02/10/2024
A week out west ruined, for the Driver, the Tour Director, and their two Grandies - a tale of a trip around NSW Central West with all the human bits added to the EV techie stuff. It’s a long read for the internet, so settle back if you have the time and inclination…
ScoMo said EVs would ruin our weekends. Many EV owners have since taken to joyfully ‘ruining’ their weekends in fine style just to prove him wrong, with some going to the extreme of ruining a whole lap of Australia.
We set out not to ruin a week in the central west of NSW, taking two Grandies to the various attractions and activities on offer, like the Western Plains Zoo, The Dish at Parkes, and Zig Zag Railway and Glowworm Tunnel on the way. Ironically, for reasons of accommodation convenience and economy, and because it was school holidays, we intended to travel in a conventional motorhome, ICE powered sadly.
Half an hour into the trip, before even leaving the northern suburbs of Sydney, said ICE vehicle with its multitude of complexities decided to spit the dummy, in an attempt to literally ruin our trip. So we were left with the option of abandoning the whole expedition, or limping home and salvaging what we could, with the trusty Tesla M3 SR to the rescue. For those outside the EV cult, that is a 2022 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range, meaning the base model that cost about the same as a top line Camry hybrid, and less than a HiLux SR5.
This salvage meant compromise: no fridge, no toilet and shower, and critically - no beds. So motel or cabin accommodation had to be organised at short notice in holiday peak demand period. It was a case of take what we could get. Furthermore, the Tesla was only charged to about 70%, since we weren’t planning on using it for this trip.
While the Tour Director was busy on the mobile ringing motels along the way, the Driver was in ARBP (that’s a nice app called A Better Route Planner) planning the charging stops. And this is where the Tesla and the burgeoning EV charging network came to the rescue, ‘ruining the weekend’ very nicely. The motels that we could book were another story - but as they say, bad travel experiences always make the best stories.
First stop was a Tesla Supercharger at Blaxland, halfway up the Blue Mountains, while we looked for afternoon coffee. Six chargers there, one not working, which is of course the one the Driver selected of the five that were vacant. A quick shuffle to the next one, plug in, and a big fat fast charge just happens like magic. Off to grab a coffee. The bakery is open, but have just turned off their espresso machine. No problem, there’s bound to be another cafe open on a Saturday afternoon. In Blaxland, just down the road from Norman Lindsay Gallery. Surely.
Having walked the length of Blaxland Shopping strip twice, the Driver ended up at the south end at the Shell servo. An EV driver walks into a petrol station… sounds like the first line of a joke. But as it happens, this one is as much a cafe - complete with barista - as an ICE refueller. Balmain Coffee made by the hipster behind the counter was perfect. By the time the travelling crew had reunited, the car was 100% charged, and ready to continue. Suck that up ScoMo.
We had booked a room at the Grandview Motel on the outskirts of Katoomba. It is slightly misnamed, being neither grand, nor having much of a view unless you are a keen trainspotter. It is sandwiched on a narrow sliver of land between the highway and railway line, and the room design reflects this: rather than the usual motel room layout of narrow and deep, this was very shallow but quite wide. A queen bed and three single beds, with a pokey little kitchen and a beautifully dated 1960s bathroom. And it smelt of sheepyards, which for the Driver was a not entirely offputting olfactory experience, because of his childhood following his livestock buyer dad around the saleyards of NSW. The Tour Director was less impressed, but the Grandies didn’t seem to notice.
The motel is run a by a lovely family who insist on absolute cleanliness. Something to do with their Thai heritage perhaps. And so they slather the Domestos antiseptic around leaving no germ or virus or bacteria with any hope of survival. That’s the upside. The downside is that when Domestos is used to excess, its remnant smell is, yep, ironically like sheep dung. But the beds were comfy and very warm.
They had double glazed the windows on the railway side, so we could hardly hear the trains. The highway side was another thing altogether - it has wall mounted air conditioners, commonly called window rattlers, that we could see daylight through. So every Kenworth B-double, every hot Monaro, and every Harley-Davidson joined us as we hid under pillows, longing for ear plugs that we did not have.
The morning finally dragged itself into our sandpaper eyes, all misty and cold, and we set off for the Zig Zag Railway, with the Tesla now showing 360km of range - more than enough to go on to the Glowworm Tunnel in the Gardens of Stone National Park, and then to Bathurst via Lithgow.
More irony when the Grandies got a lift on the engine plate of the Zig Zag’s steam loco, and were given a lump of coal each by the fireman. This in the same week as the UK turned off the last of its coal fired power stations, 140 years after the black stuff turbo-charged the industrial revolution. This irony was not lost on the Grandies. On to the tunnel full of glowworms in an EV powered by wind and solar. Beautiful irony. But why do people shine their torches in a tunnel where you can only see the little bio-luminescent larvae in the dark? Grandie-girl just wanted them all to go away so she could sit and commune with the constellations of glowing abdomens, powered by simple natural chemistry.
We motored on through the backroad to Lithgow, a town built on coal mining and steam railways, now in the throes of trying to reinvent itself as a sustainable transport and service hub. It’s even got a new Womens Shed built out of industrial h**p. We didn’t need the town’s EV chargers, so it was on up and over the Great Divide’s watershed, and into Bathurst, to our second motel experience, the Panorama - so named because of the mountain’s race track, not for its views.
This location promised to be as quiet as the previous one had been noisy, but the room was small. Very small. I have always said that once you’re in bed with eyes closed the size of the room is irrelevant. Maybe there is a limit to this theory, and with four bods and their gear this room was testing that limit.
The Tesla Superchargers are just across the highway, beside a large playing field, so Grandie-boy challenged the Driver to a two-player soccer match while the Tesla recharged from 14%. In 45 mins the car was rejuvenated to 100% while the old bloke was totally depleted by the boundless energy of youth - Grandie-boy ran him ragged. Dinner in the motel bistro, then bed in the cocoon-room to test the ‘once your eyes are closed’ theory. It actually worked, with one proviso. Not a truck or hoon or Harley was heard the whole night. The one problem was the lack of oxygen. Four people consume a lot of it and breathe out a lot of CO2 in the course of a night. the Driver woke at some ungodly hour and opened the door to get some fresh (cold!) air into the room.
An early start was made to get to the Dubbo Zoo in time to feed the giraffes at 10am. The Tesla’s horses were not spared on the highway, the performance as always can be described in understated Rolls Royce lingo as ‘adequate’. Which of course means way more than merely adequate. Arrived in time with 190km left in the battery.
A warm spring day spent cycling around the zoo doing the zooey things, like letting a giraffe’s half-metre long blue tongue slip a carrot from our fingers, counting the folds in the skin of rhinos and hippos, imagining what it would be like to be captured the hippo’s enormous yawning jaws, willing the Sumatran tiger to get off his stripey arse and eat that chicken breast lying not ten metres in front of him (he did, eventually), and wondering how a few bugs can power a platypus to swim laps of his glass-walled tank at such speed. All that and eating and having coffee while watching lemurs and spider monkeys doing tricks and generally being as cute as meerkats.
Then in the late afternoon the Grandies were shown the darker side of Dubbo’s history, in the Old Dubbo Gaol, conveniently located in the main street - as all good jails should be. Stories of misdemeanours and deeds most foul, along with punishments most harsh and in many cases terminal. A possible forebear (same family name anyway) was convicted of various crimes on a total of 55 occasions. the Driver told Grandie-girl she had better get her life of crime going or she would fall short of upholding the family tradition. She bought (whose money?) a pair handcuffs to use on her little brother. In reality, she is more likely to take up writing crime fiction than sticking up banks or rustling cattle, which is probably just as well. Dinner was had with an old friend, who in another irony works in defending present day miscreants and innocents caught up in the legal system. No hangings these days.
Another Tesla Supercharger visit for the Driver while a conference call was taken, and even before the call ends the battery is back up to 100%. Nice when things just work. The MG that arrived shortly after had a hard time getting the Tesla network to allow the MG to hook up, but with a bit of IT sweet talking it finally worked. They were en route from Walcha to Bathurst - Dubbo being a slight deviation from the shortest route, but probably just as quick.
Found this evening’s motel, The Aberdeen, which is right on the original main drag into town, Cobra Street, and is solar powered. The good people of Dubbo many years ago realised heavy transport does not make a nice town nicer, and sent the tucks around the north side of the city, so Cobra Street is relatively quiet in the evenings. Reception is staffed by Stephen, a most welcoming individual with kind brown eyes and a well proportioned nose. His legs could be described as being rather short but we didn’t make a big deal of that. He doesn’t say much, and it is left to his off-sider, a helpful young lady whose name we didn’t catch, to do the paperwork. In fact, the Tour Director was asked by this young lady to make sure Stephen didn’t leave the office, by holding his lead and saying “Sit, stay, Stephen” rather firmly. Which Stephen did. Most Pembroke Corgis are very obedient, unlike Fenton the YouTube sensation. “Fenton!!!”
The Aberdeen’s room is by far the best yet - large, with a queen bed and two singles, and a lounge area, cupboard and desk - luxury! The bathroom is fresh and modern, and the sheepyards are nowhere to be smelt. However, all motel rooms seem to have the common problem with a lack of fresh air, though it may not be immediately obvious. Windows rarely open, or if they do the external noise or temperature is not conducive at all. So we got into bed with the door open for a time, hoping the CO2 wouldn’t kill us overnight.
It didn’t. Interesting how much difference altitude makes to temperature. Dubbo is always that much warmer than Orange or Bathurst. Bright sunny morning beckons us to head to the Dish, down the Newell Highway, past the scene of a recent quadruple fatality caused mainly it seems by ‘young bloke idiocy’ syndrome, something even a hi-tech vehicle may never fully prevent.
Morning coffee in Freak Hill (as some locals call Peak Hill, probably unfairly), then on to The Dish. This is worth the trip on its own, especially if you again watch the 2001 movie of the same name. It is simply awesome. Not just the size, as it looms up over the treeline, literally rising up from the sheep and wheat paddocks. But also its achievements in the leading edge of human endeavour of the best kind: enquiry, exploration and the search for meaning in the universe. The Dish kindly added some manoeuvres for us - seeing 1,000 tons of dishy metal swinging around to change its view of the universe is quite something.
The Dish is most famous for its role in the NSA moon landings, but it has actually contributed a thousand times more in its revelations of the secrets of the universe hidden in deep space. Quasars, masars, and all manner of details of the trillions of stars and millions of exoplanets in our Milky Way, and beyond. The 3D theatre screens some terrific movies, one of which is titled ‘Bigger than Big’, looking at the relative size of stars in the Milky Way - and it, and they, are truly gobsmacking. The Grandies were enthralled with the whole place.
Parkes is just down the road, and we played Elvis spotto as we traversed the main drag a couple of times, looking for lunch. The Driver took the car for a quick top up at the NRMA 50kW charger while the Grandies played in the park. It was located in a carpark shared with the mobile blood bank, who were too busy to take a walk-in, even with his O-negative on offer (the universal donor). The good people of Parkes are keen blood donors!
Eugowra was the next destination, a once pretty little town straddling the innocent looking beautiful Mandadgery Creek. Suffering massive damage in the floods of 2022, it has struggled to get back on its feet - or in the case of many houses, back on their foundations. Temporary pod houses are as common as houses lifted, re-stumped and repaired. The town will recover, there is a great spirit and will, but it is taking time. Visitors spending money in the town helps.
Then it was on via The Es**rt Way to Orange, with a farm visit near Toogong, to see how the industrial h**p industry is growing in the district. Well, is the answer. Then into Orange for the night, staying at the Best Western. Despite being located on the highway, it’s set well back and very quiet, assisted by the heavy vehicle bypass to the east of the city. The motel seems to be a kind of FIFO base for the Cadia gold mine - lots of dirty mine vehicles with reflective stripes and hi viz flags. Maybe that makes it DIDO (drive, not fly).
Recharge for Tesla and humans could not have been easier or more convenient. The Superchargers are located in the car park of Pellegrini’s Italian restaurant, which serves great pizzas within 7 minutes of ordering - is that a record? The Tesla, the Driver, the Tour Director, and the Grandies were refilled and satiated. In fact, with 120km left in the battery, it was back to 100% before the pizzas had been consumed.
The motel room is huge - by far the biggest yet. The Grandies get their own room behind a sliding door. But the fresh air problem remains - at least the volume of the room will probably keep us alive overnight.
The slight drop in range from the Tesla’s original theoretic maximum of 406km, combined with driving from central Orange to the motel near the eastern outskirts, plus the cold overnight temperature, meant the max distance in the battery was 365km when we set off. The Driver wondered if a quick top-up in Lithgow at lunchtime would be a good idea. With two Grandies and the Tour Director on board, and everybody’s luggage and pillows literally jammed in - which also means pushing down on the boot to get it to lock in - we set off with the morning traffic and trucks on the Mitchell Highway for Bathurst and home.
Just east of Bathurst Grandie-boy’s left ear decided it was an opportune moment to erupt in a sudden infected burst of pain. Not an actual burst eardrum, though that was on the cards if not attended to. Perhaps playing in the fountains at the Dubbo Zoo was to blame, or some other random bacterial incursion, who knows, but it meant a trip to Lithgow Hospital either way. That added a few more kms to the journey, and the Driver decided to spend 10 minutes hooked up to the NRMA’s 50kW charger at the Lithgow Workies Club (that’s not a misprint).
Damn - missed by that much! Two other cars were hooked up and charging just ahead, so it was off to the Lithgow City Bowling Club where they have 4 outlets shown on the ABRP app as “Exploren” 22kW. Inexplicably you need to BYO 22kW compatible charge lead, which we do not have. We carry a 230v plugged ‘granny charger’ but that’s all. It would be like petrol stations requiring you to bring your own hose and nozzle! So - no charging in Lithgow for us, as we didn’t want to wait half an hour at the Workies.
In the meantime Grandie-boy was discharged pumped with drugs, and being suddenly pain free, we were free to continue on our way over the drizzly foggy Blue Mountains. A quick coffee stop at GJ’s in Windsor, with their mediocre offering on board (who’s a coffee snob then?), and arriving home on the Northern Beaches with 85km remaining in the battery. No probs.
We covered a total of 1008km, spent $90.24 on Tesla Supercharging, and $10.53 on NRMA charging, for a total of $100.77. The original charge of 70% when we set out was for free from our rooftop solar. That’s about 10c/km. According to petrolspy.com.au diesel this week in the Central West averaged $1.90/L, so had we driven the Sprinter motorhome as planned, using 15L/100km, the fuel cost would have been $288. We saved $188 in cash, and a whole lot of carbon. Of course we then had to fork out for motels and meals.
We did the speed limit all the way, overtaking only when it could be done without flooring it and massively speeding. The Tesla’s adaptive cruise control works well 99% of the time, but jousts at the odd windmill, like suddenly braking when a car turned across our lane 150m ahead - it was perfectly safe for them to do so, but the Tesla thought otherwise.
We travel with the tyres 2 PSI below the recommended pressure - a trick learned from many years of outback travel (and originally learned from the late Adam Plate of Oodnadatta Pink Roadhouse fame) - on rough roads lower pressures allow more flex in the sidewalls which dissipates the kinetic energy more evenly, thus reducing friction heat build-up in the tyre structure, and thus reducing tyre failures. Rough roads? Oh yes this Awestraya! Since the big wet of 2022 south-eastern Australian roads - never up to European or US standards in the first place - have been plagued with potholes and damaged surfaces, so much so that you have to assume they are all big enough to rip your wheels off - and more than a few are. If you’re feeling lucky, ignore the risk. Improves comfort too, at the cost of a whisker of economy.
So the trip proved (again!) that touring the settled areas of Australia in an EV is no trouble at all, albeit with a little bit of planning. Our usual country travel in a motorhome is waaay cheaper for feeding and accommodating the team, but then the fuel bills cancel some of the savings out. But if you never go really remote outback, an EV camper is entirely practical right now, and that’s getting easier all the time.
Aaah the ruination of a road trip - what joy.
