Rains in the Centre strand tourists

Hi Dazza. I have said for some time that all rental 4wd's should come with an EPIRB at least. And not as an "option".
Yes, on this occasion they had one and used it, which is great.
But as you say, the vehicle might be composed of "left overs"when it's recovered.

"At least they had the good sense to take a EPIRB"
If they had good sense maybe they would have looked at the weather forecast before setting out or at least taken spare food, waited another day & driven out like the other 21 people stranded on the same road before setting off an EPIRB resulting in another expensive search & rescue.
Cheers Craig..............

Mostly unsealed, and remote enough. I reckon it wouldn't take much moisture to turn it into an impassable quagmire.
You don't need to be too far from town too get into strife. We were marooned in the Blue Mountains a couple of years ago because of unexpected rain. Crossed a 450mm deep river to get into the campsite, next morning it was almost 2 metres deep and flowing v fast. Got stuck for 2 nights waiting for the river to drop. No mobile reception, we were fine but the kids worried big time. We never travel without a satphone these days.

Gday
Larapinta Dve is all sealled.
Id say they might have been on the Loop road rather than Larapinta as the chopper was sent from the Canyon not Alice.

Yep.... I thought it was, last time I rode a pushie along it!

"You don't need to be too far from town too get into strife"
How very true.
I had a breakdown not far off the main highway across the
main drag between Adelaide to Perth highway years ago during summer. Wife and young kids were with me. The track I'd decided to go along was too far to walk back to the highway. It wasn't life threatening, but it was hairy for a while (G'Day Hairy).

How I wished at the time that someone could invent a satellite phone so that I could "phone a friend" to get some advice on what to do inside the engine bay.
Sat phones weren't invented those days, and no 737 network. No EPIRBS.

And I didn't realize how hot it was going to be. Or how quickly children could get sick.

Some aspects of modern life are MUCH better than the good old days :))))

I stand corrected Royce / Hairy,
I thought the road to Hermansberg & Palm Valley was Laparinta.

Yeah it is mate.
Its been bitumised right through to the Berg for years.

Tony, totally agree. We've all seen posts telling us that the CSR or whatever is a 2wd doddle. It might have been for them, but this country can bite..big time.
Sometimes it's what the hairy chested mob don't tell you that's important.

I suppose I can not really talk. Well you could say I am an expert because of this. Back in early 82 I left the Army in Townsville to drive back to Perth in a 4cyld 2wd Commer Van Camper. Hydraulic suspension arms all round. Without asking I was going to shortcut across the center (Mad Hey). I drove from Townsville to Hughedon and then took the then Devils Highway to shoot down to Winton before heading West. Well it was all dirt then and 6 or so lanes wide with trucks trying to miss the corrugations. I got bounced off that road hundreds of times and busted the hoses to the radiator. Of course no spares either (I was young). After many hours of greif and cut and shutting radiator hoses (I did have insulation tape and left the cap loose) I made it to Winton - Just. All the suspension arms were broken and all the rust in the radiator had shaken loose. Needless to say I re-planned my trip to stay on the bitumen and went Tambo way and on to Broken hill. The rust in the radiator blocked the cores and I drove it all the way to Northern 100k out of Perth stopping 4-5 times a day to fill the radiator up. At Northern I blew the top of the radiator and finally put in a new one and no more problems. sold that van for more than I paid for it - Go Figure!
Just thought I would add that to show how people think at times. the map showed roads that way - how bad could it be?
I got a bit more brain power after that - well I hope I did. Cheers TONY