Satellite phones, arrests and biofuel

I saw this story develop this morning via twitter. Andy Pag is 13,500km into the inspiring Biotruck Expedition attempting to travel around the world emitting less than 2 tonnes of CO2, and discovering how other people are cutting their footprint. I enjoy seeing his updates on twitter, then this morning his arrest in the Indian city of Ajmer unravelled live on the internet.

Apparently the anti-terrorist police were tracking the satellite phone signal as Andy travelled from Pakistan to India and he was eventually picked up early this morning. This was despite the obvious profile he has been enjoying in India with a photo of him and the truck on the front page of The Times of India yesterday.

It’s a rather cautionary tale and calls into question the insouciance with which many expeditions use satellite communications. We hope Andy will come through this hiccup with another story to tell and more publicity for his expedition, but permissions for carrying this kind of equipment might have to make it into your next expedition plans.