Keeeping in touch

Tel$tras overloaded Big Puddle along with thier overloaded rate$ ????

Peter

It is out there already but at a cost.

Last year I had business people with me in the Gibson Desert, driving across trackless country and running their affairs from the cabin of their vehicle via a Satphone. There must have been 20 calls per day going to and fro.

On another trip and a bloke was able to keep in touch with friends via email through a Codan NGT HF Radio on a daily basis. This technology is slower than the Satphone and is still in the development stages.

Digital technology is now leaping ahead at such a rate that it won't be long before there are dedicated satellites for every day communications at a low cost. New touch screen computers will see the physical keyboard and the mouse as 'old technology' within a few years. SKYPE type of communications via satellite should be common place within a fw years utilising 12 volt connectivity.

In my lifetime I have gone from a phone whereby you used to ring an exchange(a real person) to ask to be put through to a number to having a Satphone which I can use anywhere in the world on land or sea.

The possibilites are endless and coming soon!!!....lol

Cheers

Once upon a time we went bush 'to get away from it all' now we are tending to load ourselves up with all sorts of equipment, some of value, other not so. Many travellers are no longer capable of self-reliance and probably feel inadequate if the y travel more than 10-20km from home or their regular haunts. They somehow need reassurance or perhaps 'comfort toys'. They want fellow travellers to think they are 'one of the bunch' but really they are just good old city boys looking to get some dust and dirt on their boots. Nothing wrong with that, but just have a look at how the seasoned, experienced, smart outback traveller goes about it. For many of them, less is best and on most occasion they'll be there before you having chosen the best camp sites.

Pre mobile telephone days, how did you manage to keep in touch when travelling in the bush? I seem to recall things like postcards, letters and on special occasions the PUBLIC TELEPHONE. Yes a pocket full of coins and into the smelly smoke ridden and musty claustraphobic enclosure. Sometimes the phone worked first try, others it was a matter of persistence and patience. But we usually managed to get through though. If not, the family understood.

So what went wrong? Mobile phones and other technology arrived - that's what. instant communication. Nothing wrong with it/them but they have become so entrenched into our lives that many travellers won't leave home without them. You seem them walking the shopping aisles, standing in line at the Post Office or Bank, checkout or service station and other places. Ears glued to the phone in a voice so loud that I often really wonder if they need a phone at all. Have many of them even got their phone turned on - or is it really just an image thing? These are the people who never learned to stay in touch using more traditional methods and rely too much on their handheld gadgets. Many have lost basic social skills. Don't get me wrong, I love gadgets, can't get enough of them but when it comes to some people whose priororities now turn to the internet as something they desire to take along (probably into the desert) I think it's just going too far and totally unecessary.

Yes, by all means it is not only prudent but also a safety feature to have some means of calling for assitance in the event of such need. I don't mean bogged or out of beer either. A HF radio, Sat Phone, EPIRB are all capable of allowing you to achieve such calls for assistance.

I reckon a lot of travellers should think about 'getting back to basics'. Asking themselves -just why are they going bush? Just what do they hope to achieve that is so different from simply staying at home? For some, it seems to me somewhat of an image thing. The biggest/best truck or trailer, the smartest/latest gizmos/gadgets, the fastest/shortest/cheapest travelling they can possibly achieve.
All of these things probably have their place (in their heads) but surely the reason that most people want to get out into the bush is to 'get away from it all'. Phones, work, family, debt collectors, old girlfriends etc, yet we so often read of travellers trying to find ways to incorporate many of the things they will tell you they are seeking to escape.
You simply don't need internet connectivity in the bush, try connecting with nature and the environment. You don't need every conceivable gadget or household accessory whilst in the bush. A sheltered camp site, an adequate camp fire, no noisy generators, stereos, chain saws, mini bikes or drunks is for me the next best thing to 'bliss'.
To travel 'simply' is to travel lightly. You don't have to become pre-occupied with how much my van/trailer/truck weighs, how can I improve the carrying capacity, how do you manage to improve the fuel economy with all this junk on board, the price of petrol/diesel, how many litres/100 km or mpg you get. You can just hit the road, relax and enjoy the scenery without all those worries. Believe me it works.