[Paddlewise] Who Picks Up The Rescue Tab [An Australian Perspective]

	Interesting issues have been raised in this thread... and I think they have
basically been debated since the first cave men wandered off to go hunting and
got lost...

	Anyway,  perhaps a southern hemisphere perspective:


	* Rely on technology at your peril;  and I include EPIRBs, SAT phones,
radiotransceivers, cellphones, GPS receivers. That does NOT mean that you go
unprepared, or unskilled.  I have accumulated stories of all of the above
causing MORE problems, not less...

	* No man is an island.  Even if you leave strict instructions that you don't
want anyone to rescue you,  they will come looking.

	* I have worked in the media long enough to know this:  you will get your
five minutes of fame on the six o'clock news precisely because you didn't want
to be found.  Even if you don't want to be famous,  you will be there on
screen,  dripping wet, thanking your rescuers...

	* It will be better for you, and for your surviving family who will have to
pick up the pieces, that you take personal responsibility for your actions,
knowing that you are a member of a society that,  in law at least, values your
life.

	And now, I am off to the beach.....cheers all..


	Peter Rattenbury, Wollongong, Australia.
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