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36 wild hours on battery in the Dandenongs
It’s been wild 36 hours here in the Dandenong Ranges. Yesterday afternoon, the power went out in our town of Emerald. We heard it was due to a fire somewhere. We sent out a few texts to our neighbours to offer our battery backup power. We ran our heavy duty extension lead over the fence and set up a power board on the front porch for phone charging. A few hours later, the grid was back up and running. But, the pending storm warnings made us cautious. Sure enough, an hour or so later, the storm hit. Heavy rain, pounding hail and strong wind. Marvin the robot mower happily sits charging out in the rain. But I didn’t fancy the chances of his camera eyes surviving the hail stones. I used the iPhone app remote control to drive it under our pergola, while the ice golf balls bounced on the lawn. Sure enough, the grid connection died again during the night, probably due to storm damage to power lines and other infrastructure. In the morning our neighbour reconnected to our power supply. We…
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Brunch at Kuranga Native Nursery
The avo toast was spectacular, with cherry tomatoes, pesto and shards of dehydrated Vegemite. I didn’t know that was a thing! We wandered around the native nursery plants and garden ornaments. This was both inspiration and procrastination for the gardening we needed to do at home later.
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Charging an EV is now easier than filling petrol
Charging an EV is easier than filling a car with petrol. We can now just plug in and walk away. Payment is all automatic. Takes ten seconds of my time. We’ve always been able to do this with Tesla superchargers and with any home charger or power point. But third party fast chargers that require payment have required using an app or tapping a card to start charging. But now, Evie Networks has listened to customers and enabled “auto charge”. We can just park, plug in and walk away. The charging station recognises our car, and knows our payment details. To enable auto charge, we had to do one manual charge, and verify who we are, as you can see in the screenshots. We were in Yara Junction for a walk along the Lilydale Warburton rail trail, and brunch at Nancy's of the Valley. Great day out. Having the option to return to a fully fuelled car is a bonus!
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Walking the Lillydale-Warburton rail trail
The sun held out despite the clouds hanging on the mountains, as we wandered along the rail trail near Yarra Junction in Victoria. The trail goes all the way from Lillydale to Warburton, but we only did a few kilometres of it. Brunch at Nancy's of the Valley was delicious. Scrambled eggs, mushrooms and spinach kept us going all day. Friendly staff and atmosphere.
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Earning $200 from the grid in a day
Today we earned over $200 for supplying electricity to the grid! We’re in Emerald, Victoria. We chose Amber Electric as our energy retailer, since they pass on the wholesale electricity price, which can change every few minutes. You have to be a bit of an energy nerd (like me), but you can make money from supplying power to the grid during peak demand, and even get paid to use power during high supply. Knowing the price is high makes you acutely aware of consumption, preferring to instead be paid to export. Boil water for a cup of tea, or get paid 20c? Okay, not quite that extreme. 😉 A cold morning and evening (high energy demand), combined with not enough cheap renewables in the grid, means it’s powered mostly by fossil fuel (gas and coal). The wholesale electricity price spikes, which pays a small fortune to anyone who can supply some power, including power companies, and householders who have a battery 🔋💰. If you’re an energy nerd and want to try Amber’s wholesale electricity…
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Brunch at The Laughing Fox in Emerald
Brunch at The Laughing Fox Cafe in Emerald. Eggs Benny with salmon for Tom, and a veg loaded omelette for Francis. Then a short walk along part of the adjacent Eastern Dandenong Ranges Trail, past Hogan Park, along the Puffing Billy Railway to the wide open Pepis Park fronting the wetlands. Beautiful day out.
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First impressions of Marvin the mower
He’s such a good boy! 🐶 🤖. The latest addition to our household, Marvin the mower, has done an impressive job so far. It’s a Mammotion Luba 2 3000 robot mower, from Robotech Australia. I just tell Marvin to mow a particular area of our yard, and off it toddles, looking like Wall-E, to do its job. It’s fully automatic, detecting obstacles, returning to charge when necessary, and sending me a notification when finished. Hardware setup was pretty easy. Plug in the camera eyes, position the recharging pad, assemble the transmitter pole and stab it into the ground. The RTK transmitter pole needs to have fairly clear view of the sky, but seems to work fine where I put it, with some light nearby vegetation. To program the yard mowing areas, I tapped in the app to add an area, then remote controlled the mower around the area boundary, while walking beside it. Francis laughed, took a photo, saying I looked like a lone lonely loner walking his dog. When I returned Marvin to the starting point,…
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We bought a Mammotion robot mower
We bought a new EV! It’s all wheel drive, includes full self driving, with proximity sensors and just a front facing stereo camera. But it takes about four hours to fully charge and the acceleration is pretty slow 😉. It’s a Mammotion Tech Luba 2 robot lawn mower. We could have bought it online direct from Mammotion, but opted to buy it through a local service centre, Robotech Australia, just in case we need support or maintenance. Our lawn is about 1500 square metres. We bought the Luba 2 AWD 3000 model, which is rated to mow 3000 square meters, allows up to ten mowing areas, and handles extra step inclines. The base model does 1000 square metres, and allows less separate mowing areas. There are also 5000 and 10000 models. I followed the fairly simple hardware instructions to screw in the camera (which looks like Wall-E), screw the charging station into the ground, and assemble the transmitter (RTK) onto a pole. We have named the robot “Marvin” (the mower). To misquote Hitchhiker’s…
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High-tech tip: wipe the reversing camera
Blurred reversing camera? Wipe the winter road grime off the rear camera with a water soaked tissue. Fixed! Follow us for more high tech car maintenance tips! 😉
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Breakfast and lunch at Kallista Deli & Cafe
A jaunt through the Dandenong Ranges to Kallista Deli & Cafe. We split an eggs Benedict for breakfast, followed ten minutes later by half a burger each for lunch. Breakfast and lunch done! Great service and delicious food. Food (everywhere) is so expensive now. We walked through town, down to the Kallista Tea Rooms, and watched the sulphur crested cockatoos watching the customers eating their scones. We’ll have to come back here to eat some time. Inspired by the scones, we popped back through Kallista Deli & Cafe to grab some cakes to take home for afternoon tea. Tough day 😉. One quick stop at the John’s Hill Reserve Lookout on the way home.
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Preheating the house from John's Hill Lookout
After a beautiful morning drive in the Dandenong Ranges, with our last stop at John’s Hill Reserve Lookout, we decided to head for home, about 20 minutes away. It was 6°C outside but warm and toasty in the Tesla. Our house was going to be cold 🥶. If only there was a way to heat it up remotely, before we got home, like we can with the Tesla 🤔. Fortunately, there is! We bought a Sensibo remote control. It communicates with the air conditioner via infrared, and communicates with our phones via the Internet. It even works with our ten year old Panasonic air con. So, we can be in bed, or many kilometres away and say “Siri, turn on the air conditioner”, to have a warm lounge room waiting for us. We can also control the temperature, fan speed, schedule and so on. We could even set it up to turn on the air conditioner automatically when we’re within 20km from home, via geofencing. Nice 😊 We opted for the “Air Pro” version, which also monitors air quality. I’ve noticed that it sometimes shows…
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The synchronised-bladder problem on the way home
Heading home to Emerald from Wagga Wagga. A quick wee stop in Swanpool and again in Yea. We really should synchronise bladders. Toilets seem to be the greatest need on a road trip. Apple Maps only shows public toilets up the other end of town in Yea, but we discovered one at the (appropriately named) Yea Wetlands Discovery Centre. The guy at the counter was very friendly and helpful, answering questions about the place. The walk around the wetlands is about half an hour – perfect while parked at the Tesla Superchargers 80m away. We’ll be back to check it out, but we only stopped this time for five minutes.
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Marmalades in Yea, our lunch favourite
One of our favourite places to stop for lunch: Marmalades in Yea. Home made pie and sausage roll, with salad and rosemary chips. All delicious. After our morning loop-de-loop of the Dandenong Ranges, we only got as far as Yea by lunchtime, on our way to Wagga Wagga.
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A wrong turn out of the RAAF base
We left the graduation ceremony at the RAAF base, turned right, when we should have turned left. This gave us an unexpected 40km half hour exploration of the back suburbs, Gobbagombalin (where our RAAF graduating son and young family are moving), the Murrumbidgee River, Gumly Gumly (our motel), plus the local EV chargers.
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Packing checklist for a Wagga trip
Prep for our road trip to Wagga Wagga for a couple of days: - Pack clothes into the duffle bags into the boot. Check. - Pack some cereal and snacks. Check. - Fill the thermos with tea. Check. - Pack a pair of shoes and laundry bag into the trunk (front trunk, since there’s no engine taking up space). Check. - Remove smelly rubbish from the kitchen and put the bins out. Check. - Fill the car with “fuel”. (Charged for free from solar during the past few days). Check. - Service the car (fill up the washer fluid is all there is to do). Check. - Check the tyre pressures. The app tells us that the sensors say tyre pressures are all good. Check. - Check engine oil, radiator fluid… nah, just kidding, no engine bits to wear and tear. - Take Archie (our cat) to Catshack for care while we’re away. Check. - Stop for a coffee at Grants on Sherbrooke, on our way back through the Dandenong Ranges. Check. Great. We left not too much later than planned, and we’re on our way to… Hang on. I think I left…
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An Aussie Homestead stay in Gumly Gumly
July 9-11: We checked in at The Australian Homestead Motor Lodge in Gumly Gumly, a suburb of Wagga Wagga. They name everything here twice 😉. Cute, friendly motel, with on site restaurant, good value meals. The motel backs into a paddock of cows that were quite curious and came to say hello, looking like a band cover photo. We visited the RAAF base to watch one of our kids graduate after nine weeks of intensive training. Impressive synchronised marching and the sounds of a fly by overhead. The car that brought the dignitaries was unfortunately not an EV, so dowsed the crowd in fumes as it drove off.
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An evening walk at Cardinia Reservoir
Evening walk across Cardinia Reservoir. 9°C required puffer jackets. Mostly still air left the water very calm to reflect the sky. The kangaroos barely noticed us as they grazed through dusk. We noticed a sign for Cardinia Micro Hydro Electric something, which I presume means that they add some power to the grid. Half the cars in our car park were EVs.
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Lauritos pizza, transported in the frunk
Friday night, pizza and movie at home. Pick up from Lauritos Pizza, in Emerald, in the Tesla, transporting it in the “frunk” (front trunk) to keep the takeaway smell out of the cabin.
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Olliebollen on the Mornington Peninsula
After talking about it for a week, we pursued Fran’s Dutch heritage by driving down to the Mornington Peninsula for some Olliebollen from the Lekker Lekker van. Olliebollen is kind of like a bread and butter pudding, without the butter or custard. Perhaps a cousin of the donut. Deliciously more-ish. The van is only there on Wednesdays. When we arrived, they told us they were closing in 15 minutes. In a panic, we ordered two dozen Olliebollen, then worried how we were going to eat them. That turned out to be not a problem. Together with our friends Krissy and Tim (who had also counted down to this day), we managed to polish off almost all of them. To be fair, Krissy only had one, but including her makes us sound less gluttonous.
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A studio gallery in Loch, with paint made from rocks
Beautiful day trip down to Loch, in Victoria. Finally had a chance to check out Lucy Hersey’s Studio Gallery. She makes her own paints from nature, such as powdered rocks. Impressive works of art, in distinct color themes matching the landscapes. After lunch with friends, Suzanne and Ron, who met us half way in their BYD Atto 3, we took the dogs for a bit of a walk around town. We drove the long way out of town, via Cape Horn Lookout,. Then a drive through a long straight section marked as 40km/h due to “roadwork” that is not actually happening today.
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Dog Mode, for Clare the visitor
Dog Mode engaged. We’re minding our sister Helen’s dog, Clare, for a few days. Our cat, Archie initially hissed a few times at the interloper, but seems to have now accepted (or at least tolerated) her. We took this fine old doggie out for a drive to Loch. We limited the G forces of acceleration and cornering so as not to plaster her on the back seat. We had a delicious lunch with friends at the Loch & Key cafe, while Clare slept in the car, in air conditioned Dog Mode comfort. We checked on her a few times using the in-cabin Sentry Mode camera. Then out for a long walk around the town of Loch.
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A soft-plastics drop-off in Noble Park
A trip from our home in the Dandenong Ranges down to Jan Wilson Community Centre in Noble Park. Why this random destination? Because they accept soft plastics for recycling, and we have a huge pile of it. We’ve been storing our soft plastics for over six months. On road trips, we would try to bring any soft plastics back in our car’s frunk. It’s not going to change the world, but I couldn’t bear adding to the problem. Supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths used to accept soft plastics for recycling through Red Cycle. But a couple of years ago, that system collapsed, with a backlog of plastic with nowhere for it to go. We’ve seen some follow-up on The Chasers War on Waste, but no resolution yet that we’ve seen. Fortunately there are several locations around that do take soft plastics for recycling. We were heading to Noble Park anyway for an appointment, so we packed our huge pile of soft plastics, nearly filling our boot. Rant: So much plastic waste. So many things we buy now are…
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Hillside Walk at Gembrook Park
Tall gums, many wombat holes, dense bush opening up along the hillside and picnic areas.
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A 10 km loop to Cockatoo and back
Time for some exercise. We walked along the East Dandenong Ranges Trail, which passes through Emerald Lake Park, just down the road from our home. We walked to Cockatoo, about a 10km round trip. Lots to see along the way, including Puffing Billy Railway, tall fern trees and eucalypts, bridges, numerous fairy doors and even a couple of dinosaurs. The staff at Brunch on McBride in Cockatoo kindly made us a cuppa and sandwich, ten minutes before closing. We debated whether to catch a bus back home, but it seems you need a Myki card, and can’t just tap on with a phone credit card (like we could in NSW). The walk back was beautiful, but the few hills were testing.
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A chilly walk through Alfred Nicholas Gardens
We decided on the chilly nine degree Melbourne day to venture out into the fresh air and get some exercise. On the Tesla’s navigation, we found the Alfred Nicholas Gardens, in the Dandenong Ranges, Victoria. Leaving our nearby home in Emerald, we followed a windy road through Sherbrooke, missed a turn, then continued along as the Tesla’s navigation re-routed us without judgement through another few kilometres of windy roads. The scenery of fern trees and giant eucalyptus is spectacular, so we didn’t mind the diversion. The car park across the road was a bit of an adventure with new arrivals guessing if any places were left. The gardens are magical! Government owned, free to explore, complete with a lake, waterfalls and absolutely stunning greenery. Added bonus that people can bring their dogs along to explore and receive pats!! Highly recommend.
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Free upgrade: vision-assisted parking
We got an upgraded car today, for free! Our Tesla Model 3 RWD 2022 now has vision assisted parking. It uses the eight cameras to plot a 3D model of the world around the car, while parking. It shows close objects in orange and red, to alert to proximity. It makes us better aware of obstacles that vision can see, but sonic sensors can’t, such as high gutters that would scrape the car. Since we also have EAP (Enhanced Autopilot), the auto parking is also updated with the 3D vision. When I stop the car, I can tap on the Tesla screen on an available space in the car park, and the car will park itself. I tried it once today, and it seemed much faster than the previous ultrasonic sensor based parking. All of this upgrading just happened overnight, when the OTA (over the air) update downloaded via the Internet. This is one of the things that Tesla does particularly well – ongoing updates to the car’s features at no extra cost.
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Bombala lookout, heading to Cann River
Lookout from Bombala NSW, on our way south over the border to Cann River Victoria.
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Topping up tyres on a cold morning
Our Tesla warned us on the way from Bombala to Cann River, the other day, that low tyre pressure was impacting our range. The low tyre pressure is due to the persistent cold temperatures. So, I figured I best do something about it. I opened the electric tyre pump that we bought nearly two years ago at some car accessory shop. It’s been sitting in the boot since then, along with a can of tyre sealant, in case of a flat. I plugged it into the 12V socket in the car, set the target pressure to 41psi, and pressed the start button. It rumbled along, pumping up each of the tyres and automatically stopped at the set pressure. Simple. After a thirty minute drive, I checked the tyre pressures on the Tesla screen. All good. Slightly higher, as expected, due to warming up a bit while driving. I can now count three things in two years I’ve had to do to “service” the car: pump up tyres, replenish wiper fluid, replace the wiper blades.
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Sad news at Cann River: Squire's Cafe is gone
Stopped for cuppa, cake and a break at Cann River. Sad to see that Squire’s Cafe burnt down in the past few weeks. Cann River Bakery was very busy. When we returned to the car, a retired couple were looking at the Chargefox charger (next to the Tesla Supercharger we were using). They were wondering how the whole EV thing worked. I explained that we just plug into the Tesla Supercharger and walk away. Or with the other brands, we plug in, then tap a card or a button in an app, and walk away. They asked a lot of questions. They’re thinking about getting an EV for running around town. I explained that they can just plug the car into any power point at home, and charge from their home solar panels. Onward west through Gippsland. Stopped in Bairnsdale for a quick lunch and rest stop. Then finally to home in Emerald, Victoria.
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A 3.5 °C breakfast in Bombala
The bare feet were feeling the 3.5°C this morning as we packed the car in Bombala. First stop 100m away for coffee and an egg and spinach roll at Kitchen Eightyate. Tom spotted Bombala Lookout on the navigation a few minutes away, and couldn’t help himself for the photo opportunity. Then onward south towards Cann River, past the “no fuel” sign.
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A scenic detour through Bombala
Heading from Batemans Bay (lunch break) towards Gippsland, Tom thought it would be a great idea to try a new route through Bombala, instead of our typical drive near the south east coast through Bega and Eden. Francis scrambled to find some accommodation along this diversion, as the sun set. Only one option appeared: The Imperial Hotel in Bombala. King bed, fridge/freezer. Shared bathroom, which turned out to be okay, since there was only one other guest, whom we didn’t even see. We ordered the special to share for dinner: grilled chicken, satay sauce and veggies. So yum. Had a chat with the cook. Love country pubs.
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Deli on Perry, and a friendly local EV invite
Lunch break in Batemans Bay at Deli on Perry. Delicious “deli bowl” to share. When I hopped back in the car, a friendly local EV driver (Peter?) handed me an invitation to their local SHASA (Southcoast Health & Sustainability Alliance) EV meet up. We briefly compared stories of driving to Cairns.
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Hyper Hyper Coffee in Nowra, recommended at 82
Having failed to secure coffee at Silos Estate, we dropped into the next town south, at Hyper Hyper Coffee in Nowra. It seemed like a popular place. While waiting, we asked an older man about it. He said “I’m 82 years old, and this stuff is what’s keeping me alive!” High praise indeed. What goes in, must come out. So, we stopped again in Ulladulla, at the sea pool for the toilets. Onward to Batemans Bay for lunch.
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A creek-side cabin in Gerroa
Beginning our Sydney to Melbourne return leg late yesterday, we only made it to Gerroa NSW for the night. We stayed in a nice cabin by the creek in the Discovery Park Gerroa. Toast and cereal for brekky. We poured a thermos of tea for Tom and then set out in search of coffee for Francis. We headed for Silos Estate, just south of Berry, since it has Tesla Superchargers and serves coffee. We are heading south, but Silos Estate is on the north heading side of the highway. The Tesla/Google navigation had us doing a loop on the overpass, but it turns out we could have just turned right into the estate. Silos is on a beautiful outlook. We parked, plugged in and walked over to get coffee. But they don’t open until lunch time! 😫. Customers have been down since Covid, but they hope to expand hours again. So, we hopped back in the car and drove off, using a U turn bay in the highway to head south again.
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Another free upgrade: adaptive high beams
Another free car upgrade: adaptive high beams. The sun had set on our way west from near Bega towards Bombala. We generally prefer to find a place to stay before dark, but this time of year the daylight is shortening, and we discovered there aren’t many accommodation options out here. High beam headlights help us travel along the unfamiliar road in the dark, lighting up not only the path ahead, but on the sides, such as helping us keep a lookout for wildlife that might dart onto the road. When we pass the occasional other vehicle, we of course don’t want to blind them with our high beams. Until now, the Tesla would automatically detect the oncoming car and dip the high beams, just like we would do manually. The latest software update 2024.14, was sent to our Tesla a few days ago. It included several new features, one of which is adaptive high beams. Now, instead of dipping the whole high beam lamps when there is an oncoming vehicle, it only dims the pixels of light that are aiming at…
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A view (and toilet) at Bulli Lookout
Stopped for the view (and toilet) at Bulli Lookout, on our way from Sydney to Melbourne.
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Final goodbyes, and a long-overdue reunion in Sydney
Final goodbyes last night and this morning to a few of our kids. Breakfast at Terrigal Beach. Lunch in Canterbury Sydney to finally visit my longest bestest friend Rachael. The Tesla’s frunk is overflowing with laundry, shoes and soft plastic recycling to take home. After all the visiting, we’ll only make it as far south as Gerroa tonight. This will be our fourth trip in two weeks between Melbourne and Sydney.
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A rare chilled day at Avoca Beach
A rare chilled day, taking a walk and coffee on the rocks at Avoca Beach NSW. Yesterday we caught up with some family at the recruitment ceremony at ADF in Newcastle for one of our kids. We drove down to the Central Coast and had dinner in Terrigal with some more of our kids. Tomorrow, we’ll have one last breakfast catch up before heading back south towards our home in Emerald Victoria. Route: we’ll see where the road takes us.
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A Seven Hills stretch on the way to Newcastle
On our way today from Goulburn to Newcastle. Time for a toilet stop and stretch in Seven Hills. I tapped the charger icon on the Tesla screen and one of the options it showed was 10km ahead along our route, in Seven Hills, which seemed likely to also have toilets. I tapped that location, added it to our route. The Tesla realised it was a charger and started preconditioning the battery (for faster charging on arrival). Lots of road works out here on the highway. I found it difficult to determine which of the lines on the road were removed and which were the new ones, in the glare of the sun on the road. At one point, a ute in front of us was straddling two lanes until some other cars behind alerted them to the misalignment. Somehow our Tesla’s Autopilot managed to make sense of it all and kept us in the correct lane. Super impressive. Mum’s Apple Watch didn’t charge last night in the motel, so we plugged it into the USB-C port in the car. Onward to the NSW Central Coast, then Cessnock,…
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Best Western Plus Goulburn, with Mum
Nice place to stay, during our interstate road trip, last night at Best Western Plus Goulburn. Easy bottom level floor access for Mum. On site morning coffee for Francis.
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A half-hour smoothie wait at Oliver's, Gundagai
On our way today from Yackandandah to Goulburn. A quick stop for toilet and a drink at Oliver’s in Gundagai turned into a half hour wait for a smoothie. When the order first came out, it wasn’t what we ordered so we asked to check that it was ours. The staff got a bit loud and rude and suggested we reorder, which we did, but it all just took too long so we eventually canceled. I nearly lost my thermos lid again, in the roof of our car. I spotted a new Porsche Taycan at The NRMA chargers. Not bad. Later, driving up the hill towards Breadbaline, a four wheel drive was pouring diesel smoke all over us, In order to get up the hill. We overtook and emerged to see the rainbow leading towards the wind turbines. 🌈 There is hope we can eliminate pollution from our roads.
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Mother's Day at Two Sisters on High, Yackandandah
Happy Mother’s Day! We woke up at Motel Views Yackandandah to a gorgeous morning overlooking the valley. Being Mother’s Day, toast in the motel room wasn’t going to suffice, so we took Mum down the road to Two Sisters on High for a huge delicious feed of scrambled eggs and all the trimmings. We pottered around the knick knack and antique shops, as Mum gave us an education on all the old worldy gadgets.
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Returning Mum to Cessnock
After brief meetups with some family on the NSW Central Coast, we returned Mum home to Cessnock. After a cuppa and a couple of odd jobs we said goodbye. The three of us had a blast on our EV road trip from Cessnock NSW to Emerald Victoria and back again. Finally, we drove east to Newcastle, to stay at 291 on King. It’s a bit fancy but welcoming. I walked down the road to grab takeaway dinner from Bella Italia.
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Packing up to leave Yackandandah
Packing the car to leave Yackandandah.
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A Yackandandah dinner at the Star Hotel
We started our return trip north from Emerald Victoria to Cessnock NSW, staying tonight in Yackandandah at the Views Motel. Dinner at the Star Hotel Yackandandah. We’ve had a great few days showing Mum around our home in Emerald, riding on Puffing Billy Railway, spotting plants and wildlife in our yard and the local area. First stop earlier today was at Lake Nillacoothie, near Bonnie Doon. Quiet spot with a row of bright red autumn trees. Toilets were surprisingly okay, except not great disabled access.
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Mum, the biggest kid on Puffing Billy
The biggest kid on the Puffing Billy Railway may have been my Mum. And it was our first chance to have a ride since we moved into Emerald five months ago. What a beautiful trip through the fern trees and tall trees, along winding paths and over bridges, from Belgrave back through the town of Emerald to Lakeside Station, just a stone’s throw from our house. Great day.
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The Coffee Pedaler in Gundagai, and Mitsy
We stopped in at The Coffee Pedaler - Gundagai for morning coffee. While she waited, Fran made a new four legged friend “Mitsy” who had traveled from Western Australia. Last night we shared a delicious Moroccan veggie bowl at Oliver's Real Food Gundagai. On the way in, Fran formed a conga line with Mum and her walker. When we returned to the car, I had a chat with Mark who was charging his BYD electric van. It was a grey import. Only a 45kWh battery but great for running around town. He was on his way to Canberra (from Adelaide?) with motorbike in the back of the van. We stayed overnight at the “Gundagai Tourist Suites” – motel style units away from the main road. As Mum walked slowly back to the car in the morning, I couldn’t help but show off our remote control car by “Summoning” it through the iPhone to reverse all the way to pick us up. Breakfast was toast and spreads in our room. Just so you (and Mum) know it’s not all cafes 😉.
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A hello to Ned Kelly in Glenrowan
Stopped for lunch in Glenrowan and said hello to Ned Kelly. Great town for a visit on the way through. Followed by a brief stop in Yea before arriving home in Emerald.
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Mum at the Holbrook Submarine
It’s amazing to see the little kid emerge from my elderly mother when we stopped at the HMAS Ottway Holbrook Submarine. A bit of a wander and refresh for a few minutes on our way from Cessnock NSW to Emerald Victoria.
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Out the back of the Holbrook Submarine
On our way from Cessnock NSW to Emerald Victoria.
Formerly: Tesla Tripping
Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.
Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.
We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.
At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.
Got questions, or insights of your own? We'd love to hear them — please drop a comment on any post.