We are back

Submitted: Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 00:01

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Member - Dunworkin (WA)

Well we are back from our trip, GCR, Tanami and GRR. Four great weeks of touring around the Centre and North of WA.
We set off on the 28th of July on a cold wet morning, met our friends in Mundaring and with on LC (Friends) and our GU we headed for Laverton, fuelled up there in readiness for the GCR and headed out to Niagra Dam for our first camp, I would thoroughly recommend this spot for free camping, we found that the lower camp area was the best. Moved on the next day through Kookynie and onto the GCR, all went well and made second camp at Tjukariyla, We were very surprised at this stop, lovely and clean and reasonably priced, better than we had expected. Next day was not good, we had left Tjukariyla and travelled about 104klms when we came across a fatal accident, now this was a big change in my attitude to the outback, this accident happened at 1am in the morning, we came across it at about 10.30am about 3/4s of an hour after another party who seemed to know what they were doing to aid the injured, when we stopped they wanted to know if we had a sat phone, and of course we did but guess what, it was a 'Globalstar' and yes you guessed it, a major emergency and NO signal, can anyone imagine how frustrating that was, to have paid big $$$$$ for a useless piece of equipment when it was so necessary, after all that is what we bought it for, emergencies. There was one deceased and two (one badly) injured, a sat phone in hand and no signal, those written words "searching for signal" will stay with me for a long time to come, meanwhile guy came along who had an epirb and set it off but these can take some time to get the message through. We helped where we could to make the injured couple comfortable with what we had, hubby thought of getting the ground sheet that we use under the Oztent and make a tent with the tentpoles over the worst injured, (the sun was getting quite warm by this time) this worked a treat, a passer by called into one of the nearby communities to report the accident and about 11.30am a young lady and an elder came along, unfortunately one of the injured was a nephew of the elder and also the deceased was known to him. Finally about 1.30pm the Dr and a nurse arrived at the scene and commenced treating the injured. At about 3.15pm they finally were able to move one of the injured into the ambulance and we were able to pack up again and leave. One of the injured was still laying on the side of the road when we left, so from the time of the accident to when the injured were finally picked up and taken to Tjukariyla to meet the RFDS it was almost 14 hrs, made me realise how remote you really are out there in an emergency. We went on to stay at Warburton that night, Next day moved on and went to Warakurna/ Giles, checked out the museum (very interesting spot) and was amazed to find an nice new Police station built there, interesting we thought considering they are closing stations down in country areas over here, but heay, who are we to question. Moved on to Docker River and visited Lassetters Cave and then onto the Olgas and Ayers Rock Resort which was our next camp.
The GCR, we thought, was in quite good condition, a bit rough in patches but over all, for out there a good run.
No mechanical problems, no flat tyres just a bit of dust.
I will report on the Tanami and GRR at a later time.
Cheers

D

Simba, our much missed baby.

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Reply By: Member - Duncan W (WA) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 00:15

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 00:15

Good but tragic report D. I have a beeping Globalstar Sat Ph as well and know your frustration. Be interesting to read the rest of your report when you post it.

Dunc
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Reply By: Richard Kovac - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 01:12

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 01:12

Yes it's not good when the best laid plans don't go to plan.

well you have to put it done as an experience and move on..

Good report and sounds like you had a good trip

Regards
Richard

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Reply By: furph - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 08:46

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 08:46

It would be extremely distressing to come onto an accident like you describe, and I can imagine your frustration at not having a sat. signal when you so need it.
We have had a Westinghouse satphone for nearly 10yrs. mainly for emergency use and because it uses the "geostat" satellite it is never not going to send/receive.
A bit more expensive, but what is a life worth?
Sounds like your trip was a good adventure and look foward to reading more.
furph

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Follow Up By: Member - Dunworkin (WA) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 10:44

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 10:44

Hi furph, OK you've got me, what is a Westinghouse phone? who is the carrier? who is the supplier? and any other info that you have as I have never heard of them before.

Any info would be great.

Cheers

D

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Reply By: furph - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 11:51

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 11:51

D.
The Westinghouse satphone we have was supplied by Network Communications, from memory Kedron in Qld., but our initial enquiry was through their branch in Inverell NSW.
The carrier is Optus, who use their own satellite, geo stationary 35000km. above the Pacific.
The unit consists of 2 metal boxes approx 250x200x50mm. with an antenna about 900 long mounted on the bullbar. The handset is mounted in our case between the seats, can operate hands free, has an enormous variety of user options. For instance we use email and fax, it can be configured for GPS and has all Aus. RFDS numbers programmed.
In operation the unit draws about 10a. which means it has to be hard wired into the vehicle system. It is not a portable device as such
The access cost is $45/month (includes free calls), we can
(and do) suspend the service when not required which is a good saving. Call costs are $3.20/min. peak time, 0.80c/min off peak (7pm Fri - 7am Mon.)
As mentioned, there has never been a time, even in bushland, where the signal has been lost. The antenna can be tuned as the "footprint" does change across Aus. but on our recent trip right across E to W I did not have to worry, the signal was always about 75%.
If I can help further, please ask.
cheers furph

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Follow Up By: Member - John (Vic) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 17:35

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 17:35

Good set up until you bust the aerial, then its a good tyre stop.

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Follow Up By: Member - Dunworkin (WA) - Monday, Aug 27, 2007 at 00:15

Monday, Aug 27, 2007 at 00:15

Thanks for that furph, will look around over here to see if we can find a supplier. We have more knowledge now regarding communications if we happen decide to change from the Sat phone that we have.

Cheers

D

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Reply By: Member - John (Vic) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 17:34

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 17:34

Good Friends of mine rolled their 80 series on Cape York a couple of weeks ago.
They also tried a Global$hit phone and could not obtain a signal.
A local arrived a short time later and used his Iridium to immediately make the necessary contact and get things organized.

It still astounds me that with a little bit of research people can get some pretty reliable info on a product any yet they still buy crap.

I have a Iridium phone and have never not been able to obtain a signal and hold a conversation with it.
I have stood side by side with two different Global$hit phones, one in the Vic High country and one in the Flinders Ranges and both times it was about 20 minutes before the phones were able to obtain a signal and in each occasion they did they lost it again within a minute or two of starting the conversation and the whole process was started again.
The Iridium phone locked straight on and my conversations were done and finished before they had a signal.

And yeah Global$hit say they are putting up new Sat's and all will be well. They said that they would be up by May 07 and the service would improve, what a joke.

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Follow Up By: Member - Dunworkin (WA) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 22:15

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 22:15

Hi John, Hope your friends are all OK after their roll over.

As for the Sat phone, unfortunately we had no idea of communications when we bought our Sat phone and indeed up to that emergency (I think Murphy must have been with us) we have not had any problems with it, we do use it a lot in the South of WA and it has always worked well either sending or receiving calls.
Because of info on this sight I gave Globalstar a call before we left and they said (for what it is worth) that they had put up 4 Satellites in May, after they go up it takes a few weeks for them to start operating, another 4 were suppose to go up at the end of August so by end of September all should be well again. We'll see.

Cheers

D

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Reply By: Bilbo - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 17:51

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 17:51

Well I'll be an unkeys munkle!!

"Dunworkin" - we passed that very same rollover at about (approx) 3.30 pm. We musta missed you by minutes.

There was a white 'Cruiser and a WA Police 'Cruiser(?) and two cops. There were a couple of other vehicles but I didn't see your red Nissan. One tarp was covering the 2 injured parties and the other tarp was made into a tent, no doubt covering the deceased.

We got to TJK roadhouse just as the manager was leaving to get the RFDS emergency runway ready about 5 klms up the raod from TJK. RFS took off from Kal at about 4.00 pm and was due to land at TJK in 30 minutes.

We were heading east to west!!

Small world eh!

PS - now you know why I kept my Codan 8525 with Selcall. I'll wait until they sort out this GSM vs NextG issue before I buy a sat phone. At least with a HF Radio I can raise someone 95% of the time during 95% of the day.

PPS - there was a suicide as well, 4 days before, just past Cosmo towrds Laverton. Prospector gassed himself with his exhaust & a hose. They found him the day before the rollover!! Laverton was a bust place for a few days!

Take care and we hope you had a great trip - we did, but the gold was all in small pieces this year and not much of it!!

Bilbo - "the coincidental hobbit"

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Follow Up By: Member - Dunworkin (WA) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 18:20

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 18:20

Hi Bilbo, how was your trip, no no no you didn't miss us, I obviously had the time that we left a bit out, We did see you, I thought it was you, I was the one waving madly at you and that green tent that we were holding (the wind was fairly strong at that time) was the ground sheet that we use under our tent. The deceased was on the other side of the road, the other little tent thingie was over the other injured party, she wasn't as badly hurt as her partner. Our Nissan was parked beside the caravan that was there at the time and behind the LC which was our friends vehicle. We had put our vehicles off the road.
Hadn't heard about the suicide, terrible thing to do really.
We will be contacting Globalstar!!!!!!

Cheers

Deanna & Bevan

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Follow Up By: Bilbo - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 23:59

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 23:59

Well, there ya go!!

There seemed to be a lot of people that knew what they were doing, so we concentrated on picking a way through the mayhem and moving on. Rubbernecking can lead to another accident eh!Shame we missed you.

I hope your lessons in shock absorber fitting came in handy. Which ones were they? Back or Front?

We didn't have a lot of damage throughout the whole trip. However punctures were bad plus a ripped tyre, but that was bush work. We did rip the underslung spare wheel off the caravan on the Gibb River Road, but that self inflicted. I shoulda known better!! We also had the radiator top mounts come adrift but the ubiquitous fencing wire soon fixed that until we had it welded in Kunnunarra.

The GCR was easy. However, the Gibb River Road was eminently forgettable - never again. I just lost my temper over thae final 200 kms of it - I was sick of that road by the time we got to KNA!!

Bilbo

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Reply By: Member - Charlie (WA) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 19:50

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 19:50

G'day Dunworkin, Good to read the first instalment and looking forward to the rest as we will hopefully be doing the same trip, July next year.
I understand how its feels coming across accidents like that, when you first see it you get a terrible feeling in the pit of your guts, the most recent a rolled car and van north of Port Headland. Luckily no one seriously hurt.

Charlie.

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Follow Up By: Member - Dunworkin (WA) - Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 22:02

Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 22:02

Hi Charlie, you will enjoy the trip we did, we did in three shockies, and one battery but that's all the problems that we had and we covered 8888 kilometres from when we left home til we arrived home.

Cheers

D

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