We found a couple of creative ways to find relief from the 36°C heat today

1. Road trip to Warburton to wade in the cleanish start of the Yarra River.

2. Drive 1.2km above sea level near Mount Donna Buang, where the temperature dropped to 24°C.

The river in Warburton was popular today. Many people set up with floating tubes, shade tents, picnics. We grabbed lunch nearby at BT Dubs Cafe.

It’s hard to find a good view from the road around Mount Donna Buang. The best spot was this launch pad, presumably for hang-gliders, down a long narrow gravel road that leads to Healesville. No place to park and barely enough room for another car to pass. Luckily we only passed two other cars along that entire road. Beautiful drive.

No worries about our engine overheating because, well, the EV doesn’t have an engine 😉. When we arrived back home, the bonnet feels no hotter than the ambient temperature.

Charging:

We have the standard (lowest) range Tesla Model 3. We can drive about 420km on a full battery. We don’t even really think about charging.

We left home in Emerald with about 85% battery, all from solar power. On the way home, descending the mountain we gained about 6% charge from regenerative braking.

There are public chargers in Healesville, Yarra Glen, Warburton and other places, but we don’t need them. We returned home and just plugged in, so the solar power could keep charging our EV for free.