Hi All,

I've been considering purchasing a Garmin Inreach Explorer+ for my solo adventure to Mongolia and back but I'm wondering if it is really necessary or not?

How many people here use such a tracker for their adventures?
Is the cost of the unit and the subsequent satellite monthly fee worth it?

Do most people get help from other people when travelling or do most people rely on these type of devices?

I welcome all comments, good and bad!

Thanks,

Mike.

__________________
http://www.trailsoftheunexpected.co.uk

I would look after it, as an emergency device, who will work out of normal mobile-phone coverage...

The emergency Plan isnt expensiv and can help you out of trouble.. Smartsafety will call for help, if you are not able to do it by yourself.

Trackrecording you can do too on your smartphone, which will do it more exactly than these satellite devices.

If your Friends/Parents like to follow you live - then the livetracking starts to get handy. My Family was very happy to follow my trip through africa and south america, if they was worry they was able to look after my progress.

Two times they did ask why I didnt move. Both times i got stuck abroad, but was able to get out after a day.

I wouldnt start in remote areas without, thats like going for an roadtrip without taking my phone with me.

For my 2 Month europe trip at 2019, I didnt use a satellite-Messenger, because my phone had connection most of the time.

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.
Looking at the costs of the unit and the satellite monthly charges it will cost me around UK£1200 for 6 months, this doesn't include any search and rescue or repatriation. It would provide basic text messaging and access to the emergency call centre should I get in trouble.

I agree it is very useful for my wife to keep track of me during the trip as there won't be mobile phone signal in most of the places I am visiting but, this is an expensive option just to provide that facility.
In some ways it is very much like an insurance policy, you pay out but may never need it.
Since I am trying not to over spend on the trip I am having to consider the costs as the same funds will buy a lot of petrol!

You are the first person I have come across that has used such a device so I am wondering how everyone else gets on without a tracker device?

Does anyone else on the forum have a thought on this?

Thanks,

Mike.

__________________
http://www.trailsoftheunexpected.co.uk

Not sure how you work out that cost. You can get a Germin InReach SE+ on eBay for £280 and the basic subscription is £15/month. For a 6 month trip that's a total of £370 and you still have the device to sell later if you don't want to keep it. For peace of mind in case you have an emergency in the wild places of Mongolia that's priceless.

Well worth having if your in areas without phone reception. The 2 way text messages and tracking functions have proved very useful on mine, not had to use the SOS fortunately.

£15 is the most basic package, which gives yo the SOS functions but no tracking and texts are additional. £35 gives you SOS, a bundle of texts each month and tracking point every 10minutes. The tracking is a lot more accurate than using a smart phone app.

I have no experience traveling in Mongolia so cannot speak to mobile coverage.

I do have experience with a life and death situation which turned out positive thanks only to instant communication with outside help via a sat phone.

It may seem ‘expensive’ now, but don’t kid yourself, if required, it will instantly become ‘priceless’.

IMO do yourself, and your loved ones, the favor and take advantage of technology with the potential to be life saving.

Peace of Mind for everyone.

I am a complete luddite and do not use this type of device and save the money, it is really down to what you are comfortable with rather than what others do.

If these things cost £12 there’s no doubt everyone would take them but at £1200 I personally wouldn’t bother. Yes there’s always the argument that if the worst happened your life might depend on it (and no doubt Riel has a tale to tell about his experience) but if that was a serious concern you might want to reconsider whether you should be doing the trip at all.

Even if you spent the money what would that get you? Actual rescue or just the ability to talk to a rescue centre thousands of miles away? You could buy an awful lot of local rescue for £1200. Of more concern to me would be the need to let family members know how things are going but given the resupply needs - fuel, food, water etc of motorcycle travel it’d be unusual to be out of regular communication reach for more than a few days at a time. I suppose I come to this via years, decades, of travel before these things were available so the accusation that I have a jaundiced eye might be valid but for me it’s ‘nice idea but not at that price’.

I'm seconding what 'Back of Beyond said.
When I was driving trucks in Russia in the early '90s for a Dutch company, it would have made no difference if I had been able to tell Holland that I had a problem because there would have been absolutely nothing they could have done about it.
£1200 really would buy you a LOT of help.

As I've pointed out above, it's not £1200, it's more like £370 and you can sell the PLB afterwards to get most of that back.

If you're only going to places where you can be pretty sure of footfall or mobile phone signal in case of emergency, fine, otherwise what do you do if you're off piste with no phone signal and you break a leg?

It's not about calling a breakdown service, it's about knowing that wherever you are in the world you can send an SOS signal and know someone is following up with the emergency services on your behalf.

I did use such a device, because I dont travel very safe.

Severall times I did try to follow tracks in africa or crossing the andes, after locals told me, that it is not possible to to drive futher.

Severall times I drive without a track many miles for an remote wildcamp spot or to because i did like the landscape, assuming that I`m able to find a track later.

So I was driving on paths without even local traffic, in parts of the the countrys with a very low population.

I like to live in the wilderness, love remote areas, love doing offroad stuff with my well prepared 4x4. I`m able to stay remote for severall days, sleeping in the car.

Locals usually don`t have mud terrain tyres, not so big tyres, not such a ground clearance – when they have to stop I usually are able to drive even without using my winch.



I guess I did calulate more with the help that my family and friends can organizee from switzerland, than the help oft he Rescue-Center which is for real life threatening situations.

For me was «car stuck in the wilderness» the most realistic scenario.

If you drive with a roadbike on tracks with enough traffic, you usually get help from locals if you are in trouble. If you leave well travelled roads, I would use such a device...


Any smartphone will record better tracks. On the most satellite-messenger "plans" you just add any 2 minutes a new waypoint (spot / garmin).

Many offroad tracks are today recorded by smartphone/tablets - and you are able to follow them...

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Might help if you slid off the road into the forest and wedged into the cab out of sight of traffic.

20 yrs ago I crashed our rally car at night during a race and ended upside down in a gully a long way from the road and out of sight. I was able to crawl out like a rat but at the time it actually put the wilies up me that if we couldnt get out or were really hurt we would not have been found at least till morning.

Hi,

If you look at the £15/month tariff you'll see that you actually have to pay an additional amount for each track point to be recorded. If you set it to track every 10mins (default for the package) over 6 months that will add up to over £2500!

So the £15/month package isn't as cheap as you think it is!

Next tariff up is £24.99 per month without extra charges for recording tracking points if you subscribe for a 12 month period minimum, total cost for satellite being £299.88 + the cost of the Garmin InReach Explorer+ at £449.99 total minimum cost would be £749.87.

This gives you the ability to be able to use their SOS call centre in an emergency, tracking for family to see where you are and the ability to send 40 texts per month however, this doesn't cover the insurance package you need to cover the cost of the recovery should you initiate an SOS call, this has to be added on top and it's not cheap!

All I am trying to do is gauge from others that have travelled this route and had problems as to whether they've used this kind of service or just relied on people they've met along the way.

I agree the tracking facility for friends and family is indeed a nice to have as they will be able to see where I am pretty much realtime.

Mike.

__________________
http://www.trailsoftheunexpected.co.uk

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.
I had a look at Sat phones but they seem very expensive?
Can you give an idea of how much yours cost and over what period of time?

Thanks,

Mike.

__________________
http://www.trailsoftheunexpected.co.uk

Hi,

Thanks for your response.
As per my later message, the £35/month package does seem the best solution however, there is then the recovery insurance on top.

I'm going to hunt around for the insurance and see if I can get it else where.

Which Inreach device are you using and in what countries?

Thanks,

Mike.

__________________
http://www.trailsoftheunexpected.co.uk