Anticlockwise Adventure!

[RichardMcN]

Now I've had Tessie for 7 weeks it's time for a big adventure!

This Sunday, John (friend) and I are heading up to Cairns and Darwin and, IF (big if) we still get on, and we haven't hit too many roos and we're still on time, we'll press on down the coast to Perth, taking advantage of Blue Heaven's nice charging route (thanks for your tips and encouragement Blue), then back via the Nullabor and MDK's nice charging route. What are our chances?? That would make a neat anticlockwise loop. The finish would actually be the Richmond Supercharger after my Melb coast trip earlier in July. We're allowing 7 weeks so we would have to keep moving!

We have 13 ways of harvesting electrons - are we overprepared? I hate the idea of getting stuck!
DC: Supercharger, Chademo
AC 3ph: 32A, HPWC, Type 2, 20A, 10A
AC 1ph: 32A, J1772, twin 15A, twin 10A, single 15A, single 10A

Hopefully we can contribute by filling in some of the charging gap across the top of Aust.

It would be great to catch up with keen Tesla people en route and exchange ideas. Feel free to reply or PM.

I will be in Brissie Monday night and would be most happy to shout a drink or two in return for a few Qld travelling tips if you can make the short notice!

To REALLY complete the trip (and assuming we make it round in the first place) we'll need to do Tassie as well, but after a bit of a break!

Will keep you posted with progress as it happens ...

Cheers Richard
.

 

[raynewman]

Go Richard!! Where in Brisbane?

 

[Novatec]

Amazing adventure, keep us posted, look forward to catching up when you get to Melbourne

 

[RichardMcN]

Go Richard!! Where in Brisbane?

Will be staying in Indooroopilly Ray, quite close to the UQ Chademo! On for a drink?
.

 

[Blue heaven]

I'm very much looking forward to regular updates of this journey around Australia, without doubt the power supply is in place, without doubt your 90D has the best combination of options for good range, and having the Octopus will be a cut downtime when only 15 amp is available.
Climate wise you've picked the best time of year to travel across the top end, although you may be squeezed in at campsites by Southern Grey Nomads chasing the Sun.
There's going to be times when you walk into a location and ask for 3 phase power to charge your electric car, they'll give you the look like you've just landed from outer space or worse still escaped from the local institution, there's going to be times when your sitting in a roadhouse having a coffee 500 miles from nowhere and some guy walks in and announces " there's a bloody Tesla electric car parked outside, I never thought I'd see the day" and everyone looks at each other saying "what's a Tesla?"
There's going to be times when you meet a kid who's an absolute Tesla junkie, and its now the best day of his life, and his parents are ever grateful to you because even though they have no idea what a Tesla is "that damn kid of ours hasnt smiled for the past two weeks of this holiday"
There also may be the time when you come across that one person, the one who thinks electric cars are evil, he read it online at RWNJ daily, he knows what the car is and it shouldn't be there, "this is a city car boy, it doesn't belong here", no need to say a word, just enjoy the moment.

 

[raynewman]

Will be staying in Indooroopilly Ray, quite close to the UQ Chademo! On for a drink?
.

Yup - let us know where.

 

[alpal]

OMG! Now this is a road trip. Sounds like you've planned well. Now enjoy and lots of piccies please!
PS. Always up for a catchup and drink. My shout.

 

[garyjac]

Pretty fantastic tripping. There's a bit left, in the way of chargers and charging locations, for the rest of use to visit in the "interior" of N.S.W. and Qld. and maybe "spread the EV gospel" a little bit.

 

[RichardMcN]

Yup - let us know where.

Hi Ray, Will get to city area around 4:30 Mon (having come from Clontarf) and will need to be at Indooroopilly (staying with John's friends) around 7pm. Are you able to suggest somewhere easy to get to? Timing to suit you in that window.

 

[RichardMcN]

Amazing adventure, keep us posted, look forward to catching up when you get to Melbourne

OMG! Now this is a road trip. Sounds like you've planned well. Now enjoy and lots of piccies please!
PS. Always up for a catchup and drink. My shout.

Thanks Novatec and Apal. Really looking forward to catching up in Melb.

Only one supercharger on the anticlockwise Syd - Mel route, so timing TBA !
.

 

[raynewman]

Hi Ray, Will get to city area around 4:30 Mon (having come from Clontarf) and will need to be at Indooroopilly (staying with John's friends) around 7pm. Are you able to suggest somewhere easy to get to? Timing to suit you in that window.

Will skip it this time; even tho Brissy is Sydney size, gets a little hectic late afternoon. Enjoy your trip.

 

[RichardMcN]

Will skip it this time; even tho Brissy is Sydney size, gets a little hectic late afternoon. Enjoy your trip.

No worries Ray, we'll catch up on our second lap.

 

[RichardMcN]

30 km south of Port Macquarie supercharger

 

[RichardMcN]

A few more piccies from the adventure, now that we're in Townsville with good internet after our beachfront paradise interlude.

Is this a wildlife bridge (near Coffs Harbour) ?

No explanation needed here...

Clarence River ferry diversion

UQ Chademo in Brissie - our last DC charge before Perth!

Cool vehicles at Latronics on the Sunshine Coast. Pick the Tesla Roadster, Outlander PHEV charging, Tessie charging and a white Prius in the background.

3 phase boards as far as the eye can see at Maryborough Showgrounds. They are OK to let you charge, but don't want to go on Plugshare as they are often closed or booked for scout camps etc and don't want people to over-depend on them.

How about that !

Will keep posting!

 

[PJF000]

Great photos! Especially the BB.

 

[RichardMcN]

Great photos! Especially the BB.

Yes BB is the icon of the NSW coast - maybe the icon of the whole Aust east coast!

We're off to Frosty Mango now 85 km north of Townsville which amazingly seems to have a pair of publicly available 3 phase 22kw Tesla chargers - pretty well the only ones north of the Sunshone Coast !

 

[NovoCasGreeny]

It is a wildlife bridge, I thought there were actually two in that section? I read about them when curiosity struck, they had some info on the Pacific Highway RMS upgrade page.

 

[RichardMcN]

It is a wildlife bridge, I thought there were actually two in that section? I read about them when curiosity struck, they had some info on the Pacific Highway RMS upgrade page.

Cool thx NovoCasGreeny. Yes there is another one some kilometres further north. I hate seeing dead wombats, so the more the merrier!

 

[jeffthewalker]

Great adventure Richard. You will probably beat me to do a circuit. In my LEAF I can only get in 200kms a day. And I am "resting" (unscheduled) in WA now since June and will get on my way again (clockwise) in September. We will definitely catch up somewhere along the way (or here in Perth). See my trip so far here.

 

[*KT*]

Fabulous idea. Loving the photos and commentary.
How fast could you conceivably drive to cairns from brisbane if you pushed it?

Which i know is not the point of EV driving but i need to let my sister know to end an argument on ice v ev we had last december.