Things that could make your trip safer and easier

We all need to take more caution when traveling on any outback roads.  Especially in Australia as the towns are very spread out in the northern and central areas.  You could travel several hundred kilometers between fuel stops and in some cases a thousand kilometers before obtaining any mechanical help.

Therefore you need to make sure that your vehicles whether you are traveling in a car towing a caravan or camper or just a four wheel drive.

Here are a couple of things that we bought to make sure we have that added protection if trouble does come our way.

In the above picture I have put these all together on dashboard to show them clearer.  As most people are aware the mobile phones are virtually useless in many areas in Australia.  Once you leave a town and drive out about 5 kilomoters your phone will show "no service".

This is so annoying.  So for our own peace of mind and also for our kids satisfaction we bought ourselves a Spot Messenger (shown in center).  This records our every movement and our friends and family know where we are at any given time.

We turn it on before leaving and turn it off when we camp.  So they can look on our internet link and know where we are.  If we have a mechanical problem we press the help button and our daughter receives a message to say we need help.  She can then activate a tow truck or something similar to help us.

If there is a serious accident then we press the 911 button which sends a message to America who then contact Canberra and assistance is then sent to us.  So if you are thinking of doing a lot of outback travel this may be of use to you.  Plus you can have a record of your trip on your website.

The camera on the left is mounted on the  dashboard to record anything on our travels.  It is a great way to record bad drivers in case of an accident and many city drivers are using now for this reason. We bought it mainly because we were fed up with trying to take movies while moving in the car and we would nearly always take more of the dashboard than anything outside the window.

This also gives you an idea of what condition the roads you travel are like.  Bumpy roads show up real well with the movement.

Lastly a GPS is another essential thing in which to navigate your way around strange cities.  This one is a Magellan Explorist XL which we are still trying to learn how to use. This one does not interact and talk to you  So we also have a Garmin which is interactive and does talk to you.  Explaining where to turn etc especially if you get lost.

No you do not need all of these but they do make long trips more pleasant and give you more peace of mind at the same time when driving in the outback.