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Welcome to the adventures of Tesla Dripping
Welcome back to the adventures of Tesla Dripping. After finding no toilet at the Stellendam Marina or adjacent bird sanctuary, we checked Maps for the nearest toilets. We took a drive to Ouddorp, eleven minutes away. What is it with the lack of public toilets in The Netherlands? We found the “WC” in town. Is more of a port-a-loo, but must be a permanent fixture. We used the opportunity to buy some road tripping supplies from the grocer and Hema: forks, knives, cutting board, a coffee mug with “F” for Francis, and some fridge meals. Oh, and a new thermos! It was an adventure getting out of town, since the only way known to maps was blocked by road works. We did a few laps of the narrow streets. Pretty town and fun day, despite the crossed legs. Our B&B had a microwave. For lunch we nuked the leftover croissant, ham and cheese from breakfast. For dinner we had the fridge meals, while watching the Cluney/Pitt movie “Wolfs”.
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Bird-watching at Stellendam
A short trip out from our B&B accommodation to the bird watching “egg” near the Stellendam Marina. I briefly spotted what I think was a giant eagle, but missed the photo. Plenty of other birds, including swans. I was saddened to see that blackberry bushes seem to have taken over the bush here, like it’s trying to do in our home region in the Dandenong Ranges of Victoria, and our garden. The Tesla’s navigation (driven by Google Maps) gave us some unnecessarily complex directions at one point. Public toilets were again nowhere to be found, in the reserve or at the marina. Our bladders are having range anxiety.
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A dyke-side B&B in Hellevoetsluis
We arrived late yesterday at this gorgeous B&B Logement Hellevoetsluis. We’re near the southern edge of The Netherlands. Unsurprisingly, it sits on a dyke. The road into town, to grab some takeaway dinner, was just wide enough for one car, with a canal either side. We were welcomed by our host, Carla, and sidekick Ted (the dog). Delicious breakfast included, in the dining room with artistic mural walls.
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A quick stretch in Rotterdam
Second stop on our trip south, at Rotterdam. Just long enough to stretch our legs with a short walk around town, and grab a coffee.
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Leaving the boat house, off to Italy
Time to leave our boat house in the canal, and start our road trip towards Switzerland and Italy. Packed the car, with charging cable and laundry in the frunk. Gave it a “service”, which for an EV just means topping up the washer fluid 😉. While packing the car, I happened to see the local rubbish truck, which is fully electric! Much quieter. First stop for lunch with Helen in Zaandam, under the green municipal building.
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A mobile Tesla office in Vianen
A trip out to Vianen, in The Netherlands. Francis and Helen met up with their aunt and cousin. Tom found a quiet place to do some work in the mobile Tesla office. Several canals, opening bridges and lochs around town. The UFODRIVE car rental included a parking dial, which we have to place on the dashboard when parking in a spot marked with a blue line.
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A Holland beach dinner that felt like home
Dinner on the beach, in Holland, but it feels a lot like home in Australia. Our last meal all together, before we head off south tomorrow. Nico explained that they set up temporary dwellings along the beach here each year, then collapse and pack them away during the storm surge season. With climate change, the average sea level hasn’t risen much yet, but the storm surges have grown significantly. The giant sand dunes behind the dwellings require ongoing increased building. And there are smaller sand dunes in rows behind, using a similar principle to the dykes. The country invests a lot to manage its relationship with water. Hundreds of wind turbines, off shore.
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Family reunion at Hansel & Gretel pancake house
Everything you want in a restaurant, including: a shower in the middle of the foyer, hidden tunnels through bookcases, slide down to the toilets, jumping pillows, giant animatronic puppets, general craziness. Pancakes came with a wide range of savoury and sweet fillings, including: ham, pineapple, egg, apple. This was the first time Francis has met her uncles (her dad’s brothers) and their families (except for Jordy and family a few days ago). It was wonderful and a bit overwhelming to meet them all. Earlier that day, we visited Sandra’s mum, for a delicious morning tea of cakes, followed by soup and croquettes. Life’s too short, so eat dessert first!
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Rainy Amsterdam, with home-made desserts in the boat house
Maybe a canal cruise today in Amsterdam? The rain started. Ah, no. How about the Van Gogh museum? The rain started hammering down, with accompanying wind. Ah, no. How about staying in the boat house and house boat and enjoying home made dessert by Sandra and dinner by Nico? Ah, yes! Our boat house started creaking during the night as it rubbed against the wharf buffers. A slow drip started from the sun roof, expertly caught by a glass with tissues in it. We started singing “Six nights in a leaky boat” 🎶
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A canal-side work session, and the Artis zoo
We drove into Amsterdam. Tom caught up on some work in the mobile Tesla office, next to the canal, while Fran and sister Helen visited the “Artis” zoo.
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Cherry beer in Stein with cousin Jordy
Late afternoon drinks at a cute pub in Stein. It was a total pleasure to meet up with Fran and Helen’s cousin Jordy, wife Linda and son Toby. Tom tried out the local cherry beer. The road in front of the pub is only really suitable for bikes. We found out the hard way when I tried to turn around after dropping off passengers. Then back to our newly met cousin’s house nearby. Toby came with us in the Tesla. He drove… the buggy driving game after we arrived. Then we met the fourth member of the family, Billy 🐶, who was super excited to see us. Helen requested reading of some Dutch childhood books, such as “The very hungry caterpillar”. Beautiful family, home and delicious Greek dinner. Time to say goodbye, after the Tesla light and sound show, including writing “Tesla” on the neighbour’s garage door.
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A boat-house lawn, against the joke
A quiet day on the canal, back in our boat house and house boat. As a child I used to retell the joke “how did the houseboat owner die? They drowned, mowing the lawn”. But it turns out that our boat house does have some lawn! It’s a small strip on the dyke between our boat’s small wharf and the narrow brick paved road. You might notice some dirt mounts on the lawn – that’s from moles, which burrow in the dyke. The lawn has an embedded small noisemaker, which sounds like a rattlesnake, to deter the moles. It doesn’t seem to be working. It did make us take notice, however, the first time we heard it. We make sure to look both ways when stepping through our gate into the shared road in the dyke. There are plenty of bikes, e-bikes, mopeds, pedestrians. The occasional car leaves room for nothing else. Helen and Francis try to befriend every passing cat and dog. Tom marvels at the engineering of keeping the small canals functioning and clear. We spotted a few robot lawnmowers that dwarf…
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The 'outback' of Holland
We made it to the outback… of Holland, according to the sign. We drove across a land bridge, past countless wind turbines, on and off shore. Holland is reliant on energy to keep pumping the water uphill, to the ocean, over a series of dykes. Without power, the land would drown. In some places, the land is eight meters below sea level 😳.
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Deventer's slowly sinking church
Coffee and then lunch in Deventer (in The Netherlands). An old church in the center of town is slowly sinking on one side. Beautiful old shops, streets and a large canal. Distracting toilet wall art. We checked out of our accommodation in Nunspeet this morning. We packed a breakfast to go for Tom, since he was in a work meeting in the Tesla (with colleagues in Australia). We were immediately reminded of the narrow town streets when we realised that the reversing semi trailer in front of us blocked the only way out of this section of town. Nico and Tom parked the cars and spent the next twenty minutes directing traffic while the truck driver reversed a few hundred meters around tight bends.
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Coffee in Oude Haven, before home
Final stop, in Oude Haven, District 00, for coffee and an explore, before returning to our boat house in Krommenie.
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Walking the alleyways of Elburg
Explored the streets, alleyways and canals of the fishing village of Elburg. Semi public urinal next to the car park. But I want that desperate.
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A short hike in Veluwezoom National Park
a short hike through the Veluwezoom National Park. Long haired cows, but we didn’t see the expected deer. We had just missed peak heather bloom, but some purple remained. The lookout is barely elevated, so I climbed onto the brickwork to photograph the family. I viewed the Dutch sign through Google Translate, but it was pretty standard instructions. Topped off with lunch at the onsite cafe. Lots of bikes and cycle paths.
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Ice cream in Nunspeet, and double-decker bike racks
A wander through the town of Nunspeet to get an ice cream. Sandra showed me how the double storey bike racks work at the commuter station. I marvelled at the housing styles, with tall roofs, embedded with extra rooms and probably skinny stairs. Some thatched roofs using dried reeds (I think), which I’m told increase insurance costs due to fire risk. Lots of houses with solar panels. There’s a deer park in the middle of town, which seems to be for the use of the neighbourhood. Cute. And, of course, cycle paths everywhere.
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Popping over to Aachen for lunch
Let’s pop over the border to Germany 🇩🇪, for lunch, as you do. And we’ll check out the Aachen Cathedral while we’re there. Wow. Huge. Old. Shiny. Car park: Small. Grey. Just enough room for the Tesla Model Y.
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A-frame cabins back in the Netherlands
After lunch in Germany 🇩🇪, we crossed back into The Netherlands 🇳🇱, driving north to Nunspeet. We’re staying at a kind of cabin park, in one of the neat A frame buildings. Steep stairs and tall buildings seem common. Most have solar panels. Our resident cook and cousin Nico keeps dishing up delicious meals, like this bolognese. I still can’t get over the morning option of various sugar on bread.
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A day trip into Maastricht
Day trip into nearby Maastricht to pick up Sandra (who caught the train from Amsterdam) and to explore the town. I (Tom) temporarily lost Francis and Helen, and was wandering up and down the street looking. A waiter noticed me and asked “what have you lost”, looked down and said “your shoes?”. After a couple of quizzical or disapproving looks from cafe patrons, I went back to the Tesla to grab my shoes. But, when again squeezing through the eating strip, an older lady moved aside and quipped in Dutch something like “after you, shorts”. For the record, many people were wearing shorts. I can’t win. Croquettes (again) for lunch, with a salad, at one of the many cafes. Yum. With the scarcity of public toilets, we’re learning to make use of the cafe facilities. The first big language error wasn’t mine, surprisingly. Francis, who knows a fair bit of Dutch from her childhood household, somehow managed to end up in the men’s toilet. She emerged to ask me what I was doing in there. I just…
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Country roads east of Maastricht, in a Jaguar i-Pace
The four of us continued our day trip out in Nico’s Jaguar i-Pace, through the country roads east of Maastricht. Even way out here, there are bikes and bike lanes everywhere. The roads have clear markings for the bike lanes each way, leaving the middle to be shared by cars. It’s a very tight squeeze in places. And then, they throw in the tractors! Second stop for “vlaai”. A traditional sweet pie from this province (Limburg). Cherry was delicious.
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Mornings on a houseboat
September 13 - 18: A short 50m walk along the canal each morning to breakfast, on the houseboat of our generous hosts/cousins Nico and Sandra. There are canals, creeks, bridges and dykes everywhere. This dyke has a path with a constant stream of pedestrians, bikes, e-bikes, electric motorbikes, and some petrol powered (which seem so antiquated, noisy and smelly when they go by). Breakfast is usually home baked bread, cheese, thin sliced cold meats, various “cultural” sugar toppings for bread. Nico built the houseboat on to of a rectangle U shaped concrete shell. It floats just from the water displacement (Archimedes principle), not foam. They have two electric cars: A Jaguar i-Pace, and a Fiat 500 (pictured). They charge from the outlet next to their houseboat, right on the canal.
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The American war memorial near Maastricht
So many fallen soldiers at the American war memorial. It's hard to imagine how terrible it would have been to live in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries during Nazi occupation, or to spend years fighting to kill fellow humans. The show “Masters of the Air” depicts the bombing runs of US soldiers from the UK over Europe. I expect that some of the people who died in that show are buried here. One of the final scenes shows the US Air Force dropping food packages to war torn and starving residents in the Netherlands, a story which Francis’s mum experienced first hand.
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Lunch in three countries in a day
Final destination today: the intersection of The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. We had lunch in Belgium and patted a dog (of course), found a toilet in The Netherlands and checked out the forest in Germany.
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A failed-charging cautionary tale
A failed charging story. We’re heading off on a road trip through the Netherlands for a few days. We’ve been parking near our boat home, but hadn’t yet made use of the nearby charger. When I finally got my act together to plug in our Tesla, I couldn’t find any tap option on the machine for the payment card that UFODRIVE provided. I tried the QR code on the charger to get the app, but it isn’t available for an Australian AppStore account. I checked the UFODrive app for another nearby charging station. I tried to share the location with the Tesla (like I can do from the Tesla app), but it doesn’t offer that option. I shared to Apple Maps and watched my iPhone as I drove around looking for it, but couldn’t find it. Some hours later, when we were about to depart, Nico (a local) pointed out that there was a tap to pay panel on the back of the machine 🤦.
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Borrowing Nico's Jaguar i-Pace
On our way from Krommenie to Maastricht. We picked up Nico’s Jaguar i-Pace. Very swish. 0 to 100km/h in about 3.5s. Luxury interior trim. Neat console. It has fast DC charging but only does 3.6kW AC charging (compared to our Tesla’s 11kW). It’s about twice the cost of our base Tesla Model 3 at home. Jaguar had it for a few days to replace the battery. This is the first real example I’ve seen of someone actually needing to replace their EV battery, despite all the hype about it from naysayers. Fortunately, it was all covered under warranty. Our first stop was in Breukelen at a service center. Well, we actually stopped at two of these, because of mixed up convoy instructions. Next to the Shell petrol station here is a FastNed charging bay, with solar panels on the roof. Most service centres seem to have these, which is terrific. It kills me to stop for fuel like this. Stopping specifically for fuel (charging) is something I try to avoid. I prefer to just charge when I’m parked for some…
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Lunch at La Place, watching wind turbines
Stopped for lunch at La Place. Tasty fresh food and smoothies. Cruising along the highways we see many wind turbines, and some coal power stations. Each wind turbine takes a very small piece of land, and can be surrounded by cows, picnic areas etc. The coal plants sit in a bit of an industrial waste land. Coal pits poor toxic dust into the air, and burning it creates more. It’s great to see the transition away from the polluting fossil fuels.
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Scandinavian-style huts in Gulpen
We arrived at our accommodation in Gulpen, near Maastricht, our home for the next few days. Cute Scandinavian style huts, surrounded be green rolling hills. Steep stairs. Some huts dug into the hillside, with vegetation on the roof, like a Hobbit town. Our first lost in translation moment. At dinner, Francis ordered a lemonade, which was interpreted as red cordial. The after dinner mint came with its own gavel, to break it up for us all to share.
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The windmill village at Zaanse Schans
Out for a drive in our rental Tesla, to the windmill village at the Zaanse Schans. Fran’s sister, Helen, has joined us, flying in from Australia yesterday. Their parents immigrated to Australia from Holland when Helen was seven and Fran was two months before birth. Our cousins opted out of the touristy outing. As tourists ourselves, we loved it. Interesting to see the wooden cogs and engineering used to harness the wind power to roll 3000kg stone wheels. Our own 2000kg wheels (the Tesla), waited in the car park, charged up earlier from the much larger wind turbines that dot the Netherlands. We were surprised to find that the only public toilet here has a couple of attendants to ensure that you pay by credit card to go through the turnstile. I can’t imagine that the €1 entry fee covers the overhead of ensuring that you pay. It’s just weird.
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Spotting Marvin's Dutch cousin, 'Henk'
Continuing our day trip with a stop for lunch at a marina. Delicious Dutch crocettes and a salad. We wandered along the wharf and spotted Marvin’s (our robot mower) Dutch cousin, “Henk” the Husqvarna mower. Now that’s confidence, mowing on a dyke, next to a canal. I am missing the Tesla app. The UFODRIVE rental car does not come with connection through the Tesla app or with a Tesla card. Instead, everything must be done through the supplied UFODRIVE app. It is not a proper native mobile app, with strange and slow UI navigation. Today it took several attempts to unlock the car to drive it, while I was in it.
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Up the dyke stairs to Volendam
Final stop on our day trip through some tourist hot spots. We parked the Tesla in the neighbourhood streets of Volendam, then climbed the stairs between the houses in the dyke (I guess from below sea level) to the tourist strip overlooking the marina. Poffertjes (tiny Dutch pancakes) were quickly consumed.
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Making olliebollen with Nico, finally
When we entered Netherlands border security a few days ago, they asked my purpose of visit, to which I (Tom) answered "olliebollen". Now that purpose has been fulfilled! Nico taught Francis how to make it. The literal translation from Dutch to English is “oily balls”. It is like deep fried bread pudding, or hot cross buns, but more delicious. Francis befriended a neighbourhood cat, which then managed to make its way to the deck on the house boat, much to Nico’s dismay.
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An electric Fiat 500 to a Dutch nature reserve
Our host/cousin, Sandra, took us for an afternoon drive in her electric Fiat 500, out to a nature reserve where we came across a few deer, a burnt orange wrapped Tesla Model 3, some automated weed grabber (to clear the lake), and a pancake house. I am learning to use Google Translate to look at signs to automatically translate the text. Clever app. Sandra bought her Fiat 500 EV second hand a month ago. She loves it. It’s a compact two door that still managed to leave a Porsche for dead at the traffic lights.
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Trains, bikes and salted herring in Amsterdam
We drove our rental Tesla Model Y from our boat house to a nearby station, and caught the train into Amsterdam. It really is the city of bikes. And canal boats, and trams, and peanut butter, cheese, mayonnaise on chips, salted herring with pickle, weed, and a fancy cookie. And so many bikes. Did I mention bikes? Many more than cars. If the bikes were replaced with cars, they would not fit. Much better use of space, and better health. People of all ages riding bikes, carrying kids, food, cargo. People dressed well, just riding bikes. The Holocaust memorial was quite sobering. It stated one purpose to remind us to never do that again. It’s very said that we haven’t learned that lesson today.
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13 hours to Amsterdam, with extending headrests
Second flight: 13 hours from Singapore to Amsterdam. More good food and service from Singapore Airlines. I don’t know how people manage to sleep on planes. But it wasn’t until after we landed that we discovered that the head rests extend 🤦. Just after breakfast, we descended into the Netherlands. At security, when asked for our reason for visit, Tom replied “olliebollen”, but the officer didn’t look amused. While waiting for our bags at the carousel, we checked on our home. The doorbell camera showed our front yard and the sounds of birds singing. Marvin the Mower’s all seeing eyes showed the back yard. We surrendered our apple and banana and entered the country. Now to find our rental Tesla Model Y from UFODRIVE.
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Two hours sorting UFODRIVE, after 30 hours of flights
After thirty hours in planes and airports, we spent the next two hours trying to sort out our hire car. But it was mostly my own fault. We used the UFODRIVE app to try to locate the car. We headed towards the pin shown on the app’s map, which is difficult because it doesn’t show your relative location. After a long walk to the other end of the car park, I couldn’t find any signs for UFODrive, or anyone who’d heard of them. It turns out that the pin just gives a general intended location. It was also hampered by no internet connection on my phone. I had bought a roaming pack from my Australian carrier, Belong, but it didn’t fully activate for a couple of hours after landing. I eventually found some public wifi and used the UFODrive app to contact their support. They pointed out that I had booked the car for 12 noon, not 8am as I had thought 🤦. They explained that they don’t deliver the car to the airport carpark until just before pick up time. They gave me the option to come collect it…
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First time driving on the right
I managed to drive on the right hand side of the road, sleep deprived and all. It’s weird having the driver’s seat and the car console flipped over to the other side, like some mirror universe. I managed to keep the curb on my right (instead of left, in Australia). That method works fine, until you come across a roundabout, where it’s the reverse of the already reversed method. Our cousin, Nico, had by that stage come out on his bike to guide us the last few hundred metres. He facepalmed as he watched me hesitate at the last roundabout and then proceed the wrong way around it. Fortunately, we were in a quiet neighbourhood, with no one around. Until then, I had managed many other roads and a few roundabouts, so I’m blaming my brain glitch on jet lag 😉. We parked 100m from our cousin’s houseboat, in a quiet neighbourhood street. It has several EV destination chargers next to parking spots! Amazing. Our Tesla has 90% charge, so I don’t want or need to take up a charging spot yet. The…
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Living on a Dutch houseboat
We now live on a boat, in a canal, in The Netherlands. Apart from living in a windmill or a pair of giant clogs, I can’t think of anything more appropriate for our time here. As a bonus for its Australian visitors, this boat is named “Boomerang” 🪃. We thought we were to stay in the houseboat of our cousin Nico, but he had generously arranged for our own boat, two births away. It’s fully fitted out with kitchen, living area, power points, shower, toilet, fridge, stove, washing machine and bedroom. The living area includes a powered opening sunroof. We’ve parked our hired Tesla in the next street, with options there for on street charging.
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Last Aussie coffee at Melbourne Airport
Our last Australian coffee and meal, in Melbourne airport, after long walks through check in and security. Francis started registering as an additional driver for the UFODrive car rental (from Amsterdam), following the instructions to take a selfie with one eye open. Must have been funny to onlookers. First flight leg: Melbourne to Singapore, seven hours, on Singapore airlines. It’s true : they are “a great way to fly”. Food and service was excellent. It took us a while to find the power point between the seats to plug in Tom’s laptop to do some work. A couple of hours in Singapore Airport to rediscover that we have legs, with a brief stop at the sunflower exhibit and coffee shop. The robot barista was intriguing, but we didn’t try it. Back into another plane, destined for Amsterdam. Thirteen hours. We will survive!
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Off to Europe, via GoBlue to Melbourne Airport
And we’re off! Europe, here we come. First step in our EV road trip is a lift from our home in Emerald to Melbourne Airport. We didn’t want to leave our car at the airport for eight weeks. We happened across GoBlue, which is a newer company than Uber and Lift. They promote ethical values such as all EVs (no fossil fuels) and better conditions for workers. They gave us about 30% discount off our first booking. The driver arrived 15 minutes early, so I offered him our home charger. Might as well charge when parked anyway. The drive to the airport was smooth, quiet and fume free. Excellent driver. Personally, I would flash high beams to clear cling-ons from the right lane, rather than tailgate 🫣. Getting through the airport was okay, but a bit tiring. I had a tube of honey in my carry-on that I had to surrender to security. Rookie mistake. It was 400mL – exceeding the 100mL fluid limit. I managed to skull down my half full water bottle, but I couldn’t drink 300mL of honey 😉 .
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Planning a 5000 km road trip — through Europe
Next week, we’re off on another big road trip! We think it will be about 5000km, over six weeks. We’ve never traveled these roads before, or checked the EV chargers along the way. It’s about the same distance as a return trip (from our home in Emerald Victoria) to Rockhampton or Uluru. It’s only slightly more than the double trip we did in May to Cessnock to pick up Mum for a visit to Emerald, and return. As usual, we’re not sure of our exact route, and we haven’t advance booked any accommodation along the way. To add some challenge, we’ll drive the entire trip on the right hand side of the road! As you might have guessed by now, this trip will not be in Australia. This is our first EV road trip overseas and Tom’s first time in Europe. We’re hiring a Tesla Model Y Long Range in The Netherlands, where we’re staying for a couple of weeks with Fran’s cousin (thanks Nico ☺️). Then we’re driving roughly south east through Europe, visiting Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Switzerland, to Italy,…
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When hail hit Emerald
When the storm hit last night, in Emerald Victoria. We thought the rain and thunder were noisy, but then the hail started.
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36 wild hours on battery in the Dandenongs
It’s been wild 36 hours here in the Dandenong Ranges. Yesterday afternoon, the power went out in our town of Emerald. We heard it was due to a fire somewhere. We sent out a few texts to our neighbours to offer our battery backup power. We ran our heavy duty extension lead over the fence and set up a power board on the front porch for phone charging. A few hours later, the grid was back up and running. But, the pending storm warnings made us cautious. Sure enough, an hour or so later, the storm hit. Heavy rain, pounding hail and strong wind. Marvin the robot mower happily sits charging out in the rain. But I didn’t fancy the chances of his camera eyes surviving the hail stones. I used the iPhone app remote control to drive it under our pergola, while the ice golf balls bounced on the lawn. Sure enough, the grid connection died again during the night, probably due to storm damage to power lines and other infrastructure. In the morning our neighbour reconnected to our power supply. We…
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Brunch at Kuranga Native Nursery
The avo toast was spectacular, with cherry tomatoes, pesto and shards of dehydrated Vegemite. I didn’t know that was a thing! We wandered around the native nursery plants and garden ornaments. This was both inspiration and procrastination for the gardening we needed to do at home later.
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Charging an EV is now easier than filling petrol
Charging an EV is easier than filling a car with petrol. We can now just plug in and walk away. Payment is all automatic. Takes ten seconds of my time. We’ve always been able to do this with Tesla superchargers and with any home charger or power point. But third party fast chargers that require payment have required using an app or tapping a card to start charging. But now, Evie Networks has listened to customers and enabled “auto charge”. We can just park, plug in and walk away. The charging station recognises our car, and knows our payment details. To enable auto charge, we had to do one manual charge, and verify who we are, as you can see in the screenshots. We were in Yara Junction for a walk along the Lilydale Warburton rail trail, and brunch at Nancy's of the Valley. Great day out. Having the option to return to a fully fuelled car is a bonus!
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Walking the Lillydale-Warburton rail trail
The sun held out despite the clouds hanging on the mountains, as we wandered along the rail trail near Yarra Junction in Victoria. The trail goes all the way from Lillydale to Warburton, but we only did a few kilometres of it. Brunch at Nancy's of the Valley was delicious. Scrambled eggs, mushrooms and spinach kept us going all day. Friendly staff and atmosphere.
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Earning $200 from the grid in a day
Today we earned over $200 for supplying electricity to the grid! We’re in Emerald, Victoria. We chose Amber Electric as our energy retailer, since they pass on the wholesale electricity price, which can change every few minutes. You have to be a bit of an energy nerd (like me), but you can make money from supplying power to the grid during peak demand, and even get paid to use power during high supply. Knowing the price is high makes you acutely aware of consumption, preferring to instead be paid to export. Boil water for a cup of tea, or get paid 20c? Okay, not quite that extreme. 😉 A cold morning and evening (high energy demand), combined with not enough cheap renewables in the grid, means it’s powered mostly by fossil fuel (gas and coal). The wholesale electricity price spikes, which pays a small fortune to anyone who can supply some power, including power companies, and householders who have a battery 🔋💰. If you’re an energy nerd and want to try Amber’s wholesale electricity…
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Brunch at The Laughing Fox in Emerald
Brunch at The Laughing Fox Cafe in Emerald. Eggs Benny with salmon for Tom, and a veg loaded omelette for Francis. Then a short walk along part of the adjacent Eastern Dandenong Ranges Trail, past Hogan Park, along the Puffing Billy Railway to the wide open Pepis Park fronting the wetlands. Beautiful day out.
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First impressions of Marvin the mower
He’s such a good boy! 🐶 🤖. The latest addition to our household, Marvin the mower, has done an impressive job so far. It’s a Mammotion Tech Luba 2 3000 robot mower, from Robotech Australia. I just tell Marvin to mow a particular area of our yard, and off it toddles, looking like Wall-E, to do its job. It’s fully automatic, detecting obstacles, returning to charge when necessary, and sending me a notification when finished. Hardware setup was pretty easy. Plug in the camera eyes, position the recharging pad, assemble the transmitter pole and stab it into the ground. The RTK transmitter pole needs to have fairly clear view of the sky, but seems to work fine where I put it, with some light nearby vegetation. To program the yard mowing areas, I tapped in the app to add an area, then remote controlled the mower around the area boundary, while walking beside it. Francis laughed, took a photo, saying I looked like a lone lonely loner walking his dog. When I returned Marvin to the starting…
Formerly: Tesla Tripping
Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.
Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.
We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.
At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.
Got questions, or insights of your own? We'd love to hear them — please drop a comment on any post.