DAY 5: YULARA (near Ayers Rock/Uluru) - COOBER PEDY
(700 km / 435 mi)
Finally got going at 7.30 am for the big run down to Coober Pedy. Getting 11 people and four vehicles moving is no mean feat and now I know why drovers have dogs. From Ayers Rock we had to backtrack to Erldunda to get back onto the main highway south. One of our companion vehicles is a huge campervan in the Winnebago style. During that leg it had what is called an unsavoury incident with the on-board chemical toilet…suffice to say it’s the sort that wrinkles the nose, waters the eyes and creates an automatic gag reflex. Is that close to too much information? When this was reported to the rest of the team it prompted a whole raft of shall we say “crappy” jokes, which filled the CB radio airwaves between the other team vehicles. I thought I had the prize won when I suggested that we rename the campervan “The Grand Poobah”, but I was well and truly trumped when Megan, our youngest team member, christened it “Winnie the Pooh”. This was now getting kinda dangerous, because I was laughing so hard by this time, I nearly ran off the road.
The team had a “wee” break at Erldunda and then headed down to Kulgera for the official refuel stop and lunch. We started to catch up to some of the slower solar cars. They had a day off in Alice Springs when the Greenfleeters went to Ayers Rock yesterday. We passed the dog fence just out of Coober Pedy. This is the longest fence in the world at well over 4,000 miles and was erected many years ago, to keep dingos out of sheep farming country.
Coober Pedy is the home of the famous black opal and opal mining has been called the most heartbreaking job in the world, mainly because opals form in clumps, rather than seams and there appears to be no rhyme or reason as to where they can be found. You can see ample evidence of this, as the surrounding landscape is littered with a haphazard conglomerate of huge conical piles of dug and discarded dirt, as far as the eye can see. They leave the resultant deep holes uncovered as well. A rough life attracts a tough breed…this is a place where men are men and women wish they were somewhere else. There’s an old Coober Pedy saying “don’t walk alone at night and don’t walk backwards”. Sound advice on both counts.
Took the Saab out several miles to the Breakaways and got it absolutely filthy, but it was worth every speck of dust. This naturally sculptured work of art by mother nature is the result of the sedimentary crust eroding over many millennia, leaving huge outcrops of harder silcrete looming out of the dusty floor like long forgotten sentinels with multi-layered uniforms. Great backdrop for some publicity photos with the Saab.
Still waiting for the Dyno and emission test results but in the meantime we had a quick look at the fuel economy figures. We’ll need to check this properly, but it would seem that the best we did on E85 was about 10.4 litres per 100k and so far on ULP 8.6 litres per 100 km.
Tomorrow we’re off to Port Augusta, which is the penultimate leg before Adelaide.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Getting Sirty in SA
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Alice to the Rock
DAY 4: ALICE SPRINGS - YULARA
(near Ayers Rock/Uluru)(400 km / 250 mi)
Nearly missed the daily radio interview this morning… well actually I did miss it. Got caught up with late additions to yesterday’s blog entry and completely lost track of time. Luckily when I went missing in action ABC Radio called me.
We’re well into desert country now so the nights are quite cold and the days warm. There’s something very special about the desert…the days are diamond bright and the air smells like champagne tastes.
The “get the best fuel economy at all costs” fanaticism with some of the teams is getting quite farcical. We passed one driving at 70kph (on the open highway) with both side mirrors folded flat to the car body…quite dangerous, but just might decrease fuel consumption by 0.1%. And two other teams had relief drivers flown in to Alice Springs, because their current drivers are exhausted. Strange how driving at a snail’s pace, with windows up and aircon off in 100+F heat can have this effect. Marvellous what you can do with an unlimited budget…but can somebody please explain the logic to me?
It would seem that Team Ethanol is indeed the only volunteer community group in the event. All the rest are either school, car manufacturer or other corporate based employees.
Okay, okay, I’ll get off my soapbox. Today is just a leisurely 250 mile jog to Ayers Rock. We’ve officially switched over to regular commercial ULP, which makes a nice change from donning overalls and safety glasses, finding a secluded area, earthing both vehicles, displaying safety warning signs and manning the manual fuel pump.
We stopped at Erldunda, about 50 miles from Ayers Rock, for a quick lunch which consisted of using up our cold salad remnants, while fending off a determinedly hungry emu, who wouldn’t take no for an answer! The lunch turned out to be quite leisurely, because it was also an official refuel stop and of course we arrived nearly an hour ahead of everybody else, including the supervising officials.
It’s quite exhilarating driving along the Carpentaria Highway waiting for a first glimpse of the Rock. The anticipation builds until suddenly…there it is! Nope, false alarm, it’s just Mt Connor, a flat topped long mountain sometimes called the False Rock. Ayers Rock itself is a single giant basalt monolith. Strangely, when the Rock does finally come into view, you wonder how could ever have been mistaken, it has a totally unique look.
We booked into the Ayers Rock Campground, 150 bucks a night for a cabin the size of a large cupboard and a 300 yard walk to the personal facilities...sigh! Took the Saab out to Ayers Rock for some photos…25 bucks entry fee per person…double sigh! We drove around the Rock and found various different aspects for background shots. We hung around until sunset and recorded the famous pageant of colour variations generated by the dying sun…brown to glowing orange, to deep russet, to soft pink and back to brown. A truly amazing sight witnessed by hundreds of onlookers, some with tables, chairs, champagne etc. And some doing it simple like us…back the car in, flip up the lid, sit underneath the tailgate and just watch it all unfold.
Still waiting for the breakdown of results from the Dyno and gas testing, which is supposed to be emailed to us today. We’ll publish a summary as soon as we’ve done the analysis. So far we haven’t found a massive disparity in fuel economy between E85 and ULP fuel. The 450 mile run today to Coober Pedy should give us a clearer picture. The power is certainly down, the Saab is feeling decidedly sluggish, but it’s still a great car to drive and we can still get from A to B quicker than any other Greenfleet team…pity it’s not actually a race!!!
Madness in the Desert?
Jane’s Blog
Tell me the desert hasn’t driven me mad, but I love Alice Springs! It’s a beautiful place. It’s not a flea bitten dust bowl (sorry Alice!), but nestled in and around magnificent pink mountainous rocks that glisten in the sun. I’m mad at myself for believing the portrayed stereotype of the place when it’s quite the opposite. Personally, I can’t wait to go back again and I don’t say that about many places. And I don’t buy a key ring of many places either, but I now proudly count my ‘Alice Springs’ keyring as a prized possession.
It’s been quite a week. We have tried hard to keep our blog as up to date as physically possible but because of our rigid schedule, with 0645 starts mostly all day drives and displays, there’s been a few lags before updates. I’m writing this from the back of the Saab as I just finished a 2 hour driving shift.
Dinner was at The Overlander Steakhouse. Fantastic menu including camel, crocodile, kangaroo and of course steak, chicken and lamb. But the interesting thing was locals ate there too. I’m glad that I had camel, as I don’t think I’d see it on a menu again for a while. It was really good! The Team had a great time, and maybe a bit too much drink but I put it down to the desert drive. I’ve discovered that Team member Syd is quite good on playing the wobble board.
I’ve discovered a lot driving from Darwin (and heading towards Uluru at the moment). I discovered giant ant hills, (aka termite mounds) in the hundreds of thousands generously dotting the NT landscape, some taller than me.
I’ve discovered ‘whirly winds’ which are mini cyclones of sand created by intense heat. Driving from Katherine, I spotted 12 happening all at once, which were dotted around the desert landscape.
While talking to a fantastic couple, Marilyn and Warwick at the Alice Springs solar car display, had the WSC cars arrived a day earlier, they wouldn’t have made it into town. Apparently there was a dust storm and Alice was closed for a few hours. That would have been great and part of me is sorry to miss being in a dust storm.
I also love the red earth and red ochre rocks. It’s so pretty with the green bushed plants.
As for the Team, well, as the ABC says, we’re a ‘motley crew’ and they are right. There are 11 of us from various backgrounds and of all ages, from 24 – 80 and somehow, we all muddle through it all ok.
Tonight is Ayers Rock. For once I’m looking for the blanket of stars at night. (Why do caravan parks insist on all night lights?) I suspect the caravan park at Ayers Rock will have the same all night lights, but I’ll drag my swag to some unlit spot I hope.
Oh, the good news is that the flies haven’t been as bad as they could. Yeah they annoy the hell out of you, fly in your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, but not in the hundreds, so that’s good.
I’m hoping for good things from Ayers Rock. We’ll be heading to Coober Pedy in the morning for another long driving day.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
There's Something About Alice
DAY 3: TENNANT CREEK - ALICE SPRINGS
(500 km / 310 mi)
After breakfast we headed off to the refuel point, stopping on the way to pick up a damsel in distress. Apparently, she’d been deliberately left at one petrol station with a phone, by her team, while they headed onto another one, because they couldn’t remember which one they were supposed to be at. Luckily we did know.
With the refuelling out of the way we headed off to the Devil’s Marbles, about 60 miles south of Tennant Creek. This natural phenomenon consists of hundreds of giant granite boulders, strewn around and piled on top of one another, as if by giant unseen hands.
Next stop was the Barrow Creek Pub, a little tourist oasis in the middle of nowhere, with basic accommodation, general store and petrol station. It’s also most famous for being the nearest human habitation to the Peter Falconio disappearance a few years ago. The refuelling at Barrow Creek has used most of the E85 fuel in the drum. That will get us to Alice Springs where we’ll switch over to regular unleaded petrol for the second half of the event. This will allow us to compare performance and economy between the two fuel mixes.
We’ve been pleasantly surprised with fuel economy so far on E85. As I said before we are driving the car realistically, so we’ve had the aircon on constantly, driving close to the speed limits and still getting 10.5 litres per 100 km. Not bad considering that this is a two tonne car loaded up with passengers and luggage. So, either this is an incredibly fuel efficient car or the economy gap between petrol and ethanol isn’t as bad as the “experts” reckon. Time and the next 1500 km will tell.
To end the day on a high note, we desperately needed some exhaust gas analysis before we switched over to ULP. So Syd, our resident mechanical magician traipsed all over town to track down Street Torque Dyno Dynamics, the only Dyno and exhaust gas analyst between here and Adelaide. Now Syd is not easily impressed, but he came back from the testing jumping out of his skin, wild eyed and babbling nearly incoherently. Apparently the tester had never seen Dyno or gas analysis results anywhere near the Saab’s readings. Sorry to be a tease, but until we get the printouts tomorrow and check them over properly can’t say much more…except that there is some seriously good mechanical hardware under the hood!
In the meantime here are some basic details about the Saab BioPower car for our new followers:
The UK promotion car that we’re driving in the World Solar Challenge is a 9.5 Estate wagon. It’s powered by a 2 litre, four cylinder, turbo charged engine and weighs in at a touch over 2100kg. So even though it looks compact it’s actually quite a large car.
The models released in Australia this month have a bigger 2.3 litre engine, so they will certainly have a lot more grunt. The base cost for the sedan is A$61,900 and the Estate wagon A$63,900.
We all enjoyed a great dinner at the Overlander Steakhouse and tomorrow we’re off to Ayers Rock.
