Overland with Kids

Some form of mobile communications, while on the move for a long period, is essential when travelling i.e. mobile phone to stay in touch with loved ones & friends and also in case of emergency. We decided to opt for TWO identical phones - regular GSM phones with some gadgets - one for each adult so we can continue to communicate independently by text, phone and take quick photos etc.  Also to be able to stay in touch with each other too if we’re off separately somewhere for any reason (e.g. shopping, sight seeing or even lost somewhere with the kids in a town or city). Handy as well if  one becomes faulty at any time. We opted for 2 x Vodaphone Sony Ericsson C510 Cyber-Shot phones with 3.2 megapixel cameras, Smile Shutter, Face Detection, 2.2″ QVGA screen, UMTS with HSUPA and HSPDA and Automatic screen rotation. For £9.78 each per month, our plans come with 100 minutes each plus 500 texts and Vodaphone Passport (enabling us to make calls in most of Europe, New Zealand and Australia, total 35 countries, at the same rate as our UK plan subject to 75p connection charge with no summer roaming charges currently). 

However, we felt that GSM phones alone would not suffice if we have a critical or life threatening emergency and found ourselves in the middle of nowhere with no help or regular GSM coverage to be able to contact anyone (GSM phones usually have coverage in villages and towns but not if deep in the mountains or in more remote areas). If just us adults, we don’t think we’d be so concerned but given that we have two young children, we felt some additional support in order.

We investigated satellite phones i.e. Iridium and Thuraya but found these to be far too expensive, heavy and bulky once protective case and paraphenalia considered (couldn’t carry it around daily on sight-seeing trips). An additional worry if left in unattended in vehicle (theft) and overall, despite looking really cool (we’d love to have one!), we can’t afford and felt a bit too excessive for our needs. We plan on meeting people, visiting plenty of towns, cities, known sites and routes and (not visiting the Antartic!) so we should be within normal range for regular GSM phone requirements for our needs, most of the time.

But, we still want some form of means in terms of being able to make a last ditch back-up facility available because of the children and to be able to call someone as appropriate if we believe we are ever in the situation where it is life threatening / critical (though likelihood rare to zero) and we have no other means of communications, except satellite available to us (as long as you can see open sky, you can generally communicate from any location in the world using satellite).

This led us to investigating personal satellite trackers i.e. www.findmespot.com along with another newer product called Traakit which you can Google to see articles. The Traakit product is credit card sized allowing loved ones to log onto the internet to see GPS co-ordinates. The findmespot however was much more up our street. It is the size of a mini baby monitor, weighs approx. 7 ounces (less than 1kg) so it’s  comfortable, lightweight and easy to carry in day pack / bag along with mobile phone and camera. LED light flashes regularly when on so can see in the dark. A bright orange rugged protective casing ensures hard to break or misplace. Uses 2 x small AA lithium batteries which last approx. 1 year in normal operation (we’ll bring another set also!). Works virtually around the world (to suit our requirments in any case), allows us to send SOS with $100K worth of emergency services cover, track progress (send last known check-in co-ordinates to Google earth map which we can (and will shortly) link to our website), send check in co-ordinates to notify nominated friends/family all OK and ask for non-emergency help if required (we decided we’ll just use normal GSM mobiles for this). For us, the main benefits are that we now have a way of plotting progress on a visual map and a last ditch attempt for emergency cover if we ever need. Cost £135 for the base unit from a company called PRS Communications in the UK  www.prscomms.co.uk which included next day delivery, VAT and promo code for free enhanced tracking normally worth about 39 Euros. On registering the device we paid an additional 110 Euros for a 1-year subscription for Search and Rescue cover and an unlimited number of check-ins. All that’s left to do now is for us to set-up the Google map link to our website, to chart & keep record of progress, which we’ll do in time for our planned summer Morocco trip so we can have a play around to make sure all working OK in time for our longer haul to Oz.  As part of the on-line subscription requirements two primary emergency contacts are required to be registered as a way of SOS services alerting family if a serious issue arises. Any special information regarding medical or health or general information is also recorded and check-in email and mobile contacts. We’ve tested out at home using own email and mobile numbers as check in contacts and so far, so good. Will keep you updated on how we get on.

   

Communications & Equipment
Diary (Blog)