Trip to Narooma

Traveled up the coast to Narooma the other day.

Narooma is about an hour’s travel in the car up the Princes Highway from Bega.

The weather wasn’t brilliant. A few showers. For a while I was stuck behind a big semi-trailer, the spray coming off his many wheels, filling the air in my path. But eventually, on a hill, the overtaking lane allowed me to power on past in the V6 Commodore.

The reason for my trip? Well, connecting up my satellite phone had to be done on site by the agent.

Maybe not the best eBay purchase I ever made, it’s a second hand Ericsson R290. My pre-purchase research gave no indication that this phone has been out of production for about seven years.

That shouldn’t be a problem except that the battery isn’t all that bright and the satellite phone needs to be on the charger to make a call. Again, that’s not a problem as I’ll be traveling on the ATV (quad bike) with a plug for the phone charger wired in.

However, I’d like to get a new battery so the satellite phone will be working at it’s optimum for my coming wilderness photography trip to the South Australian outback. Trouble is, new batteries aren’t available. Maybe the battery can be rebuilt. I’ll find out on Monday.

Either way I’ve got to have a satellite phone for this trip:
1) Some of the country I’ll be traveling is controlled by BHP Billiton who have definite safety requirements for travelers on their pastoral runs.
2) The country I’ll be traveling is typical of the isolated outback areas of Australia that claim the lives of a few unprepared travelers each year. It’s usually dehydration that gets them.

On my first week’s travel, on Pernatty station, it will be about 130km (80 miles) between where I leave the car at Arcoona homestead, and Pernatty homestead, with nothing but the arid country in between.

Ah! But I’ll see some country and get some wilderness landscape images!