First Aid Kit
We've always carried a basic first aid kit, however the contents has remained largely unchanged thus far as we have only travelled in Western Europe, and I guess we hadn't really thought about it in any great depth to be honest. Now, the journey will hopefully take us off the beaten track, and through areas or even countries where healthcare is at a very different level to what we are used to in the UK with our good old NHS. We have also been somewhat enlightened by several talks regarding first aid, trauma management and travel health when on the road, namely those that we attended when we were at HUBB UK last June. Therefore, we have made some significant adjustments to our first aid kit.
(Items starred '*' below have recently been added to our kit).
Our first aid kit contents so far:
- Syringes *
- Needles (various) *
- Antibiotics - various * (with prescription)
- Epi-pen * (with prescription)
- Rehydration kit*
- Burns kit *
- Saline *
- Worming prophylaxis / medication *
- Sam Splint *
- Celox clotting granules *
- Trauma tourniquet *
- Steri-strips *
- Thermometer *
- Plasters
- Tweezers
- Scissors
- Gloves
- Compeed
- Zovirax
- Anti-fungal gel (will probably change to powder)
- Various bandages
- Antiseptic cream
- Micropore tape
- Triangular bandages
- Scalpel
- Zinc oxide
- Paracetamol
All medications/antibiotics were obtained through Nomad Travel pharmacy with prescriptions.
This is what will, in theory, trace our route and pin a location every 10 minutes during our travels. It is a clever little device that you can use to summon help and communicate via SMS (two-way) to emergency agencies and also friends and family if needed. The main reason to have this is in the event that the worst should happen and one of us gets badly injured or worse, especially if we are in the middle of nowhere. It will also (hopefully) make our loved ones feel ever so slightly reassured about our wellbeing.
MedEvac: This is a cover that you can buy that will medically stabilise and repatriate people should they have a significant medical emergency (illness/injury). This is no substitute for having travel insurance though. We've looked at several options, however GEOS is directly linked with the InReach Explorer communication system, so it seemed the most logical choice, and as with everything it comes at an additional cost. In fact I think the cheapest part of this whole adventure will be the actual travelling bit! The SAR was a lot cheaper at around 17 USD each so we added it on just for peace of mind.
12 month Travel Insurance
PLEASE READ THE SMALL PRINT. Despite some travel insurance agencies advertising on websites where a huge bulk of the users are overland motorcyclists, when you get down to it, their travel insurance does not cover you if you are riding on a motorcycle as your mode of transport! I searched for ages, made several phone calls and sent several e-mails to find companies that would insure us long-term (12 months) and only found two that would really cover us for travelling by motorcycle and also willing to cover us for riding off-road. It does cost a lot more to be covered off-road, however we decided to go for this option as we do not want to be confined to standard roads and it's sod's law that if we do have an accident, it will probably be off-road, miles from a normal road, and our insurance will be voided. It's just not worth the risk to us. Other people will likely have other opinions.
We have decided to go for the Holidaysafe Motorcycle Travel Insurance. The other option was Navigator Motorcycle Travel Insurance, however it came down to cost and with the premium options of each of the two providers mentioned, the Holidaysafe one came in slightly cheaper and seemed to cover ever-so slightly more. Unfortunately, Kelvin's recent knee surgery bumped up the premium quite a bit, but his knees are now insured! At the end of the day, we will only ever know if the insurance policy is any good if we are in the unfortunate situation of having to make a claim. Here's to hoping that won't happen!