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September 25, 2001
Overland Australia - Update 52
September 25, 2001
Day 64
Tracks
from Mick Roney
Clues left behind. A map. Physical evidence of the existence and movement of a species. These are properties of a track or footprint. Many Australians still consider tracks to be a valuable tool to see into the past, find one's way around and confirm the existence of a specific species and direction it is heading. In fact we have found that our expeditions tracks are the easiest to spot and follow.
Yes, the unmistakable, but by no means elusive, tracks of the two wheeled “Push-bike rider.” Many have commented that they had come upon our tracks and still could not believe that such a species could exist in the Outback. However, our tracks have substantiated that we are in fact riding our bikes through Australia. It also allows John to find us with the truck before we get too lost.
John has been invaluable in many ways. One has been to teach the art of Tracking to help us find our way as well as to recognize certain animals that may or may not still be lingering around our swags for the night.
Two humbling statements from John came to mind when we had found way too many snake tracks along our ride today. The first was when the riding team came to a dirt cross-roads early on in the trip and stopped to get a GPS fix on which way to go in order to meet John in the truck. We radioed John as to what we were doing and he simply said, “Which road are my truck tracks going?” At that we simply bowed our heads, put the GPS away and up the road we went in awe of this simple but effective way of finding the right track.
The second was yet again when the team was using the fancy GPS gadget and John simply said ”There was a time when people got around quite nicely without such contraptions." Again we were humbled by the truth of his words.
Emu Tracks
Tracking has gotten into all of our blood now. We use it every day. We made it through a huge valley that had not seen humans through it for years without using the high-tech gadgets but instead looked for clues left by people who once created a road through the valley. We always look for John’s tracks and I personally look for certain critter tracks around the campsite before setting my sleeping bag down for the night. See how good a tracker you might be by visiting our educational site and picking out some tracks we found just today.
Find out more about Tracking in the following educational areas:
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES >>
Maths or Download the lesson as a PDF
Literacy
Environmental Studies
Posted on September 25, 2001 2:38 PM