We also decided to buy a sat phone. We'll be out of mobile range for quite some time of the trip, certainly the first month or so in places like Tamala Station and the Gibb River Road. We bought a second hand Thuraya XT Lite from a company called epirbhire http://www.epirbhire.com.au/ They organise a plan as well and we have gone with the Pivotel $15 per month plan that we can opt into or out of as we wish. There is a $25 charge for each time you reconnect but the calls are reasonable and the number is an Aus mobile number, so people calling us will only pay the normal mobile charge not a sat phone charge. We've organised for the plan to start the first week of July so we can get to test it before we leave.
The Waeco CFX40 was bought from Snowys. Ended up being $50 cheaper than it was when we were looking earlier.....nice to have a win sometimes. It fits on the slide that I installed in the back of the Pajero for the CF60 that we've had for 9 years or so. I didn't measure it when I ordered it and had a horrible feeling that it was going to be too wide when I unpacked it but it was fine when I put it on.
Among the other items we bought was a Joolca double pop up en suite tent. We managed to get away for 3 nights from the 4th of May to try it out and it works well. Certainly a breeze to put up and pack down and it has plenty of room inside. It has a built in plastic floor that we are going to cut out and it would be nice to have an entry slot for the shower hose on both sides but all in all we are very happy with it.
There's still a few smaller things we need to get but hopefully the major expenditure is behind us. Now it's a count down, firstly it's 30 days until I finish work, then another 19 or 22 days until we leave. Can't wait !!!
