overlanding gone badly

[ugly_90]

Family rescued in the outback, expedition vehicle not ready for the trip. Running out of water, I can understand. Being dropped a satphone while stuck in desert mud is perhaps poor planning.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59301237

[DBrands]

That article is probably the farthest one from the truth, from what I've seen.

They activated an ELB to alert authorities (this might have also been a SPOT, ZOLEO, etc?). The sat phone was out of convenience.
Did they actually require water or was that just part of the care package that apparently included dvds, diapers, etc? I can't imagine that was an 'emergency' care package if they took the time to gather those things... apparently according to another article, these articles were supplied by the couples' parents.

The only real concern was that it would likely be two weeks before it was dry enough to get the truck out, and they'd probably run out of food/water in that time, so it seemed prudent to pluck them out of the muck for the time being...it was also forecast to be very hot.

150km from town isn't a long ways in the dry... in the muck, that's a different story.

Vehicle Build:
https://expeditionportal.com/featured-vehicle-2006-mitsubishi-canter-4x4-fg649-trucking-oz/

I'm more of the mind, that after a year on the road, a serious storm caught them out, leaving them in the mud in a 12,000lb camper.