Communicating to USA when in Astralia?
 

Hello!

I am REALLY new to this touring a different country concept, and I was hoping to gain some insight before my trip.

Being from the US, cell coverage is fairly easy to attain... but what I am concerned with is... how can I communicate with those back in the States while I am in Australia on a motorcycle, especially in less populated areas? I would be looking to not only call (if needed) back to the States, but primarily being able to upload pictures and updates to my friends and family. There is also the potential of needing some emergency care or service, should something go horribly wrong while out in a completely remote area.

My time frame for arriving in Australia is roughly mid August 2017, and then returning back to the States near the first week in October 2017. Any suggestions would be welcome, because as I stated at the opening, I am REALLY new to this.

Have a blessed day,
-kmkenpo

Telstra is the best mobile coverage for Australia. You will get coverage in 99% of towns and on all major routes. Normal software applies for further contact (e.g. Whatsapp, Skype or normal call). A $30 prepaid Telstra voucher will give 1.3GB data and $220 worth of calls (enough for maybe 60 minutes talk to USA).

For rural, such as central Australia away from the hustle-and-bustle, sat-phone is the only way. Forget about Vodafone, Dodo or other outside of the big cities.
For safety, a personal locator beacon, Spot or similar would suffice.

The marketing claims of "90% coverage" are 90% of the population (or 95% or whatever they think they are upto now) .. and most of the population occupies less than 10% of the countries area. So some 90% of the country has no cell phone coverage .. but there are bugger all people out there in most places. They do have maps .. arr https://www.telstra.com.au/coverage-...s/our-coverage .. note that the fainter brown is with a large external antenna. Aldi do a cheaper plan ... but less coverage https://www.telcoantennas.com.au/sit...-coverage-maps. NOTE: emergency calls for help will be picked up by any service (even Telstra when on an Aldi plan) .. but it will only go to the emergency services - Police/Ambulance/Fire. And it will only work if you can get a signal... anyones signal.

If you need reliable almost anywhere communications then a satellite phone is the only way. And you won't be sending photos or cruising the internet on a satellite phone!!!! Way slow and expensive. Save the photos up for when you have fast internet or are home. Be careful and pick the sat phone provider - some have poor coverage in the southern hemisphere.

Just how remote are you going? Tourist places are fairly well covered. You would need to be do some some longer distance on unpaved roads to really need a sat phone. In ~6 weeks on a first trip I'd not think your going "Australian Remote" .. just the fairly normal dirt road tourist type things .. and those roads will be reasonably well travelled by others. Use the above coverage maps and check where your going against coverage, hopefully that will settle your mind.

Note: Part of going on a holiday is to get away from it all - that includes family and friends .. tell them that... and then contact them occasionally .. not every moment of the trip.

Excellent help guys... thank you.

Originally I was wanting to make a loop around the coast line of Australia, but then I figured I would head off to just wherever the mood hits... with weather and temps being a primary factor. So now, I am honestly not sure where I would like to travel, or what i would like to see. Over here in the States, I really enjoy just getting on my bike and heading off in a direction, then ending up wherever it takes me. Over there in Australia, I worry that doing so may suddenly mean going through a very remotely populated area with difficulty in finding fuel.

My next issue is trying to figure out is how much "cash" I will need to be running around with, because I am a little unsure about only using my card over there... especially in some of the slightly less traveled areas.

So it looks like I still have some homework to do :)

Cell phone coverage is subject to exactly the same BS claims in Australia as it is in the USA. Both have huge areas with no coverage. Pick the wrong provider in the USA and if you can't see a 20 storey building, you will be out of the coverage area. In Australia, if you don't have telstra coverage (with a suitably-rated phone) then it is fairly likely that you didn't really mean to be there.

Apart from the occasional little coffee shop or similar - also found in every country, you will find credit card and debit card availability is absolutely ubiquitous, but of course anyone driving around without at least a couple of days worth of cash in their pockets is seriously stupid because there is always a good chance of your card being suspended by your own bank. To avoid ATM fees, use a debit card for purchases and ask for extra cash out as part of the transaction. Have chipped credit and debit cards from two different issuers, or maybe precharged travel card as well. Forget personal cheques and even travellers cheques. The first won't be accepted anyway, and the second only with a lot of messing around.

As for just heading off wherever your nose points - Australia's big attraction is that in an area similar to the US mainland there is only 1/10th the number of people so don't expect to find Good Sam roadside service or a NAPA store on every corner (which I find is also the case in a lot of the USA once you get off the beaten tracks)

If you are serious about getting way off the track then very meticulous preparation may be needed and you should carry a SPOT at the minimum, or much better, a Delorme satellite tracker just in case. With eitther of those trackers, you can forget about keeping in touch because they can see where you are on a tracking map and won't worry. At least you aren't intending to ride around in the middle of summer, but at any time of the year that nice open outback dirt road can turn into 100km of deep slippery mud that will keep you in one spot for days and weeks. Similarly a breakdown 50 km out of town will mean no cell service and maybe there will be no passing travel either.

Don't forget you need a Carnet to take your own vehicle to Australia, and AQIS have the most meticulous quarantine inspections in the world.

And watch out for the drop bears.
And don't drive at night. Kangaroos, camels, donkeys, horses, goats, cattle are everywhere and there are often no fences


And one last warning. Catographers absolutely abhor blank paper on a map so the less useful stuff there really is in an area, the more useless trivial stuff they will add to the map to fill in the blank space. Every tiny locality where the school used to be 50 years ago before the white ants got it will be on the map, along with tracks that were last used to drive a bullock team along in 1854.

What you could do to get some practice getting around in undeveloped primitive countries full of savages not carrying guns is to pop over the border into Canada and polish up your third-world survival skills there. Only difference is one country is hot and the other cold. Rest is the same

Get the Hemma Australian Motorcycle Atlas - https://shop.hemamaps.com/10000029-9...-200-top-rides that has the fuel stops where they matter. It will also get you a basic understanding of Australia - main roads, towns .. that kind of information you already have at home .. so when you head off at home you already have some knowledge of where your heading.

Cards are fine most places most of the time. They fall down when the connection fails between woop woop and the main banks computer. Or when the power fails at woop woop. You want cash then. So how many days cash would you really need? Depends on how many days between major centres.

Camping. If your heading away from towns .. or if you need to keep your costs down then camping is the way to go. Next best are pubs - these normally have the cheapest accommodation. And large meals.

Hema maps is a good idea. But they are not always up to date - Few places such as rural stations have been abandoned (e.g. Yamarna on the Anne Beadell hwy or Yallata roadhouse) and you might not get fuel there anymore. Better to check ahead.

The map will also show/indicate areas where you will need a permit to travel into/through, especially aboriginal tribal land.

You will need cash and cards - plenty of rural areas now have 24hr self-help fuel stations which will only work with cards. And the power outage/coms problem situation is a real threat- met a bloke once at one of the Nullarbor roadhouses who has been stranded there for a few hours- no cash so he couldn't pay and the card machine was offline. And fuel in rural areas can exceed $2/litre - make sure you have at least double of whatever your bike/car can take.

Good news - Australia is great for free camping. Even in the denser populated areas, there are plenty of free camping. So you don't have to spend mega bucks on accommodation, because that is very expensive in Australia compared to other places. Don't be surprised to get ripped $100+ .night at a roadhouse for a bad mattress, cold water shower and paper-thin walls.