Sally and Ed Shaw, an Australian couple embarking on a road trip together, made a huge mistake while travelling from Western Australia to Sydney. The couple were travelling by campervan and noticed a shortcut that would save them 2 hours. It ended up taking them on a dirt road with no reception and no one back at home with any clue they’d gone that way.
Sally told Yahoo News Australia that they saw on Google Maps there was a shortcut they could take that would save them two hours. With such an enormous trip across the country, any saved time was as precious as gold to the couple. “We turned on this really thin road that was only wide enough for one lane of traffic, but decided to go. About 50 kilometres later, it became a dirt road and we were like, ’if we turn back, then we’ve driven 100kms for no reason and we’ve still got to get to our end destination.’” Sally says in her TikTok video about the experience, that the first red flag should’ve been the fact that the road was only big enough for one lane of traffic.
They continued on the dirt road which Sally admits “wasn’t smart”. She recalled that things were okay for the first 20 kilometres and then it became sandy and corrugated and worry set in. A 4×4 would have been able to handle this kind of road, but a campervan may struggle.
They began to panic
When the couple realised that conditions were worsening, they began to worry about the fact that they had no phone reception to call for help if they needed to. They also knew that no one back home was aware that they’d taken that route to be able to call for help on their behalf. Likening the experience to the movie Wolf Creek, the couple were concerned that there were no other cars on the dirt road.
“We left Longreach and were heading to Lighting Ridge and there’s like 1000 kilometres between the two,” Sally said. “So if we went missing, that’s quite a long distance.” At this point, the couple knew they had made an enormous mistake.
What ended up happening?
The couple continued on their journey following the map and continually checking how long they had to go until they reached the end. “We thought, ‘what do we do, do we turn around?’” Sally recounted “But on the map it didn’t look like we had much further to go.” Eventually the couple did manage to get back on track, however due to the fact that they had to drive so slow on the sand and the dirt, the shortcut turned out to not be a shortcut after all.
On her TikTok video titled ‘Do not make this mistake when on a road trip in Australia’ Sally wrote “thankfully we were ok… but this really ain’t smart when driving in rural and remote parts of Australia!”
They made it in the end, so what’s the problem?
Sure, this story had a happy ending – and we are so happy to hear the couple got to their destination safely. However, taking a risk like this is dangerous and things don’t always turn out for the best.
The couple didn’t have a satellite phone to bridge the issue of having no reception. They also didn’t carry an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) device to be activated in emergency situations. If the couple had broken down or required emergency assistance on the dirt road, they had no way of contacting help. These items are essential to ensure your safety when travelling on the road, especially such a large distance.
The route that friends and family had known the couple were taking was deviated from. This is a risk as no one knew where they were travelling or what time they were expected at their destination. They had no one to contact authorities on their behalf as no one would’ve been able to point emergency services to that dirt road. Although taking a new dirt road seems fun and exciting, unless you’ve got another vehicle with you or someone is aware you’re heading there, if you find yourself in danger you could find yourself stranded.
The moral of the story? Always take the safest route and have backup safety measures. It’s never worth risking your life, or your vehicle, and when travelling large distances a plan is essential. In future, we hope the couple plan their journey ahead rather than taking a last minute dirt road. If they do choose to take the unpaved path (as many of us do) we hope they’ve got a vehicle that’s capable and an EPIRB in case anything goes wrong.
