After driving over 600km in seven hours today (and hitting a few hundred bugs) from…

…Yarragon in Victoria, we arrived in Tuross Head in NSW. We visited some friends for dinner and marvelled at the moon reflecting over the ocean in the distance. Charging: We had only charged briefly in our last stop in Bega, and ended with less than a third of a ”tank“. So, we charged overnight and morning in Tuross Head, using a standard 240V 10A power point. Slow, but easy.

Quick stop for a wee in Bega. Last stop before our destination in Tuross Head.

Charging: The same white bearded guy in the old blue MG was here again. We waited for him last time we passed through, months ago. When we arrived, he said his charging had slowed (to about 12kW), which happens when the battery charge gets above 92%. He still doesn’t seem to follow the “when charging slows, move on if someone is waiting” etiquette. A few minutes later he came back and said “it’s all yours”. Hat off to him for his persistence with his old EV. I think he said he only gets about 100km out of it (compared to over 300 or 500km of most modern EVs). He uses it to carry all sorts of farm supplies, including, I’ve heard, hay bails, soil and a pig! We only charged for about 10 min, while we went to the toilet. Just after we plugged in, another local showed up (I think in a BYD). He said that the white bearded guy says he can’t really charge at home because his solar doesn’t produce enough 🤔. Then we discussed the dilemma of the free charger from The NRMA: it’s great to get a…

Our stomachs demanded something more healthy than the donuts we had devoured in Sale.

We grabbed a couple of salad sandwiches in Orbost, and wandered past the giant metal bird sculpture. Charging: Since we were stopping anyway, we plugged into the “100% renewables powered” Chargefox charger in town. Easy.

Time for a loo stop. Found a nice rest area next to the channel, and the Big Bear Donuts…

…van! Charging: Since we’re stopping anyway, we might as well charge. So, we plugged into the Evie Networks charger, across the car park, next to the art gallery.

We stayed last night at a Rosewood Park Guest Suite, on a hill overlooking Yarragon…

…Victoria. We cooked up some (supplied) eggs and muffins for breakfast, grabbed a coffee (down the road in Yarragon), and hit the road. This morning we’re heading towards Tuross Head in NSW – 600km, 7 hours of driving, along the south east coast of Victoria. Charging: We’ll just charge along the way when we stop for lunch or the loo. There are at least two new charging sites along the way (Bairnsdale and Cann River) which weren’t there when we traveled in the reverse direction just a few months ago. The Tesla navigation is only aware of the Tesla chargers, so advises us to charge at Moe and Cann River, but we’ll skip them and instead use something else (non Tesla) wherever we end up stopping anyway (eg for lunch). We’ve turned off the “Trip Planner” option, so it doesn’t direct us to the Tesla superchargers, or precondition the battery along the way. But it tells us we’ll arrive in Tuross Head with -72% battery charge 😉. We’re confident to not really plan the stops, just be aware of…

We stopped briefly at Coles in Moe to get some milk.

Followed by Wednesday parma dinner special at the local Turfside Bistro Moe. Charging: We used the Tesla supercharger in the Coles car park to quickly top up (149kW peak speed), but not fill the battery. I noticed power points in the car park at the club. Moe Racing Club could easily add destination chargers to draw in the EV crowd.

Beautiful drive from Healesville, south past Blue Rock Lake.

Due to have a meeting with a client and Apple at 4pm. At 3:50 we spotted a picnic area turn off. Quickly set up a picturesque “office”, ready to get my head into work mode. Unfortunately, the cell reception dropped from three bars down to one by the lake. It was just enough to maintain the video call. Love the office decor.

We set off from our one night stay in Knoxfield Victoria, towards Tuross Head, back in…

…NSW. First we stopped in Mount Evelyn and Healesville to drive by a couple of houses for sale. Lunch was beautifully presented at Watts River Cafe and Store. Tom was thrilled with his favourite combination of chocolate cake, berry coulis and fresh fruit, on his birthday. Charging: We were nearly still fully charged from the destination charger at the cinema last night. But next time we’re in Healesville, Victoria, we’ll probably use the new Evie Networks charger that is being built just a two minute walk from the cafe ☺️

Off to see Barbie the Movie in Westfield Knox.

Charging: We haven’t charged since we left the motel in Euroa, so the battery is starting to get low. Free destination chargers on site at Westfield. Four hours was enough to have dinner, see the movie and fully charge the car. I extended the free parking from 3 to 4 hours by joining the Westfield membership promo, via a QR code displayed in the building. So, we were able to charge and park for free. All set for tripping again tomorrow towards Tuross Head, back in NSW.

Final leg of our trip to see a house in Yarra Junction.

Nice house and view of the mountain, but a bit close to the neighbours. We stayed last night at Castle Creek Motel, in Euroa. Dinner at the Euroa Pub. Lunch in Yarra Junction at Red Relish cafe with, as you might guess, a delicious red relish. Charging: We charged overnight using one of the motel’s two Tesla destination chargers. They are only 4kW (compared to typical 7kW or 11kW, but slightly better than a 2.4kW standard power point). Enough for us to fill up by morning. There is also an MG charger, which a PlugShare review implied is faster. They are all the same plug so are interchangeable anyway, I presume. The owner’s Tesla Model Y was parked next to the chargers when we arrived. He’s had it since January, and commented that he’s not happy that the range is less than stated, but acknowledges that’s the same, to different degrees, for all vehicles.

We diverted off the Hume Highway to grab lunch in one of our favourite towns…

…Yackandandah. Charging: Yackandandah is a small but progressive town, with its own Totally Renewable Yackandandah EV fast charger, operated through Chargefox. Since we are stopping for lunch anyway, we might as well charge up while we’re here.

We stopped briefly next to The Dog on the Tuckerbox, at Oliver's Real Food Gundagai.

We had just eaten Oliver’s for dinner last night, in Goulburn. Then on to The The Coffee Pedaler - Gundagai for coffee and cake. Charging: We played the “can we wee before the car is charged” game. The charger beat us again. The Chargefox chargers have moved to the front of Oliver’s. I wonder if that is to make way for more Tesla chargers at the back? One of the ChargeFox chargers appeared to be broken and one was in use. We decided not to take the third one in case a non Tesla EV needed it. We completed the red, white and blue of the Teslas. I asked Matt, at The Coffee Pedaler, if they’ve had any progress with his plan to install EV chargers. He said that NSW government doesn’t seem to be offering incentives, so he’s pursuing other options.

Sunday evening: First overnight stop, on this trip, at the Bakehouse Motel Goulburn.

Breakfast the next morning at the adjoining Trappers Bakery Goulburn, and continued the drive past the Cullerin Range Wind Farm. Charging: After checking with the manager, he suggested that we run a cord under the door of our room to the car. It’s weird and cool to be able to plug your car in next to your phone to charge. It worked a treat, without even needing an extension cord. But it would be better if motels had external power points for EVs. I expect that it was mostly powered by the extensive solar on the roof and the wind farm down the road.

Sunday afternoon: Started driving from the NSW Central Coast towards Yarra Junction in…

…Victoria, to look at a another house, on Tuesday. As you do 😉. Tonight we will stay somewhere around Goulburn.

We continued our search for a new home, this time looking again in Murray’s Beach. T

hen we popped down for a walk beside the Swansea Bridge, and then as cuppa and cake on Caves Beach. 24°C – much warmer than -2°C in Cooma a couple of weeks ago and 15°C near Melbourne a week before that.

While on the NSW Central Coast, we managed to catch up with our kids, and grandchild.

One is living and working in Hamilton Island, so Fran flew up there for a few days. Love you all 🥰

I drove to Sydney Airport to pick up Francis, coming back from Hamilton Island.

Found a convenient charging spot in a nearby suburb, to park while waiting for her plane to land. Charging: Since I had to wait anyway for the flight, I opted for the slower (and cheaper) 50kW charger, rather than the “ultra fast” 350kW. Our Tesla Model 3 RWD only does a max (briefly) of 170kW, and typically 50 to 100kW anyway.

Lunch at Killcare Beach Kiosk followed by a walk along the Bouddi Coastal Walk.

We arrived on the NSW Central Coast on Tuesday night, July 18.

A very generous friend, Margaret, offered us her villa while we’re staying here for a couple of weeks ☺️. Margaret is a bit of a legend in the EV community. She bought a Kona EV several years back and made the occasional road trip when there was less infrastructure than is now available for us. Other residents in Tarragal Glen Retirement Village started to take notice. One day they told her "did you see that Hugh Sykes up the road has bought a Tesla?" She thought she'd best go and meet the new EV owner on the block. They soon fell in love and got married! They now do a few speaking circuits to tell others the benefits of driving an EV. You can see their story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-20/electric-vehicle-romance-leads-to-myth-busting-talks-to-seniors/101233122 Charging: The villa comes with 5.9kW solar and a 7kW EV charger. So, whenever the car is parked here during the day, we just plug in, and set the max rate to a guess of 4kW (to allow for less winter sun) so the…

Finally got to dip my toes in the ocean again, at Terrigal Beach.

Then a walk along the boardwalk to Terrigal Haven for brunch at The Cove Cafe.

Last stop before reaching the Central Coast, at Pie in the Sky.

This used to be a favourite stop of ours when out for a ride on the motorbike. Great to take a spin in the Tesla along the familiar curves of the old Pacific Highway.

On the final leg of our trip, from Milton to the Central Coast today.

We stopped at the Berry Doughnut Van, then took the doughnuts to the Berry Showgrounds, to have a stretch and find a loo. I did spot in the Tesla’s sentry camera that Francis had already started on the doughnuts before I got back to the car! 😉. Doughnut cam! Charging: We probably could have charged at the showground or the Berry Tesla superchargers up the road at Silos Estate, but we didn’t bother since we had more than enough charge for the whole trip (from plugging into a normal power point overnight).

We're staying overnight in a unit in Milton.

Dinner in Ulladulla at Tony’s Italian Restaurant https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090048066600&mibextid=LQQJ4d Charging: Charged overnight using the power point in the laundry next to the parking space (with permission). Easy!

We headed east from Braidwood towards the coast, when Pooh Bear Corner.

Monga National Park caught our eye. Someone has set up a bunch of Winnie The Pooh characters in a cave by the road. Cute. A bit further down the road, we spotted a couple of fallen logs (one pictured) with more toys on them. Weird but cute.

We left the freezing foggy morning in Cooma, climbing above the clouds (well, the fog)…

…into the sunshine. We decided to head for Milton, on the east coast, near Ulladulla. We entered it into the Tesla navigation and proceeded along the “fastest route”. But the maps don’t seem to tell you what kind of road to expect along a particular route. Initially, I laughed at the sign we passed that read something like “No petrol for 160km”. Then we passed by some grading work on a dirt road stretch, where I thought the driver waved, but later thought maybe he was pointing to say “go back”. The navigation showed 97km along this road before the next required turn off. The dirt roads probably went for 60km of the trip. We only passed a handful of vehicles. As it turned out, the road was pretty good, dirt and all. We’ve been on much worse. The issue is just not knowing, along the way, if the road will deteriorate, so you should turn around. We arrived in Braidwood at the end of it. Time for lunch. Delicious crepes at Provisions Deli & Creperie with charming French speaking staff.…

Monday morning: We visited the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre.

Very interesting wide screen video presentation, models, and other exhibits. Amazing how we can generate electricity from rainfall and melting snow. Charging: The EV chargers on site are very convenient and are powered by hydro. We filled up for under $12.

Cold start to the day in Cooma.

Ice on the car. From the app, we preheated the car before the morning coffee run. The cold reduced the tyre pressures from 42 to 38 psi, until the car got moving. Charging: While getting coffee, I parked at the Tesla supercharger in Cooma for a few minutes. It would normally charge at around 100kW. But, due to the cold, it started at only 25kW, increasing slowly as it heated the battery. I did enter the charger as the destination earlier, so the car could precondition the battery, but it seems to only do that while driving, not while parked before I left the accommodation. Looking at the stats of our trip since our previous charge (in Cooryong), where we had driven across Kosciusko National Park, I noticed that we had used 38% battery climbing mountains, but had regained 30% descending those mountains. Free charging from gravity!

Venturing from Corryong to Khancoban, we decided to keep going east, through the Snowy…

…Mountains along the Alpine Way, past Thredbo to Jindabyne. The road has signs that require all two wheel drive cars to carry snow chains. So we hired some from Khancoban, which could be returned in Jindabyne (“one way hire”). In the end, we never actually had to fit them, since all the roads were cleared. We stopped a few times along the way, including a rest stop next to the origin of the Murray River (pictured). I left the cap/cup from my thermos on one of the garden border markers near the toilet block, so I wouldn’t drop it as we clambered down to the river. But I forgot about it as we walked back to the car and drove off 🤦‍♂️. If you happen to be driving past Mount Kosciusko, please keep an eye out for it 😉. We returned the snow chains on the other side of Mount Kosciusko at in Jindabyne. The service stations were packed with people queuing for petrol, I guess on the last day of the school holidays. Charging: Our last serious charge was back in Yackandandah. We topped up about…

We stopped in Corryong, heading towards Mount Kosciusko.

We shared lunch at The Black Sheep, with a couple of black sheep watching. Charging: While parked anyway, we prefer to charge when we can. Unfortunately, no fast chargers in town Corryong, Victoria. We parked at the Corryong Show showground down the road from town, and plugged into one of the 5 pin sockets, available there for free. We used our 5 pin adapter with our Tesla UMC (universal mobile connector), but that’s limited to use only one phase, at 32A, 7kW. That’s quite slow. If we had a three phase connector, we could get 3 x 16 = 48A, 12kW, about 50% faster. I wish we could buy a 32 pin adapter for our type 2 cable (which is 3 phase), rather than buying yet another cable. All this was just nerdy testing. We didn’t need the charge to make our trip. We only plugged in for an hour while we ate and walked through town. As Ludicrous Feed would say, ABC – Always Be Charging.

Driving from Yackandandah, along Lake Hume, through Tangambalanga, Tallangatta and…

…Shelley, Victoria, just south of the border, towards Corryong.

We stayed Saturday night at the Motel Views Yackandandah.

I think this is the only place where we’ve stayed twice, in our road tripping. Lovely spot and host (Jackie). For dinner, we ate Thai from Grace’s Place Café. Great food but ordering is a challenge. Maps and TripAdvisor show a website link that doesn’t exist. There’s no online ordering. Phone goes to voicemail. I was lucky enough to have them reply to a text message. Cash only payment. Brekky at Beechworth Bakery. Choice of pies, toasties and wraps. We strolled through the town, checked out the markets, ferrets and patted numerous dogs. Charging: Last time we were here, we plugged into a power point next to the host’s residence. This time, we used the town’s fast charger while we had a stroll through town. We didn’t really need to charge, but since we were parked anyway, it made sense to do so.

We made it to Bright. Absolutely stunning town by the Ovens River.

Picturesque walks abound, caffeine options aplenty and it was cold enough for Tom to wear shoes! Love to come back in the summer and watch people tackle the rapids of the river. We enjoyed a scrumptious American style burger (so named because of the orange coloured plastic cheese therein) and crunchy curly fries. We have taken to going halves for lunch, partly to cut costs and also …….. we’re getting too fat!!!! Charging: We used PlugShare to find that there is an Evie Networks charger in town, five minute walk from cafes and the river walks.

Driving from Eskdale to Bright, in country Victoria, through the morning fog.

Such greenery. Hard to believe there were devastating bush fires in the region just a few years ago. Alpine forests cover mountain after mountain. Great to see them replanted and harvested side by side. I didn’t realise that cows could read, let alone obey signs. That is impressive!

Friday afternoon: We looked on Airbnb for somewhere to stay near Bright.

Our search showed a homestead in a farm “nearby”. So, we booked it. Rookie mistake: it was in Eskdale, about an hour and a half drive from Bright. Our second mistake was thinking we had booked two nights when in fact we had only booked one – an error we didn’t realise until the next morning when we received a goodbye message from our host, as we were driving to Bright for the day, with all of our stuff still back in the accommodation. A U-turn, quick pack up, and an hour more driving, and we were back on track. I say “quick”, but we also couldn’t get the key to work in the door, so I had to climb in a window. Charming stay, in a valley, with long valley views, cows over the fence and green as far as the eye can see. Our hosts left us a cheese platter, bread, cupcakes which made for a lovely night in. Charging: At our host’s suggestion, we plugged the car in overnight to a standard outlet on the outside of the laundry wall, which gave us a full “tank” ready to go the next morning. Easy.

Quick stop in Myrtleford for some fruit and dinner supplies (ok, maybe also chocolate).

We needed to stop for a few minutes to get better organised and to stretch my legs, so we drove a bit further up the road to the Tesla supercharger in the town of Ovens.

Lunch stop at The Mountain View Hotel in Whitfield.

Great food and service. Unexpectedly beautiful spot. Charging: It would have been great to charge while parked here anyway. Unfortunately, this venue doesn’t have an EV charger. I realised later that there is a winery and restaurant just down the road, with Tesla destination chargers, which would have made a better stop to eat and charge at the same time

“We’re going to Bonnie Doon 🎶”

We finally dropped by Bonnie Doon, to see why the Kerrigan family in The Castle loved it so much. It has a caravan park, three old churches, a couple of eateries and absolute river frontage!

Stopping at Marmalades in Yea for a cuppa and passionfruit sponge cake.

When we pulled into the car park, it looked like one of the cars had an overheated radiator, with steam coming out from under the hood. But we soon realised it was a Tesla (no radiator), and the steam was from some noodles they were prepping from the frunk (front trunk). Charging: Boringly easy. We parked, plugged into the Tesla supercharger, and walked away to get coffee. No credit card, app or fumes (except the noodles).

After an early start dropping off Erin at the airport, we started heading north.

Francis had survived for over an hour without a coffee, so she asked her iPhone Maps for the closest good coffee place. Only 9 minutes away! Unfortunately, as we hurtled along the highway, by the time we processed all that, we must have passed the turnoff, so then maps was telling us to go back south along the highway for 15 minutes. We got there in the end, to That Coffee Shop, in Coburg North. Very entertaining coffee signs on the toilet wall. After coffee and breakfast, we headed north east, towards Yea, passing through some lush green countryside along Strath Creek.

Time for another road trip!

Should we head west (towards Broken Hill or maybe Adelaide) or east (through Bright and maybe Jindabyne)? We need to end up on the NSW Central Coast by Tuesday 18th July. Leaving Melbourne this Friday morning (probably). We also need to find accommodation in the Central Coast for a week or two from July 18th. So, if you know anyone who needs house sitting or similar, please let us know ☺️

Random job to transport a bicycle, plus extra electric wheel, for a friend.

It fit no problem, with the back seat down. We plan to one day buy a couple of e-bikes. I suspect we will investigate a rear rack for the car, rather than stuff them in the back. Our Model 3 is sleek and quick, but doesn’t have as much boot room as say the Tesla Model Y.

Date night at the Lunar Drive-In in Dandenong, Melbourne, to see the new Indiana Jones…

…movie 🎥 . Great fun! Bit of a queue to get food (it comes in all the yellows: burger 🍔, chips 🍟, jam filled donuts etc), but well managed by the friendly door staff. Quite a chilly night 🥶. Most people in puffer jackets or thick pyjamas and dressing gowns. Several brought their furry friends 🐶, and were happy to have a pat. This is reportedly the largest outdoor cinema in Australia. Sadly, it is closing in a week from now due to high land taxes 😢. We typed the FM radio frequency into the Tesla screen and enjoyed the movie playing through a great sound system. I added another profile to the Tesla for “Drive-in cinema”, with the seats in the reclining position, climate set to “camp mode”, the air con at a comfortable 21°C. Very thankful to have an EV, so we can keep the air con on, without having to run an engine. Everyone else, in appropriately named ICE cars, had their puffer jackets and beanies on, in their cars (which can also be fun).

Today we drove out through the towns of Woodend and Kyneton, Victoria.

Beautiful towns, even on a cold windy day. We’re still looking for a possible new home. We looked at one house at Kyneton Bushland Resort. Another house had 14kW of solar panels, a Tesla Powerwall house battery and a Tesla EV charger. Lunch at Home Grown on Piper was delicious. We bumped into the owners of a blue Tesla Model Y with the licence plate BEM3UP (“beam me up”) at one of the houses and at the Kyneton charger. Of course we discussed Star Trek 🖖. Also had a brief chat with Tony, on a ride on his electric Harley Davison LiveWire, with his other biker mates. Charging: Kyneton and Woodend each have a 50kWh DC fast charger by Evie Networks. Disappointingly only one at each location, which can create queuing. We were only plugged in for a few minutes while using the adjacent toilet, so we were finished anyway when the next person arrived. We’ve been trying out the beta version of Evie’s new app, which is improving. But this one seemed to lack a “Stop Charging” button, so I…

Any excuse for a drive. We picked up some friends from Melbourne Airport and drove them…

…down to Mornington. We did it mostly on Autopilot, so I can’t really claim that I drove. On the way back, we checked out the view, through the rain, at Olivers Hill Lookout, near Frankston. Charging: We left this morning with 100% charge after plugging into a standard power point overnight in the garage where we’re staying. It’s so easy to leave each day with a full ”tank”. We popped by the Tesla Superchargers in Mornington, in the car park of a shopping centre. Very convenient while we had lunch, but we didn’t really need to charge.

Today we journeyed out to Warburton Victoria, partly to look for a possible place to…

…live, but also to check out the area. Lovely town, with a river and walking trails running in parallel with the main street. Beautiful walks, vegetation and bridges. Charging: The only charging option around seems to be paid Tesla destination chargers at the Warburton Holiday Park. We didn’t bother, because it’s a fair bit away from the town hub, and requires access through reception.

When your iPhone starts telling you that you’ve burnt less kilojoules than previous…

…weeks, it’s time to get out for a walk. The iPhone is so judgy! We drove out to Lillydale Lake and walked the loop. Beautiful walk on a sunny day. Lunch at the Round Bird cafe. Delicious hearty veg soup and toasted sandwich. Charging: The only charger in Lillydale seems to be at Middy's Electrical. There was a Nissan Leaf plugged in when we checked it out. Surprising that there are no other chargers in such a big town Lillydale Council Offices.

We haven’t cleaned the car since re-entering Victoria (again) many weeks ago. S

o, we used the drive-through Bayswater North Carwash, put the Tesla in “Car Wash Mode” and sat back while the robots did the work 🤖.

I stumbled across this beautiful lyrebird mural in Ferntree Gully, Victoria.

It started as a chalk outline (not pictured) which I guessed was an octopus, much to the dismay of the very talented artist Juzpop. I checked in each morning to marvel at the progress. Juz paints murals as a full time gig. I’ll be looking out for her other works. We’ve been trying out the local takeaway coffee shops. There are quite a few options, including Larder and Thyme and Station Street Coffee Co. Charging: The JOLT Charge charger is in a great central spot. 20 minutes charge gives a free 7kWh of energy. At only 20kW, it’s a slow DC charger, but it’s convenient and initially free. Perfect amount of time to grab coffee and something from IGA Ferntree Gully. The app now shows the countdown of the free 7kWh. Today, the charger was slower (11 -14kW) than usual (20kW). I wonder why 🤔. Also, free wifi from Telstra.

Up early this morning for a road trip to check out Castlemaine, Victoria.

We went to the movies tonight at HOYTS Australia in Forest Hill, Melbourne.

There happened to be an EV charger in the car park, so, why not charge up, for free, while we watch the movie ☺️. The second allocated spot, where I parked, is oddly crammed in between a pillar and wall. It’s BYO cable, which I had. I just had to cross over the first car’s cable, plug in, press start, and walk away. Easy so far, right! When we returned after the movie, I forgot about the crossover, and spent two minutes trying to unplug the wrong cable. It wasn’t until I was on the Chargefox support phone line that Francis pointed out my mistake 🤦‍♂️. Then I thought I’d redeem my tech wizardry, by using Summon from the Tesla app to move the car forward, so I could open the doors for my passengers. But I stopped it when the driver’s door was right next to the pillar and then couldn’t get it moving again. I had to squeeze through the gap, and drive the car forward manually, like a Neanderthal. Now, my tech cred is pretty low.