Help to find your camp

Whats wrong with a brightly coloured helium filled balloon or 2 tied to your vehicle with a long length of line. Cheap and easily seen from quite a distance. Could easily be fitted with a small battery powered light. Just an idea please feel free to shoot it down in flames. (the idea of course, not the balloon) Regards Ken.

I'd be concerned about them popping and then you'd have nothing. I just bought an etrex 10 on ebay for $80. Cheap insurance really.

Craig

I think it is a good idea Ken and a backup anyway, i was thinking of something similar with a led solar light attached for the dark, maybe a group of multicolored balloons raised 10 ft or so. yes the balloon could pop or the wind could be an issue but a GPS can also fail or batteries die and I have found my orienteering compass reading error of about 22 DEG when around ironstone hills. Also leaving radio on at night if you need to wander to pee, keeps you in ear shot. relying on any single piece of equipment, especially with your life is a mistake that could prove fatal. any backup is good, especially with people like myself with limited bush experience.

i think this is a really good topic considering the poor bloke who went missing around Menzies, my heart goes out to his family.
I have been in many situations now that i think back about them that could have easily ended with the same outcome. Went out detecting by myself, told the wife where i was going but at the last minute decided to detect the other side of the road ...hey same area i thought...then i went walking and walking and walking, at anytime i could have fallen over cracked my head and it would have taken a long time to find me....so its not just loosing your way but also just coming up a mischief and falling over and either being unable to move/talk/etc etc.
So not only do i carry a handheld GPS, compass, fire lighter...and i smoke so cigs & lighter(back up fire lighter) but i also carry a 2way 80 channel radio with about 8km range(not to mention spare battery for GPS etc)...my wife has the other one and knows that im always on one channel or the other. I also tell the wife in detail where i will be, when ill be home, when to send someone out to look for me on the road if i havnt shown up, then when to start search party if this first person couldnt locate me etc. Its no use telling someone "hey if im not back send out the search party" and not telling them a time, my wife wouldnt wait until the next morning thinking im all ok...but she also wouldnt send out a search party after 2hrs of being late....all things you need to work out well in advance of throwing the tector in the back and heading down the road.
Its always good to have a buddy with you but im sure majority of people have been out by themselves so taking some extra precausions is always a good thing. In the end though sometimes things happen, ive heard of people getting lost going for a piss and only walking 5meters away from camp, turned around and couldnt see the light at camp as it was hiding behind a tree...walked around for 30mins trying to find the camp in the middle of the night wearing shorts and nthing else! i think that guy said he now has a string tied to camp and just walks with that so he can trace his way back if need be
You only need one time of being actually lost to get scared and start taking precausions...you just hope that first time doesnt end up as a tragedy....ive been really lost before and its def not fun.

my 2 cents spend it as you wish

Exellent topic.
maybe we should all invest in a portaloo from the camp shop,i know its a bit gay and not really blokey but at least you dont need to go too far from camp if needing to s&^t.
string idea is brilliant.
its just important to take every precaution you can,i even leave open google earth on my home computer with my general co-ordinates,so at least there is a clue to start the search on.
if im doing it solo that is.

strings ==loos --shafts--

Mate go to bunnings and get 6 solar lights and stick them in the ground--problem solvered..
kmart dunny set is real easy as well.--
if u r a fat bugger over 100kgs then I think u will flatten the Kmart special.
buy a porta loo--2nd hand one on gum tree...

regards
oneday

agree, i have the port-a-loo...the comforts of home! lol, knowing my luck i would trip over the string & piss on my leg...the wife isnt to fond of copping a squat either so the port-a-loo comes in handy!
I also leave googl earth open and mark where im going to be...just makes it that much easier to locate me if something does happen

im not saying the bloke missing in menzies did the wrong thing, sometimes you just have bad luck & if he did a bit of sleep walking or something ...imagine waking up in the middle of the bush after sleep walking who knows how far? would be a scary thought...although you prob know if you sleep walk right?

hood wrote:Whats wrong with a brightly coloured helium filled balloon or 2 tied to your vehicle with a long length of line. Cheap and easily seen from quite a distance. Could easily be fitted with a small battery powered light. Just an idea please feel free to shoot it down in flames. (the idea of course, not the balloon) Regards Ken.

Be very careful using a balloon on a string. It's not just you that can see it,,,,,,,,,,EVERYBODY can see where you are,,,,,,,,,even people like me,,,,,,,,,,a leaseholder.

I've learned that the essence of prospecting is secrecy. Keep the patch to yourself (unless someone like me offers you a deal to get it pushed !!), learn some bushcraft. I give lessons in bushcraft,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1000 bucks an hour That's a bargain when ya playing with yer life, whadyya say??

Ex lease-holder myself mate, anyone on a lease without permission deserves to be cought out. Not hard to ask for permission. Most lease-holders with large areas are happy to give this. Fairly good in the bush myself ,but have been away with others who seem to have no trouble getting lost a few hundred yards from the camp with a roll of bumff in their hands and only one thing on their mind. Any way i tried the balloon the other day and it did not work, the slightest wind brings it to the ground. Maybe a small weather balloon would do the job and put it a lot higher. Might pass on the offer, though as you say whats a life worth. Maybe some of these people need to do something like this even just to learn the basics like reading a compass gps etc. Regards Ken