Driving Our Tesla Model 3 Up The Bunya Mountains
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These are the signs that met us as we started our wedding anniversary stay at Rice’s Log Cabins in the Bunya Mountains. The dingo notice was on the fridge in the cabin. The wild dog notice was at the beginning of the nature walks in the national park. Although we saw (and photographed) lots of wallabies, kangaroos, parrots and cockatoos, we saw no canines during our 4 day stay.
Our Tesla Model 3 handled the twisting and steep roads up into the mountains well. We took the long way in order to avoid some dirt roads, going up through Toowoomba (150 km) and then Dalby (84 km) and then arriving in the Bunyas (63 km). Most of this was uphill, so we had to recharge at the Superchargers at the City Golf Club in Toowoomba to avoid the yellow triangle of death.
The Bunya Mountains are named after the tall and majestic bunya pines. These trees drop huge nuts at this time of year, and some were fenced off — dangerous trees. The indigenous population used to travel from all over Queensland to feast on the nuts each year. Their climbing marks can still be seen on the trunks of the ancient trees.
The owner of the cabins is keen to install EV chargers, as he is losing customers with electric vehicles. We had quite a discussion about options as Tess (the name of our Model 3) thirstily drank from a domestic power point. In this tranquil spot, we didn’t mind leaving the door open all night to achieve a full charge. We didn’t get any visitors; even the local possums didn’t drop in to sample our fruit.
The next day, after walks through the rainforest admiring the vegetation and waterfalls, we stopped for a coffee and cake at the Bunya Tavern. As usual, the Tesla prompted questions and we amused the locals by deploying the “light show.” I got into trouble because I set up the car as a bird feeder. It’s OK, the excess seed rattled off on the way home.
We came back to Brisbane via Blackbutt. It was all downhill, so we knew we could do it on a full charge. Just as well, as the free charger that was available was only set to trickle charge (adds 10 km per hour). The local garage was available if we needed a faster charge (50 km per hour). But we decided to forego it.
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