The solar array is replaced over driver Laura Hughes after essential repairs at Marla on the South Australian border. Credit: CUER
Another day full of ups and downs for CUER, we were obliged to trailer the car in the morning as per yesterday to try and catch up the rest of the pack. We managed to drive about 200 solar kilometres over the middle part of the day but unfortunately further battery problems put paid to this. Even more cells have died and Chao our battery surgeon had to perform an emergency cell bypass seeing as we are now completely out of spares. This is not an easy thing to do at the best of times, never mind in the back of a truck in the Outback!
On a positive note, we did see Leeming High School on the road which means that we have caught up the back of the pack. Although unfortunately we were on the side of the road when they passed by us…
We arrived at Coober Pedy this afternoon having trailered the final part of the day and bumped into Stanford and McMasters at the Control Point. To give some perspective, Stanford have got this far travelling at an average speed of about 40kph without having trailered. McMasters have trailered since Sunday when their car caught on fire, the motor burnt out and one of their wheels collapsed! We are not alone in having problems and finding trailering a necessity, but when we are going we average 75kph and have reached 100kph. If it were not for our hardware failure, we would be much further up the pack. This is obviously frustrating for the team but we continue to do everything we can to make crossing the finish line under solar power a reality. We now anticipate arriving in Adelaide on Saturday morning; we have already driven over 1300 solar kilometres which puts us in quite a strong position with regards to our race position so the race remains to be played out.
Coober Pedy is at the heart of the Red Centre of Australia and it is in some truly incredible country. The vastness of Australia really became apparent as we topped the crest of a hill and saw kilometre upon kilometre of desert scrubland stretching out in front of us. We may not be far from Adelaide in terms of the race, but we are certainly a long way from anything most of us have ever experienced before. This landscape has an ancient, permanent sense to it and the sight of the future focused Endeavour travelling through it is a truly incredible one.
Tomorrow brings our final day of trying to clock up solar kilometres before CUER beginnings to close in on Adelaide, out of the outback and back to civilisation.
