Well I have had an interesting weekend. Got a call from my daughter her son and his mates had problems with a trip in the outback and needed help. Eventually after sifting through my daughter slightly hysterical and theatrical account I found out what was happening. I love my daughter to bits but I she is so unlike me and organisation is not her strong suit and neither does it appear to be my grandsons or his mates.
Problems:
Car broken down not enough money to repair.
Not enough gear for the camping trip – basically the tent not big enough!! Really! So they had stayed in a BB and now short of money. This is only the second day of a 2 week trip.
So needed to get some money to them quickly and none of the idiots had a credit card with them.Can you believe not one of the four lads had taken a credit card – it was to prevent them going over their budget they said. I am going to have a long overdue talk with my grandson on sensible management when he gets back.

My suggestions:
- Leave them to sort it out for themselves ( she rejected this idea)
- Talk to parents of other lads to raise the money. Could only contact 2 as the others were away on a trip.
- Take out a loan ( which he and his mates will have to pay the installments to pay her back)
After chatting to the parents she could contact they decided a loan was a quick and easy solution and one of the parents was a relative to the other two and said she was sure they would agree to cover the amounts if the boys couldn’t. I suggested she go to a company I have used before, Ferratum for an online cash loans as I know this is one of their products. Then to send it to the lads via Western Union.
Given the above I thought it might be useful to highlight some general tips to consider before an Outback trip:
- Have you vehicle checked over by reliable mechanic.
- Carry spares
- Take at least one credit card or prepaid card for emergency back up.
- Insure the trip – even if self organised or especially because it is!
- Check all your equipment – especially if said equipments has been an a mates garage for a couple of years unused!!!
- Do have a chat with someone with experiences before you set off to potentially dangerous areas.
- If going with a group ensure someone not going has a list of contact numbers.
- Take a First Aid kit – no matter how tough you think you are a cut get infected quickly and can become a problem.
Found an excellent blog with some good insight into planning an outback trip, go take a look. I think I will put a post together for next time with some suggestions for what equipment should be taken on a outback camping trip, a ‘To Do List” I thought – do you think it would be useful, and anyones experiences and feedback would be great?