Feet of clay: Her epic walk across Australia

At the age of 16, Ffyona Campbell walked from John O’Groats to Land’s End. Two years later she walked from New York to Los Angeles. At 21 she broke the men’s world speed record by walking 3200 miles from Sydney to Perth in only 95 days. In March 1991 she will walk from Cape Town to Cairo. This book is her own account of her remarkable walk from Sydney to Perth. It is the story of an independent young woman’s journey across some of the toughest country in the world. She had to endure fierce heat that dehydrated her, burnt her skin and melted the tarmac; blisters that twice a day had to be syringed to remove the pus that had accumulated and then injected with antiseptic. Her toenails dropped off, she suffered chronically from shin splints, her money ran out and her relationship with her support driver alternately sustained and devastated her. This is the story of a young English girl very much alone, tormented not only by the elements but by her own inadequacies. There are days when she is full of fear and anxiety and out of rhythm with herself and the world, and days when she can take on anyone including the long-distance truckers who can’t believe what they are seeing.