Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback: Chapter 7  Summary & Analysis

After leaving Tempe Station, Davidson encounters sandhills for the first time and is awed at the ethereal, alien quality of the world around her. She learns to deal with flies and other small hazards, and she continues on calmly despite sometimes feeling stifled by all the sand around her. She expects to travel for about two weeks before she reaches Ayers Rock, where she will be meeting Rick.

Davidson reflects that she doesn’t look forward to seeing Rick and all the tourists that will surround Ayers Rock, thinking that even nice people are intolerable when they become tourists. However, she distinguishes between tourists and travelers and notes that she does meet some “lovely people” during her journey. Davidson finds the trip to the Rock somewhat disappointing, in that the initial thrill of her trip has worn away and she’s beginning to wonder if and when she’ll feel that something truly important is taking place.

As she travels, Davidson becomes more and more devoted to detailed rituals and habits, making sure that everything she does is exactly correct. During a brief stop at a bar in tourist ranch, she is so disgusted by the misogynistic behavior of the men there that she immediately leaves. She also begins to see the first signs of wild camels around her and becomes nervous about the possibility of meeting a wild bull camel, since Sallay Mahomet told her to “shoot first and ask questions later” when confronted by one.

Finally, Davidson arrives at Ayers Rock for the first time in her life and is stunned by its eerie beauty. She meets the head ranger of the national park and learns from him how the Rock and the area surrounding it are in danger from the behavior of disrespectful tourists. Though she’s shocked at their behavior, Davidson feels that not even tourists can ruin the Rock’s beauty.

Rick arrives the next day and, to Davidson’s surprise, he brings Jenny along with him. Although Davidson is happy to see Jenny, she is also dismayed to have her isolation interrupted yet again, which causes immediate tension between her and Jenny. Rick shows the two women the photographs he took with his camera of Davidson’s departure, in which Davidson can barely recognize herself because she looks so much more glamorous than she feels. She eventually begins to tell Jenny and Rick about her trip so far and, although she feels that little has happened, she nonetheless notices that she can feel the trip starting to change her thought processes and ways of relating.

Two days later, Jenny leaves for Alice Springs, and Rick annoys Davidson by photographing their goodbyes. She is also frustrated by the need to pose for photos for the magazine, which feels dishonest and staged to her. She embarks on another stretch of travel toward the Olgas, which are rocky landmarks about 20 miles away. As she walks, Davidson feels depressed at Rick’s interference and blames him for her negativity.

The conflict with Rick escalates, with Rick sulking and Davidson growing angry. Finally, at the Olgas, she sits him down and demands that they stop acting like children. The two end up talking for hours and end the conversations as friends; Davidson discovers that Rick is likable after all. Rick joins Davidson for several more days of her journey, which, she writes, she did not see at the time was yet another way in which she let the outside world co-opt her story.

Davidson begins to grow angry with Rick again as she shoulders the burdens of the trip’s labor while he simply takes pictures with his camera. At one point, the two separate and Rick is late to meet up again, which worries Davidson and makes her furious when it turns out that he was back at camp reading the whole time. On the same day, Goliath runs away during a rainstorm, and after chasing him down, Davidson has a hysterical breakdown in front of Rick. That night, the two begin the sexual aspect of their relationship. Although Davidson is glad to have Rick as a friend, she writes that she regrets allowing their relationship to become sexual, because it allows him to fall in love with her “camel lady” image and further prevents her from having full control over the journey.

A few days before the next stop, Dookie falls and injures his shoulder. Davidson is unsure how to help him and she, Rick, and the camels rest for a few days until he can walk. Then they arrive in Docker, the next Aboriginal settlement, where Davidson ends up staying for six weeks while Dookie heals. While there, she and Rick fight over whether or not it is ethical for him to photograph the Aboriginal people, as National Geographic wants him to. He takes the pictures anyway, which upsets Davidson. Right before he leaves, Rick also inadvertently takes pictures of a sacred ceremony, which Davidson feels turns the local people against both of them.

Because Dookie does not seem to be improving, Davidson flies back to Alice Springs in a mail plane to seek advice from the vets, even though doing so makes her feel completely defeated. The vets tell her that all she can do is wait, so she stays in Docker, feeling bored and miserable. One day, she encounters her first wild bull camels right by her camp and, with the help of a young Aboriginal man, ends up shooting and killing three of them to keep them from attacking. She is overcome by remorse and wonders how anyone can ever kill for pleasure.

Soon thereafter, a nurse working for the Aboriginal health service arrives, and she and Davidson become friends. They drive to another settlement and dance with a group of Aboriginal women they meet there. Davidson is delighted, feeling that the women are accepting her at last, but is then dismayed when she is expected to pay at the end of the dance. She feels that, once and for all, she will always be “a whitefella tourist on the outside looking in.” When Dookie’s shoulder finally heals, Davidson hopes that one of the older Aboriginal men would be willing to be her guide for the next part of the journey, but they all decline. She leaves the town miserable, convinced that her trip is just “an empty foolish gesture.”