the book right now, it appears to be finding its audience organically — which often says the most about a book's staying power.
The Crossing is the kind of book that doesn't need a big news moment to keep finding readers. Sophie Matterson's account of walking across Australia solo in 2020 — with five wild camels named Jude, Delilah, Charlie, Clayton, and Mac — is a genuinely unusual adventure story, and word of mouth has kept it circulating well past its initial release. It won the 2022 Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award, which gave it a boost then, but the audience it's reaching now seems to be coming to it fresh.
Adventure memoirs about solo journeys — especially ones that involve animals, remote landscapes, and a healthy dose of self-reckoning — tend to have a long shelf life. Matterson's trek happened during 2020, which gives the story an extra layer of context that readers pick up on: undertaking something that enormous and isolating during one of the world's most collectively isolating years lands differently than it might have otherwise.
If you've been meaning to pick this one up, now is as good a time as any. It's the kind of read that rewards patience — there's real grit here alongside the wonder, and Matterson doesn't prettify the hard parts. Worth it for anyone who liked Robyn Davidson's Tracks or is just looking for an adventure story that actually happened.