NSW South Coast + Bright 2023

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.

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).

“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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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…

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!

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.

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.…

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'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!

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).

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.

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.

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…

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

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.

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 🥰

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

More cruising around Tuross Head.

Made our gourmet peanut butter and banana on toast for brekky. Bought coffee from the local Lure Cafe Tuross. Found different office views from which to work. Stalked the local kangaroos at dusk.

Day trip from Tuross Head to Narooma, on the NSW south coast.

Beautiful clear water under Narooma Bridge. Thai lunch special by the water’s edge. Watching the sea lion and stingray near the boat ramp.

Starting our trip back from Tuross Head in NSW to Victoria.

First stop at a service station to clean the windscreen, and _not_ buy petrol. A quick stop in Bega for a coffee and free top up electric charge. A rest stop in Timbillica to expel the digested coffee. Our first time stopping at Cann River, to use the new Tesla superchargers and try out the pies (recommended by Daniel Rond). Beautiful and convenient place to stop. The charging was finished before we were.

Arrived in Lakes Entrance, Victoria.

We had been thinking about the Big Bear Donuts from a week ago at the donut van in Sale. So, in transit today, Fran preordered donuts from their shop in Lakes Entrance, for pickup at the Tesla navigation’s predicted arrival time. High pressure driving! We may have a problem 🍩. We stayed in a great cabin at the Eastern Beach Holiday Park. I caught up on a little bit of work (and wine). We chatted to the couple in the cabin next door, who also had an EV. They were on their way from Tasmania to family on the NSW Central Coast, in Empire Bay, just across the water from where we used to live. Charging: I asked Kathy at reception if we could charge the car from one of the vacant caravan sites, right in front of our cabin. She was very helpful and friendly, saying this was their first EV charging request. She rang the owner to check. I scheduled charging to start after 10pm, to reduce the peak load. At 15A (3.6kW), it was pretty perfect to have us ready to go in the morning with a full…