Strange, but we had much the same thoughts as we crossed some of the more barren countryside in the US of A.
We were told that in some of the worst/driest areas people very often had to wait, sometimes for weeks, for rain, to ensure that they would have water for themselves and stock at their next stopping point.
And we too thought that those old-timers, and in many cases their families, must've been both tough and tenacious.
I've been around cattle pretty well all my working life, and I know I wouldn't like to face a drove like that.
I never knew them or their descendants, but i sure as hell admire them.