In today's overconnected world, many would probably envy Robyn Davidson's solitary 2700km trek across Australia.
With just four camels and a dog as company, writer and nomad Davidson's impressive nine-month journey gained such attention back in 1977, it expanded from a National Geographic story, to a book and now is finally finding a new life as a film.
Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska, who plays Davidson, says Tracks is just as relevant now - thanks to technology, you always feel connected and wanting to escape it all is even more prevalent.
"The feeling of that is heightened," she says.
But even though the need is greater, Wasikowska admits it's a double-edged sword, because "it's now hard to get lost".
For Davidson, who was 27 when she walked from Alice Springs to the west coast of Australia, it's one of the sad things about today's world.
"The tragic thing is that it's becoming impossible to actually do that (journey)," she says.
"We're becoming so accessible and linked in everywhere that the very action of disappearing somewhere where you can just be you, it's becoming almost impossible to do."
To see the ongoing impact of her journey, some 37 years later is astonishing to the writer.
"This one little decision form one little person and suddenly it's all this," Davidson says. "I do find it very odd."
Tracks first began life in the early `80s when Davidson sold the rights for the book.
One thing she was certain about, was that she didn't want it to be a big Hollywood film.
The other, which she discovered many years later watching TV series In Treatment, was that Wasikowska should play her.
She initially thought the Canberra-born actor was American, so good was her accent. Over time it became more and more apparent that the 24-year-old was perfect for the part.
"Not that she was like me or anything else, but just that she was very, very good at what she does," Davidson says.
Wasikowska has been in adaptations before, but unlike Alice in Wonderland or Jane Eyre, she could actually meet her character in real life for Tracks, although initially she didn't want to.
"It was so strange, but obviously I did. I just had to get over having a panic attack about it," she says.
"We met two weeks before we started filming, I did a camel training boot camp for a few days."
Davidson was surprised at how quickly Wasikowska threw herself into it, walking straight into the yards and picking up the nose line for the creatures.
The young actress immediately found the camels, her main co-stars, to be endearing and sweet.
"You always think of a big animal as an elephant or a hippo or something you can't really approach. They're like big dogs and just have really funny, distinctive personalities," Wasikowska says.
Aside from needing to work with cheeky camels and dogs, the other obstacle was Wasikowska's appearance.
"That was the immediate concern of everybody's was how to turn me, so pale, into someone that looked so earthy," she says.
Enter the make-up department.
Wasikowska would turn up on set perfectly clean and exit the make-up trailer tanned, sunburnt, with filthy hair and covered in dirt and leaves.
"They would, head to toe, just pound me with dirt and brown lacquer that (gave) me the right amount of tan," she says.
"The trick for me was trying to remember I was pale," she says. "I would lay around in the sun with my fake tan thinking I was so earthy and then had to remember to reel it in."
* Tracks is released in Australian cinemas on March 6
