Last night for me solidified how technology has become an essential part of my life and a benefit to travellers all over the world.

As you know I’m currently powering up the East Coast of Oz towards Cairns, and yesterday we left Rainbow beach on a two day trek for the Airlie Beach.

After pit stopping via the town of 1770 we checked out our Camp Five Guide and located a free rest area along our route to make camp for the night. The route was simple enough, double back on ourselves, rejoin the Bruce Highway and then follow it north until the rest area was signposted.
The whole trip should’ve taken just over an hour and we could’ve been set up and eating by 8:30pm.

But things never run that smoothly on a road trip!

Having been joined by Joe and his camper in Rainbow me and Jim decided to ride with him, following Damos van.
It got dark pretty quickly and we were so absolved in banter that we actually paid very little attention to the route we were taken – it was simply assumed that Damo would follow the road back and hang a right to take us north.

Then the road we were on turned to gravel track.
…and kept being a gravel track for some period of time.
Then we noticed we we surrounded by dark ominous woods and everything seemed set for a Wolf Creek style outcome!

So I booted up my iPhone and lucky I had full signal, so I promptly loaded up the GPS.

I rebooted it twice as it seemed to pinpoint us in the middle of nowhere.
Then we passed a turn off and I checked the road name against the map.

Yup – we were over 2 hours off course on a dark track in the middle of nowhere heading in the wring direction!

Great.

Turns out Damo had been following the sign posts and his map to the Bruce Highway.
Unfortunately the road he though he was on actually wasn’t the one on the map and was headed for the Highway, but nearly 100km south of where we were meant to join it!

After much deliberation, goon and U turns we found an alternative route. By alternative I mean we back tracked for over an hour before rejoining our original route – finally arriving at our destination over 2 hours late.

We were lucky both vans were filled up and we didn’t hit a dead end!

Technology is a wonderful thing, and there’s no doubt that without it we could’ve found ourselves even more lost or something even worse! iPhone bailed me out again!
There’s also the fact that you can pick up a GPS for under $100 second hand – Damos map set him back $70!
You might think your not a true traveller by using technology, but let’s face it – it was invented for a reason, and anything that makes life a little easier is worth it right?!
But if you want to end up stranded in the middle or nowhere or unable to contact anyone be my guest, just don’t say I didn’t tell you so!

Even so – what’s a road trip without a few amusing stories, even if they’re not that amusing until you look at them in hindsight!

Safe travels.