Always Be Prepared
Submitted: Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012 at 08:20
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Member - Stephen L (Clare SA)
Hi All
How often do we hear it that someone has gotten into trouble from not being prepared.
We were told of a story when in
Birdsville a number of years ago about a solo vehicle with no communication becoming bogged in sand in the Muncoonie area of the
Simpson Desert.
The bogged vehicle was only found by chance when they were doing cattle mustering and the spotter plane noticed a vehicle where no one should be. When the ground crew arrived at the site, the found the remain of the sole occupant under the vehicle - a very terrible way to die alone like that in
the desert, and believe that the vehicle had been there for at least 6 months.
One the news this morning, a helicopter doing air survey work on the far west coast of our state, found a vehicle in scrubland 70 kilometres north of
Penong. When Police arrived at the site, they found human remains - link to SAPOL News site -
If you ever travel solo into remote areas, take nothing for granted and always have reliable emergency communications. Even if you can not afford expensive
HF Radio or a Satellite Phone, you can buy Modern Reliable PLB's for under $500, which can be the difference between becoming another satistic out in the bush, or living to tell your story.
Stay Safe out in the Bush.
Cheers
Stephen
ps there must be a bug in the system, as I am not able to add the link to the SAPOL News stite, here is the link in full.
http://www.sapolicenews.com.au/more-news/7019-remains-found-in-remote-scrubland.html
Reply By: cookie1 - Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012 at 16:06
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012 at 16:06
I do get a little disappointed when people post on forums "not to worry too much as there is always traffic" or "don't worry about spares or whatnot" or "not to
check in with rangers" etc etc...
We always try to be as
well prepared as possible taking plenty of fuel, water, canned food as a back up and have HF with HF Tel, UHF and Epirb/PLB as
well as a full intinerary left with our wives.
As I see it you are out there for enjoyment not to pull others out that are ill prepared or indeed to ensure your own parties survival.
We came across a chap last year that "borrowed" my compressor as he didn't have one - in the
Simpson Desert, to make matters worse he put my tyre gauge on his side step and I picked it up as it was about to fall into the dirt!. He was pumping for so long, we set up
camp, cooked tea and were eating (and trying to enjoy a peaceful glass of red with the compressor buzzing away in the background), the compressor went thermal and his tyres must have been running at 60 psi as he nearly crashed into me as he had no steering control, me thinks that some people do need to crawl, walk & then run in the metaphorical sense.
Keep safe
Cheers
Colin
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481011
Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012 at 19:55
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012 at 19:55
Hi Colin
Unfortunately the situation will never change, as there are some people that you can not tell, no matter how hard you try.
I could tell you countless stories of similar situations and the part that makes my blood boil the most, are the people that take money from people as "So called Paying Trip Leaders" on desert trips, and in fact have no idea themselves. These people give other prosfessional tour guides a bad name and should be stopped before they put their paying guests at risk.
I will say any more on that, but these are the type of people that give
well organized and prepared four wheel drivers a very bad name.
All we can all do is try to drum as much as possible the "Safety" factor of any trip to any new travellers that wish to see our great remote outback areas.
Cheers
Stephen
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