Jol Flemming Reverts
Finally heard back from Jol Flemming regarding equipment and car rental.
He suggested common names for car rental... Europe Car, Hertz, Avis, or Territory rentals. I had hoped maybe he could suggest someone he's tight with, guaranteeing us a good deal. I'll call these companies up and see what's available.
We can spend a day at his 4wd training facility and he'll be able to teach us all the recovery and driving techniques we'll need for the areas we're travelling to. Sand driving looks to be a bit tricky, and the recovery stuff (snatch straps, etc) is totally new to me. I thought I was proud the first time Ling peed in the desert--I can't wait to watch her in one LandCruiser yanking free Mom's intentionally-bogged LandCruiser!
The final bit of good info is that all the heavy auto-camping, radio, and recovery equipment we need we can rent from Jol. This is the list of stuff I'm considering:
Any other ideas of stuff we'd want?
Time to get the equipment lists going--NOW
So far we've had sort of a lukewarm effort at coming up with an equipment list. We need to itemize it now.
One of the trickiest bits of kit is our tool selection. At the very least we need a set of tools that will allow us to fix and modify the KAP rig. This means both mechanical and electrical gear. We can depend on Jol's tool kit for the auto tools. MWE, MDS, and DAS need to write up this list and then allocate who brings what. Matt, you are very free during the daytime, and you've been the one hacking the KAP rig. You want to make the first pass at a list?
Mom/Dad, sounds like you guys have got all your hiking equipment? Have you tried out your CamelBacks and Walking Sticks?
Are we going to try to do Len Beadell Navigation or not?
There hasn't been a great response from anyone about getting a sextant or a theodolite or whatever. What should we do here? There are a bunch of options and I've got a lot of feedback on the USENET.
We need to make a decision on this according to what is practical.
Basically I think it is going to come down to, "should we buy a sextant? Theodolites are unrentable here and very expensive." Furthermore, what books should I buy and software should I download?
Computers
I will sort out getting a functioning battery for my Dell Laptop. That will be sufficient.