Section 11b: Normanton – Croydon – Georgetown:
To complete our job in Normanton we quickly passed by the NSF to keep them informed.
Suddenly realizing we were running late on schedule to timely reach Croydon before noon time and to top-up batteries at the Croydon Council Workshop....
Only the colors were distinctly different once in a while....just outback...
And now and then some cattle were showing up...
Due to late departure at NSF we had to hurry to Croydon at max speed and made it at 11:50 AM to timely meet the person at the Council workshop. Plugging in using their 3ph 20A 5pin socket....nothing happened....the neutral pinhole wasn’t wired! They contacted another person at their welding and metal fabrication workshop, we headed there...same trouble...
Murphy was overactive....and there wasn’t a sparky around to overcome the trouble!
Of course...if we hadn’t driven at such high speeds we had more than enough battery to reach Georgetown...LOL
Keeping our heads cool we went to the Croydon Caravan Park to top-up enough energy to increase our range to “easily” reach Georgetown.
Crisis delivers opportunities so we had the time to take some good food at the Croydon Cafe and meanwhile figured out they also had some 3ph equipment at the Croydon Centre Supermarket but it was hard wired.
After a nice brainstorming the interim manager was convinced it would only cost them a little to install a AEVA/TOCA donated 3ph socket....and accepted the challenge but on condition the owners would agree.
Hummm, Teslas navigator gave a distance to Georgetown of about 140km and reaching close to Georgetown we felt confident we would be OK and decided to have a quick stop at the Cumberland Chimney Historic site and dam...
Some Jacanas to be spotted there!
However, back on the road we found out Georgetown centre was 10 km further than expected so we arrived with only 11km range left!
Murphy strikes again...all goodies come in 3!
Warren & Lydia from the Ampol petrol station and roadhouse had kindly prepared a 3ph 32A 5-pin socket for us to charge but also this one didn’t work due to issues with earthing.
Both were travelling but Warren took the time to find a miraculous solution for us which I prefer not to reveal to respect the person’s wishes.
Just in short, I quickly drove to Latara Motel where we had a reservation and dropped all luggages. While my spouse checked-in I went to our miraculous 3ph 10A 5p charging spot with 8km range left changed the connector tail for our Maxicharger EVSE to happily use this 10A outlet. With the night falling Electra had just enough time left to get a full charge the next morning for us to pursue our program.
A big thanks to the provider of this 10A spot!!!
We were aware that Latara Motel had 3ph power coming into their switchboard and explained them what happened to us and how beneficial it would be for future EV cars to be able to find a 3 ph socket at Latara with a potential of overnight tourism and extra restaurant usage. Katrina was very understanding and willing to get the sparky to come over and install a 3ph socket so we gave her a 3ph socket donated by AEVA/TOCA.
Latara Motel Restaurant serves some very nice meals and if you like some top quality beef as for their superb Wagyu beef! It comes supersized and I had enough for 2 meals!
To complete our job in Normanton we quickly passed by the NSF to keep them informed.
Suddenly realizing we were running late on schedule to timely reach Croydon before noon time and to top-up batteries at the Croydon Council Workshop....
Only the colors were distinctly different once in a while....just outback...
And now and then some cattle were showing up...
Due to late departure at NSF we had to hurry to Croydon at max speed and made it at 11:50 AM to timely meet the person at the Council workshop. Plugging in using their 3ph 20A 5pin socket....nothing happened....the neutral pinhole wasn’t wired! They contacted another person at their welding and metal fabrication workshop, we headed there...same trouble...
Murphy was overactive....and there wasn’t a sparky around to overcome the trouble!
Of course...if we hadn’t driven at such high speeds we had more than enough battery to reach Georgetown...LOL
Keeping our heads cool we went to the Croydon Caravan Park to top-up enough energy to increase our range to “easily” reach Georgetown.
Crisis delivers opportunities so we had the time to take some good food at the Croydon Cafe and meanwhile figured out they also had some 3ph equipment at the Croydon Centre Supermarket but it was hard wired.
After a nice brainstorming the interim manager was convinced it would only cost them a little to install a AEVA/TOCA donated 3ph socket....and accepted the challenge but on condition the owners would agree.
Hummm, Teslas navigator gave a distance to Georgetown of about 140km and reaching close to Georgetown we felt confident we would be OK and decided to have a quick stop at the Cumberland Chimney Historic site and dam...
However, back on the road we found out Georgetown centre was 10 km further than expected so we arrived with only 11km range left!
Murphy strikes again...all goodies come in 3!
Warren & Lydia from the Ampol petrol station and roadhouse had kindly prepared a 3ph 32A 5-pin socket for us to charge but also this one didn’t work due to issues with earthing.
Both were travelling but Warren took the time to find a miraculous solution for us which I prefer not to reveal to respect the person’s wishes.
Just in short, I quickly drove to Latara Motel where we had a reservation and dropped all luggages. While my spouse checked-in I went to our miraculous 3ph 10A 5p charging spot with 8km range left changed the connector tail for our Maxicharger EVSE to happily use this 10A outlet. With the night falling Electra had just enough time left to get a full charge the next morning for us to pursue our program.
A big thanks to the provider of this 10A spot!!!
We were aware that Latara Motel had 3ph power coming into their switchboard and explained them what happened to us and how beneficial it would be for future EV cars to be able to find a 3 ph socket at Latara with a potential of overnight tourism and extra restaurant usage. Katrina was very understanding and willing to get the sparky to come over and install a 3ph socket so we gave her a 3ph socket donated by AEVA/TOCA.
Latara Motel Restaurant serves some very nice meals and if you like some top quality beef as for their superb Wagyu beef! It comes supersized and I had enough for 2 meals!