Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback: Chapter 6  Summary & Analysis

During her first day alone, Davidson is overwhelmed by “a sustained, buoyant confidence.” She follows a track that she expects to meet up with a main road later on. She notes that in Australia, tracks are defined as just about any mark made by a vehicle, and that they vary widely in quality and clarity. Sometimes it can be difficult or impossible to follow tracks, which can begin and end with little clear reason. Maps of tracks are also notoriously unreliable.

Nonetheless, the entire first day goes smoothly. The camels behave perfectly, and Davidson enjoys the bountiful life and exotic birds of the desert. She is slightly nervous at night, unsure of how far the camels might go in their hobbles. She ties Goliath to a tree, hoping that doing so will keep Zeleika and the other camels nearby. She describes some of the food she eats on the trail, including dried goods and freeze-dried meat and vegetables, a diet that she says keeps her very healthy.

Davidson settles into a routine as the days pass and describes her processes of waking early, feeding the camels and carefully balancing their packs, and meticulously repacking all of her supplies. She keeps to a relatively strict schedule of covering 20 miles per day, so that she can avoid traveling in the summer and keep to the schedule that she gave National Geographic. She expects the trip to take about six months, or as much as eight if necessary.

On the third day, Davidson finds a road that isn’t on her map, while discovering that the road she expected is nowhere in sight. Again, the failure makes her doubt her navigational abilities and she wonders what will happen if she makes a similar mistake when she’s much farther from civilization. She manages to calm her panic and walks out scouting for the road she wants, which she finally finds after hours of confusion. She sets her course for the Aboriginal settlement of Areyonga and continues.

Upon arriving in Areyonga, Davidson recounts the brutal colonialist history of the settlement and describes how little autonomy and resources the Aboriginals have been left with. The children of the settlement greet Davidson joyfully, which immediately improves her mood. She reflects that Aboriginal children always seem more loving and well-behaved than white children. She finds that her camels and the enthusiasm of the children give her a crucial bridge in relating to the residents of the settlement, where she stays for three days.

After some rest and further repairs to her equipment, Davidson and the camels depart for Tempe Downs station, 40 miles away. During this next leg, she is overcome by the “awesome grandeur” of the desert and finds that the landscape is beautifully varied and interesting. One day, Bub panics when something falls off his pack and frightens the other camels. Davidson manages to calm them all, but she has to beat Bub to do so and feels frightened at her own terror and lack of control.

As a result of that incident, Davidson learns that she has to trust herself to handle emergencies and also needs to reassess her understanding of time on the journey. She notices that her devotion to checking her clock and following a schedule has added unnecessary stress, but also notes that she is “afraid of something like chaos.” She reaches Tempe Station shortly thereafter and, after a brief break there, continues onward.