All these months spent sheltering in place make us want to pack our bags and just go on a road trip. While staying at home is still the wisest and safest thing to do, some of us really need to get a change of scenery. In a way, we’re still taking care of our health if we cure our cabin fever by heading someplace else. But before we get in our cars or RVs, we need to know what travel survival skills may come in handy if something goes wrong.
First of all, you need to plan everything. It’s definitely fun to be spontaneous but it’s a lot better if you think things through, especially during this time. You need to determine your destination. Find out if it’s safe to go wherever you’re planning to go. There might be too many people there. You definitely don’t want to take that risk.
Check the weather forecast. You don’t want to be caught in a storm while traveling. Also, pack everything you’ll need. Start with food and water. In case, you get stranded somewhere, your supplies will help you survive until you find help or help finds you.
Pack your car emergency kit, too. When you travel, there’s always the risk of your vehicle encountering mechanical problems. Make sure you have tools to fix any issue such as overheating or a flat tire. You also need survival gear to, well, help you survive any predicament.
Fill your tank up. Familiarize yourself with the gas stations, stops, hotels, and police stations along your route. Inform someone — a relative, family friend, or neighbor — that you’re going on a road trip. Tell them where you are going and when you’re expected back. If they don’t hear from you, they will know that something went wrong.
Make sure you lock up. You don’t want to return to a burglarized home. Finally, you need to learn as many traveling survival skills as you can. You’ll never know which one you have to use.
Learn Your Roles
Few people know that passengers play vital roles, especially during a road trip. The driver has the biggest responsibility since everyone’s safety depends on him. Driving requires particular skills, too. Aside from precise driving skills, including defensive driving and parallel parking, he needs great focus and quick reflex.
The one riding shotgun or sitting beside the driver is tasked with helping the driver with anything he needs. This person should know how to read a map or use Waze so he can guide the driver. He also has to keep an eye out for road hazards such as potholes, animals, and kids running after balls. The one riding shotgun should also keep the driver from falling asleep and be ready to take the wheel if the driver needs to rest. Also, he should have good taste in music since he’ll be handling DJ duties.
If you’re road tripping with the family, the one riding shotgun is usually the mom. It’s also her job to keep the passengers at back, usually the children, behaving properly. This is important so as not to distract the driver.
Those in the back seat, assuming they’re old enough, are responsible for spotting hazards behind the car and from their side. They should also be wary of landmarks in case the two in front miss them. Ideally, they should also know how to drive so he can take turns with the other two. It’s also the job of the person at the back to make sure they brought everything. Finally, they’re in charge of opening and rationing the food and drinks.
Learn to Ration
Speaking of rations, you should not eat all your road trip snacks in one go. While eating chips and other snacks is one of the things that make long-distance drives fun, it would be wise to ration your supply. You don’t need to open three bags of chips at the same time, do you?
Remember, the Survival Rule of Three. You can survive for three minutes without oxygen and three hours without shelter in a harsh environment. You can only last around three days without water and three weeks without food.
If for some unfortunate event that you are stranded or lost somewhere far from civilization, you should immediately take stock of how much food and water you have. Separate your stocks into perishable and non-perishables then count how many you have of each item.
Consider how many you are in your party and the calorie content each person needs. An average adult male needs more calories than an adult female, the elderly, and younger people. Babies and toddlers need the least calorie intake. You should consider these when you ration your food. If you have pets, you may want to include them. However, if help doesn’t come anytime soon, you may be forced to sacrifice them.
Find Water for Drinking
Picture yourself stranded along a deserted road. It may take days before someone passes by or people start wondering where you are. You’ve run out of water and dehydrated. What do you do?
No, don’t drink your pee. Despite what you may read elsewhere, drinking “golden shower” is not advisable. Urine is filled with salts, which your kidneys will find hard to process without water. Drinking urine will cause you to pee more, which will lead further to dehydration. Plus, it’s disgusting.
You’re better off learning such travel survival skills as finding water that’s safe to drink. If you’re in a desert or a similar place, you can still find water. Before you go searching, you must understand that physical activity and sun exposure will cause you to sweat and get more dehydrated.
Avoid walking during the hottest time of the day. Cover up, find a shade and stay there until it’s safer to explore. Vegetation is always a good sign, especially if the plants are very green. Follow animals or their tracks. They will likely lead to a source of water. Other signs of water nearby are the presence of mosquitoes, flies, bees, and birds.
You can also find water underground. Dig through damp soil or a spot at the base of sloping rock structures. Use a portable shovel that you should’ve been keeping in your car for emergency purposes. The Stealth Tact Shovel Modular Multi-Function Entrenchment Tool by Frog & CO should fit the bill.
Dig a hole about one foot deep and one foot wide. Water should be seeping from the sides of the hole. Wait and then gather the water that has collected. Use an absorbent cloth to transfer the water from the hole to a container. Boil the water, use a personal water filter, or treat it with water purification tablets.
Invest in a LifeStraw Water Filter and Micropur Water Purification Tablets. The former is a simple yet useful device, which allows you to filter 99.99% of bacteria and other nasty stuff. Use it to drink straight from a pond, river or other water sources. The latter makes dirty water safe to drink. Each tablet can purify one liter of water.
Start A Fire
Why do you need to start a fire when traveling? For one thing, fire provides warmth. If your car breaks down, you may be forced to stay the night if there’s little to no hope of getting home any time soon. You can sleep in your car but if it gets really cold, like Disney Elsa-cold, you will need fire to keep you from freezing to death.
Also, fire will help you get rescued if you’re lost. The smoke produced by the fire can help rescuers pinpoint where you are. The blaze of the fire can be seen clearly when it gets dark. It also keeps wild animals and critters away.
You’ll also need fire to survive if rescue takes too long and you run out of food and water. Use it to cook game you catch and boil water you collect, which, incidentally, are two survival skills you also need to learn.
The simplest and surest way to start a fire is to use fire starters. Make sure your bug out bags, emergency kits, and everyday carry kit have waterproof matches, a lighter, or a magnesium rod fire starter like the Elements Magnesium Fire Starter Fire Rod by Frog & CO. You just need some tinder and firewood and you should be good to go.
In case you don’t have any of them, you can still build fire. One method is to use a glass lens such as a magnifying lens or reading glasses to harness the sun’s rays. Simply angle your lens so that it captures the ray and aim the beam at some tinder you previously prepared.
There are three things you need aside from the fire source – tinder, kindling, and firewood. In an ideal world, you should always carry all-weather tinder such as WetFire from UST or a Paratinder Cord. The latter is simply a paracord with flammable tinder cord inside.
Dried grass or leaves, wood shavings, and the bark of a Birch tree are a few examples of tinder you can find in nature. Once the tinder starts smoking, blow it gently to produce a flame. Add kindling and then fuel like large wood as the fire grows.
If you’re traveling with kids, don’t forget to bring crayons. If they get restless during your stops, they can use their crayons to draw. If you need an emergency light, you can use crayons, too. Crayons are flammable and each piece will burn for 15 to 30 minutes. Simply light up the tip or break it off so you can ignite the paper label. Place it upright and voila! It’s a candle.
Stay Warm Without Fire
You also need to learn travel survival skills that will help you stay warm without fire. These skills will keep you alive when you’re life is threatened by hypothermia. To stay warm you must conserve your body heat.
First, you need to be prepared. Don’t forget to pack the right clothes before embarking on your road trip. Even if it’s hot, you should bring warm clothes, gloves hats, scarves, and socks so you can put on layers when it gets cold.
Always have a wool blanket and a thermal blanket in your vehicle. A thermal or Mylar blanket is made of reflective material that traps 90% of your body heat and keeps you warm. Use it like a normal blanket and wrap it over your body or stick them to the sides of the car to keep the heat inside.
Basic Car Repair
Before going on a road trip, it’s wise to have your vehicle checked to see if it’s fit to travel. Even if the mechanic says it is, you should still prepare for possible issues. Learn basic car repairs. These travel survival skills will help make sure you get to your destination.
Some of the basic auto mechanic skills every driver should know include changing oil, replacing spark plugs, changing a flat tire, and engine cleaning. Jumpstarting is also a valuable life skill. Learn how to jumpstart a car but invest in a Pocket Jumper Pro Car & Truck Jump Starter to be on the safe side. This nifty device can jumpstart your vehicle and charge your phone. It also comes with a built-in LED flashlight and emergency light.
Escape Sinking Car
You’ll probably be surprised at how many people died from their cars being submerged in water. According to this SWOV fact sheet, there were at least 35 fatalities each year from 2004 to 2011 that had their cars submerged in water. This study posted on Auto Safety mentioned 384 traffic deaths involving accidental drowning from 2004 to 2007.
Then there is the previously unsolved case of William Moldt, who went missing in 1997. It turns out that Moldt met his untimely death after his car plunged into a pond. The cold case was solved after a man saw the submerged car on Google Maps.
No one knows for sure how he ended up in the pond and why he failed to escape his sinking vehicle. What we know is that it is possible to do so if you’re conscious. If this happens to you, you need to stay calm. Once you start panicking, the higher the chances that you’ll drown.
After your car plunges into the water, there is some time before it completely submerges. Once that happens, it’ll be difficult to escape due to the pressure outside the vehicle. Those precious few seconds before your car sinks is your best chance of surviving. Get out as fast as you can.
Opening the door can be an option but only if the car is still afloat. The more it sinks, the harder it is to open the door. Your best option is to escape through the window. Roll your window down quickly before the water reaches it. If this happens, your best bet is to break the glass. Hopefully, you have a glass breaker or window punch in your car. In fact, you should have one placed near each window.
The Zombinator Survival Hatchet comes with a built-in glass breaker at the tip of its handle. It’s a good survival tool to have though it may be difficult to get it from your emergency kit. Aside from the Zombinator, you should have the Resqme Original Keychain Car Escape Tool. It’s light enough to keep on your keychain. Plus it comes with a seatbelt cutter.
After rolling down or breaking the window, swim out as fast as you can. This will be difficult with water rushing in but it is completely possible. Kick or push off the car so you can escape faster. If you’re disoriented and don’t know which way is up, check the bubbles around you. Swim to where the bubbles are going.
If you have passengers that can’t get out themselves, you’ll need to help them out. First, calm them down and tell them what you’re going to do. Roll down or break the window. If the passenger still can’t remove his seatbelt, use a seatbelt cutter. Pull a small child to the front then push him out through your window. Quickly follow and help him swim to the surface.
Make Yourself Visible for Rescue
If your vehicle is stuck, don’t abandon it unless you can get help nearby or you’re familiar with the place. In case you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere, you need to stay put and make yourself visible. Hang a bright-colored fabric on the window of your car. It’s a good idea to get an Orange Help Flag from Frog & CO. Bright orange color is pretty visible from a distance.
We already mentioned how fire and smoke can help you be visible to rescuers. If that is not an option, you can alert rescuers and passers-by of your situation by honking your horn to the tune of SOS in Morse code. You can also use your headlights.
There are plenty of other travel survival skills that you need to learn before going on your adventure. The more you know, the better equipped you are to survive any problem you encounter. If you are familiar with survival skills or tips that are useful for travelers, please feel free to share them with everyone. Go to Gentleman Pirate Club for more amazing survival tips.
