During a family camping trip, the driver (me), made an early left turn. The car came off of a drop but the trailer did not – it overturned. It was in the national park and was about an hour drive to the nearest town. Mobile signal was occasional at best – but at the time of incident there was no signal. It was not life threatening, but at about 6pm the whole family risked sleeping in the car for the night after a long day’s drive. Thunder storms were coming in and the situation was not pleasant. We felt helpless as this was one of the remote camping grounds in New South Wales, Australia.

I immediately deployed the ResQLink PLB I recently bought from BCF Castle Hills (NSW Australia). In about 20 minutes, my wife stood on the top of the drop and received a text message from our family friend who said Marine Rescue was looking for us and had sent our details to the police. What a relief!

An hour before the police arrived, we were lucky to find a good Samaritan who was coming to the camp ground. We were also lucky that his car was equipped with a winch and there was a big tree next to the drop. He drew out the wire around the tree and hooked on the chassis of our trailer. Our night and our holiday was saved!

My wife texted our friend what happened. She quickly advised us that Marine Rescue requested us to turn off the ResQLink beacon. We did so and prevented inconvenience to the authority.

The ResQLink device was expensive for me. But it was absolutely worth it – that relief provided to our family in the dire situation values far more than any cost.