How you deal with it if it went wrong

If your on a trip in the middle of no where no phone signal a fair trip to civilisation how would you raise help, what about if you needed immediate help what would you do?

Been there...my answer was a satphone which I always take when going anywhere in that type of scenario.

Great idea bit pricey though, who did you call and how did you tell them where you were and what help you needed, was it a try emergency anyone in danger

It's certainly a question, but one impossible to answer. It obviously depends where, when, if it's hot or cold, plus a million more variables. As always the question is ... do you walk to safety or stay put? Again it depends on a number of factors - distance, weather conditions, water supply, etc. They say never stray from the vehicle, however that's only relevant if somebody knows you are there to eventually raise the alarm. If they don't, then you are truly on your own.

If really stuck, not possible to walk and looking bad, first job would be to arm myself with a mirror (interior or door), then form rocks or whatever to form the letter S.O.S.

Second job would be to form an easy-to-light bonfire, with of course plenty of green leaves to pile on the flames to produce smoke.

Third job, open a beer, sit back and hope.

Fourth job when the beers ran out, as it wouldn't be worth living after that, become vulture food.

Lots of good points above, and lots of us go out alone, do things maybe we shouldn't because we think it won't happen to us, but it does happen, so in USA I was given to use by the jeep hire a thing called a spot, great little device really a GPS tracker with a panic button on, which should you need all the help and remote area it alerts their 27/7 emergency centre who in turn gets the local help to you within 5m accuracy and 95% of the globe it has several other functions including a track able system that anyone can log into and watch. So I looked at these when we came home to find a supplier, how also does sat phones as well and get linked with him, as they are fairly expensive and require a contract I brought one and its available to rent from for £1 a day I am also looking at another unit that allows you to send messages back and forth but again like a sat phone is very expensive at 1.50 a message,, so it can not stop you doing or preventing an accident but will be quick to respond should you need any help. If anyone's interested you can always pm me or looking for a sat phone but most phones start around £500 with a £30 a month contract and no included min or airtime, plus you need to know where you are and speak the local language, just a thought though.

Mudslingger wrote:

Great idea bit pricey though, who did you call and how did you tell them where you were and what help you needed, was it a try emergency anyone in danger

On one occasion i was in western Zimbabwe when we rolled one of three land rovers on the trip. My son was in the rolled vehicle and had some minor injuries. We managed to get the rolled vehicle turned upright and give everyone first aid. Using the satphone, we called Harare and checked with a doctor we knew. The rolled landrover had its roof smashed in, but was still sort of driveable, so we pushed on to the shores of Lake Kariba and made camp. The next day we had help arrive by boat from Kariba town.

On another occasion I broke down by myself in western Tanzania in a really remote area. Used my satphone to call the owner of the shop that had done my pre-trip tune up in Mwanza and told him what happened. It took him a few days to source the right parts and drive them and a mechanic down to me, but I had lots of food, water, my camping gear and a hammock. So checked in each day by satphone and had one of the most relaxing breaks I have ever had in life.

But as Tom says, ever situation is different. Still, in the modern world there are few places you can reach by vehicle where help can't reach you in a day or two at worst.

The moral is very simple, let someone know where you are and the route you propose taking.

Many countries with remote areas such as Australia run a scheme where you contact the local Police or appropriate local authority, often they will check your equipment and offer advice such as checking your water and fuel availability and suggest carrying more; this local knowledge of conditions is invaluable. they register your departure time, and expected arrival time and your destination into a log, from this they can deduce a route/s potentially taken. They contact your destination and give them a copy of the details and your expected arrival time and if you are over 24 hours late they spring into action to locate you by using local people with local experience who often know where you may have taken a wrong turning and where you may have run into problems, local knowledge is invaluable in finding you.

If you decide to take a detour you simply contact them and change your details.

Many countries run similar schemes.

I have been using a SPOT personal locator beacon now for 4 years and really appreciate the reassurance it gives both myself and friends and family. Start up cost is reasonable and annual sub is around 50p per day. Used intuitively it can inform friends where you are, send a more private signal to loved ones, summons assistance if you have a mechanical or non life threatening issue and hopefully if it is a true emergency summons the local emergency services. The tracking feature is also useful if trying to r/v with someone.
I am often out in the sticks alone and unsupported so potentially very vulnerable but proper attention to your and your vehicle's health is a good start and being based in a camper I always have a minimum 5 dyas food and a week's water on board - www.sastt.blogspot.com might inspire and click on the link to see SPOT working.
Whilst I'm here just want to say a belayed but huge thank you to Tom and his team for the Adventure Overland Show at Stratford this year and will be keen to support it in 2014   

Thanks for the kind words. As I tell everyone on a regular basis, ADVENTURE OVERLAND is for "us", thus it's good to hear that folk enjoy it and appreciate the effort by all concerned.

As for this thread about - How you deal with it if it went wrong - having read though it again it reminded me of that true story (made into the film 127 Hours) of the guy who got wedged in those rocks in the Moab Desert, Utah and ended up amputating his own arm. Bet he had a SPOT personal locator beacon with him!!!

Personally I hadn't heard about this device until you've just mentioned it; nice one! Small, lightweight, relatively inexpensive (worth its weight in gold as it can quite literally save you life), plus it has the added bonus of letting friends and family back home follow your adventure. I like it!   

A great review about the SPOT device here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj8HoOgmOwY

it was a requirement to have a tracker fitted on the car when we did the moroc challenge this year they had somebody monitering it all the time and if you stopped they new you had and somebody would turn up to see what was wrong it was very reasuring .....

Huh! Caught on camera eating an entire pack of biscuits. You'll have to limit yourself to half a pack in future!   

On the Paris-Dakar in the early days of transmitting devices, the rescue 'box of tricks' was the size of an Optima battery. That said it did have three settings before you pressed the button - one for Navigation (in other words 'lost'), the second for Mechanics, the last for Medical. And NO we never got lost, although it was more a case of luck rather than judgement that we found Dakar. Just kept heading west, knew it would be there somewhere. That ol' Sahara is one hellava big chunk of wilderness!

You're right though Tuggy, it is rather reassuring having something like that on board.

my down fall tom....coffee and digestives....  ....but there gone now.....  ..

I buy one pkt digestives a week limit 1 a day, grandaughter east most of the rest then son,