sat phone for Simpson crossing in october

Hi Mike,

Depends on seasonal changes of course. but the Simpson can go from pretty warm to damned hot in October. As a consequence, there are fewer travellers at that time. The heat can put a strain on the vehicle as well as the occupants so ensure that the vehicle cooling system is good and carry adequate water.

I encounter few other travellers whilst crossing in late October so there is less support but at school hols may be different. However with correct preparation you are not at great risk so the question of communication depends on your preparedness and physical condition. A satphone may not be essential but it can provide peace of mind. You do need to know who to call though. They are not prohibitively expensive to hire from Mt Dare with return at Birdsville.

We have our own satphone so the question does not arise.

Mike, I think the relevant numbers will be supplied with the hired phone but anyway, here are some numbers that relate to that area.


Birdsville Police 07 4656 3220
Maree Police 08 8675 8346
Bedourie Police 07 4746 1220
Thargomindah Police 07 4655 3200
Windorah Police 07 4656 3133
Boulia Police 07 4746 3120
Birdsville Shell Auto Service 07 4656 3226
Mt Dare Station 08 8670 7835
RFDS Alice Springs 08 8952 1033
RFDS Broken Hill 08 8080 1777
RFDS Port Augusta 08 8642 5555

Rule 101 of travelling...... Never expect or rely on others for help.

Something life threatening happens at 7pm at night...... What are you going to wait for the next car at maybe 10am the next day for help...... And hope they have long range comms or can offer help....... Could be two to three days before real help arrives.

Now if you had a sat phone you could get things happening just after 7 pm on the night of the incident.

Nothing worse then coming across someone who needs help and use of your sat phone....... It can put you behind hours and if not days.

Hopefully we all live and learn something new every day. On my Inmarsat phone I have to use the +61 prefix or the Country code that I am calling, so I wrongly presumed that the same would apply to others as well. My mistake, hence no need to condemn my reply, I was only trying to be helpful.

Cheers
Merv

Hi Mike - I did the crossing with a mate in our vehicles about 4 weeks ago and I used the services of a very nice fella from this forum who hired me his personal sat phone at a very reasonable cost, which meant I had it for the entire trip. I was travelling solo for about half the trip (Sydney to Uluru, Alice, Simpson then home) so I was very keen to have a phone for the whole distance just in case..plus it was good to send/get texts from the wife and kids along the way...

It was the tail end of school holidays and we passed maybe 20-30 vehicles a day heading the other way, and probably 6-8 a day would overtake us at lunch stops etc..Take fly veils..I was surprised how many there were in July!!

I was in a 2002 Prado diesel - from memory I used 110 litres from Mt Dare to Birdsville and we did a combination of French, Rig, WAA and QAA lines.. So you will have some good emergency fuel there but of course let's hope you won't need it! My Prado was wearing new muddies (not bought for the trip but they had more tread than my ATs so were less likely to puncture on the roads either side of the desert) and they were giving me something like an extra 15% fuel usage since departing Sydney...hmmm... so maybe I would have only used 95- 100 litres with my 697s..

Anyway, packing light is definitely the go, I had the luxury of being able to remove all but the front seats so was able to put anything heavy over or between the axles instead of the roof.. Tyre pressures ended up at 18 rear and 16 front and I had very little boggage issues, just the odd bit of wheelspin on some softer dunes and maybe 2 or 3 that I got a bit complacent with and lost a bit of momentum on the way up..but basically the Prado was sitting between 1500 and 2000rpm for most of the dunes..Big Red was fun, she sailed straight up - the vehicles in front of us were having many attempts to get over but they said they were running 24psi.. I was on some very tired (read "original") suspension too..thought the thing was gonna shake to bits on the roads to the centre but once on the sand there were no issues..I'd head off for another crossing tomorrow if I could!

Enjoy your trip!
Rich