Kit review, pt1.

Folks,

some of you have mentioned that you'd like to see what we're taking along on the trip - and I'm happy to oblige. I'll do this in a few installments - today, we'll cover technology and 1st aid.
Just FYI - the black boxes are all the same size. I heard many stories about how they all eventually end up broken due to the stress of jumping up and down while driving on African tracks, so I engaged the old gray matter to think about what needs to be protected when being transported - and came up with these... They are, in fact ammo boxes for hunters from the local sporting goods store. :)

Box 1) Instant camera (Fuji Finepix) with 70 shots - apparently, these are a very easy way to give a "petit cadeaux" (small gift) to children. Assorted AA, AAA and 9V batteries, power plug adapters and a spare Samsung "idiot-proof" digital camera.

Box 2) The land-mobile pharmacy, covering everything from toothache (an industrial packaging of Ibuprofen) to "Africa-belly", serious pain, vitamins, antibiotic, antihistamines, stomach ache, water purification tablets, blood thinners/coagulants, etc.

Box 3) A platoon-sized first aid kit. We can do everything from scrapes and bruises, to minor field-expedient surgery and stiches.

Box 4) Video and Photo - a Sony digital camera (records straight onto DVD-RW's), and our trusty Nikon photo camera.

Box 5) Satellite navigation and comms: A Garmin Nuvi 765 for on-road navigation, with maps of Europe and what road maps there are of Africa, and a Garmin GPSMAP 276C with the Topographic maps of the parts of Africa we're going to (made by the Bamako team).
Then, two Sat Phones: The big, ugly Qualcomm Globalstar sat-phone (cockroaches will be using this thing to communicate after the apocalypse), but it's a phone only... Works almost anywhere, EXCEPT in the bottom part of Africa - go figure. The good side of it is that it only needs a view of the sky to function (and a satellite over head).
The second one is a Thuraya SO2510 - a nice, small unit, which has the great advantage of being able to send/receive normal SMS messages, as well as send short e-mails. It's also much cheaper (0.5 EUR/minute or SMS) to use than the Globalstar unit - but the drawback is that it needs to have a clear view of the southern sky, as it's only got one satellite in equatorial orbit. This will of course be les of a problem the further south we go.

Probably the most important bit of this box is the small orange device at the top-end of the picture - the SPOT Satellite messenger. This little darling sends location information every 20 minutes to a webpage (which is what you can use to track us - link is above to the right), and can send OK/HELP/911 messages. So if we're in trouble, you'll know, because it also posts status updates onto this blog. I can not overstress the peace of mind this thing buys you.

There are going to be two more boxes - but they're not ready yet. One will be the "computer" box - we're taking a small Netbook with us to be able to store pictures and movies onto a hard disk, and if we get any WiFi, use the internet to update the blog a bit, and a few other things... And the "random communications" box, with the VHF radio and other assorted supplies. You will see them when I finish them.

 The "normal" 1st aid kit, courtesy of IKEA and beefed up with suggestions from the US Marines.

Two high-power PMR radios (still reasonably short-range, I don't think we'll get more than 2km on average out of them) for keeping in touch if someone needs to leave the car...

Most boxes and bags also have a small way of generating light - either by a Chemlight, or a small LED light. :) Because who wants to look for a battery when he needs one of these! :

That's it for now! Next installment - bug out bags and car! :)