Keeping in touch - with ekit

The past 7 days has been particularly exciting, as we have a new sponsor on board. I have been in discussion with Rowena at ekit about getting a mobile phone, SIM card, and most importantly some sort of tracking service. What we've ended up with, thanks to ekit, is all three!

Yesterday I took delivery of this little number, which is now charged up and raring to go. On the face of it, it looks like a pretty basic mobile phone; but its what it can do that is the most exciting thing. This phone is cleverly linked up to a service called Travel Journal, which should be able to provide our followers the ability to follow our progress on the trip, pretty much in real-time

It is configured so that at various points during each day, the Travel Journal will try to 'locate' us. It does this using "cell tower triangulation". Anyone who's watched Jack Bauer in 24 will know the drill!

In doing this, it will plot us pretty accurately on a map; so even if we are totally lost and haven't a clue where we are - our followers at home will actually be able to tell!

The service will do this at least once per day, and we may configure it to do so more often. Likewise, we will be able to send SMS messages, and these too will appear on our Travel Journal, with a pinpoint to show where we were at the time we sent the message.There's lots more to it as well - and you'll see details of the functionality emerging on this site in the next couple of weeks, as we get our final preparations done.

A big thank-you to ekit for making this possible (I recommend other travellers take a look at the ekit website, they do some good quality and value SIMS and phones), and to Rowena for being so helpful. I expect our mothers in particular will be especially pleased to be able to find out where we are!