I'm starting this thread in light of the guy MIA en route from Panama to Colombia.

I met a Quebec couple who told everyone, Don't expect to hear from us for six months. And didn't give anyone their email address! I thought that pretty extreme, but there's some sense in this. It was THEIR trip, they'd worked hard for it, they'd earned it. A point of many people's travel is to have some kind of 'rite of passage,' like Aborigines going walkabout. We've completely lost that in our culture. Even college is paid for by parents. How are you supposed to become an adult??? Internet makes this more difficult. More than once I've been pissed off when desperately trying to find an internet cafe where there are none, just because I told someone I'd respond to an email on a certain day. And of course, they're completely oblivious and have forgotten about the 'date'.

I applaud anyone in this day and age who can break away from internet cafes. My suggestion is tell people back home, I'll email you by a certain date. And make that three times longer than you expect. Getting them used to a certain pattern can be a mistake!

Anyone have other solutions? It's horrible to worry about other people worrying about you...

Lorraine

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Hi Lorraine
I'm showing my age but I used to send post card's

Plus when you get back home you have loads of them to look at and read.

Dazzer

Put your GPS points on the side of your vehicle as I saw one Swiss couple in Mauritania ...

If you're house isn't broken into frequently enough then you've not been seen for a while!!

On a serious point. I started travelling aged 18 prior to the internet, getting hold of a phone in Mexico was a nightmare .. postcards took weeks. My parents never worried; arriving back last year I had 3 desperate messages on my phone over the previous week from family worried I'd vanished. They had my neighbours anxious who said that I am obviously away longer than my family expected as I'd left more tins of cat food (ask me the reasoning behind that one??!!)

Generally I DON'T take my phone, I rarely e-mail to family as if my father does get on his PC it's once in a blue moon. I did try to call for Xmas last year but was stuck in the Guinean bush on a truck and when I did get to a phone on 27th no one was in the first time and the second time they were fine about it. Which still has me puzzled over my fathers worry about my arrival date.

I'm taking my 12yr old goddaughter to another war-torn African nation in just over a week, I've told her mother NOT to expect daily e-mails & I'll try to make it once a week .. and to REMEMBER we are not 'at home' but in Africa where communication isn't easy

Kira

In the old days when letters took months expectations of communications were somewhat slower than today, where people drivin are seen a textin ... as they blindly navigate the gray city tracks form one que to another... Cast yourselves back with this old poem


CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW

A.B. (Banjo) Paterson
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better

Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,

He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,

Just "on spec", addressed as follows: "Clancy, of The Overflow".



And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,

(And I think the same was written with a thumbnail dipped in tar)

'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:

"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where

he are."



Etc.. Clancy of the Overflow


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A postcard is good ... takes a while and sets the correct pace of relaxed communication. A phone call is not a good thing .. I usually get the time zones wrong! Email may be better .. provided you don't send them often or regular ...

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

What is a postcard ?:confused1:

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

In the nearly 7 months we´ve been on the road I phoned my mum 3 times. Being over 70, she is not familiar with internet.
I remain in touch with my sister in law (my brother not being too responsive on emails). Maybe once every 2, 3, or 4 weeks... I made clear internet access is not always obvious or possible.
I guess if I did not send an email after 5 weeks or more they would start worrying a bit. BUT I made clear we are experienced travellers. We get in touch when we can, full stop! Make that clear before leaving and do not promess to send emails on certain dates.
Apart from family, friends back home have been very little in touch. Maybe because they can read the blog, maybe because nothing much happen back home, so we get very rare emails from anyone!

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

A registered GPS so that when it's switched on it can be located, two mobile phones and contact once a week. OK if they don't get nicked.
It would be nice to just dissapear but if your in the s**t you will need and if they are in the s**t you can make your way home as quick as you can.

Cheers
Ian

When I'm on a few weeks bke trip, I leave my wife and children at home so I try to SMS regulary becuase, like Ian wrote, "if they are in the s**t you can make your way home as quick as you can". I rather SMS then make phonecalls. I can tell the interesting stories much cheaper when I am back home ;-)
When I was younger and not married, my parents knew I was serious about my riding and would not do very stupid things so they did not worry, even when I was away for a few weeks.

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

I'm with you. I used to travel in the days when you sent postcards and anxiously went down to get mail addressed to post restante. I'd call home maybe three times a year to say merry Christmas or happy birthday to my Mom.

Even on my last trip, I'd go a month without e-mailing in. I'll bet that guy who is "lost" is fine. He probably met a girl.

It's all a matter of expectations.

Err the people at 'home' have all sorts of services that they know of and can use .. little point in my returning home at a cost of $3,000 to fix a $400 problem? If someone gets ill then all a question of time.

The problems I may strike are .. well health, parts, money, .. that about covers it.

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Remeber 'Areograms' .. think they are still avalible in some parts of the world .. cheaper than postcards too. Think we have some still here .. usually they have a nice logo on them too. Of course you have to be able to hand write things ...

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

Home - SPOT Satellite Messenger

If your family is paranoid or you just want a live updating tracklog for your blog, this device sounds perfect.

It is a GPS receiver that has a couple of buttons on it that you can press to send your location every 20 minutes, sending a specific "check in message", notify family of an emergency, or the big red button, one that screams SOS!!! to the emergency rescue folks... the guys with the big helicopters. The SOS button has mandatory insurance behind it, I think.

It is really new and I'm eagerly reading about peoples' experiences with it.

The biggest problem I see with it is if you're ridingn through an area with REALLLY bad coverage like a stormy mountain region for a couple of days, you could cause a false panic with the family -- again like others have mentioned, by expectations.

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http://davegtravels.com - RTW on a DRZ
All the way south - Texas to Tierra del Fuego in '08-'09

Not the COPAS EPIRB system then .. so not the emergency people directly here in Australia then. Nor Britain, Europe ...



Once your away from the noraml business/tourist routes (think Congo) I think 'the big helicopters' won't be coming for you . Mainly because some places don't even have hospitals nor ambulances...


Googled and found ..
The GEOS Alliance

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

Err, s**t was used in relative terms, obviously you don't rush home if the dog got lost but if your house burnt down I think you would want to get home as quick as possible. Well I would anyway.
Cheers
Ian

I think it depends..... if family/friends are used to getting an email/SMS every few days they're going to worry if you disappear for several weeks news, and rightly so, thats what friends/family do !

If I'm going 'walkabout' I let them know so they wont worry, if I'm parked for a while with easy net access we chat several times a week. I've been wandering since Nov 2003 so they're used to me now.

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Missing, presumed fed.
https://youtube.com/@ChileBob

My mate was threatening to send in Russel Crowe when I hadn't updated my blog or emailed for a while when I was in Colombia. Thankfully that wasn't necessary.

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Mike


www.singapore-scotland.blogspot.com
www.argentina-alaska.blogspot.com
My little Vid: India/Pakistan

BMW R1150GS
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