Sub Rosa Gardens

If anyone else is as tired as me at hearing about alternate sources of energy – the arguments by billionaire mining magnates, activists who need cold showers and vote-hunting, finger-pointing bickering between our political leaders – then I can imagine you’re not going to want to read this. I’ll tell you what though – give me 5 minutes of your time and I’ll try to cut through as much of the BS as possible so that next time you find someone who wants to climb on their soapbox and rant, you can tell them you know already all about it and they can sod off. Fair trade?

Good to see you’re still reading, I’ll take that as a ‘deal’.

Right, two things to get started:
* Firstly, for the most part here, I’m talking about electricity generation. In some cases it’s more efficient to capture the energy in the form in which it’s produce, such as burning things for heating, but I’m going to focus on electricity because we can always convert this later and its the biggest problem.
* Secondly, what are we talking about when we hear “sustainable” vs “renewable” energy (or RenEn for the lazy typist)? Sustainable energy refers to energy made in a way that means it will keep providing energy for a long time and not make too much a mess of the environment – ie. sustainable means efficient. An example is nuclear power – its clean in producing energy, pumps out heaps of energy and it just keeps going. Renewable energy is replenished without much or any effort by people – that is, it is automatically replaced by some other external force (usually the sun or an environmental condition). It always has to come from somewhere though – energy doesn’t just magically appear. RenEn comes from sources like hydroelectric, solar and wind farms.

Meet the Candidates:

Solar: capturing the sun’s rays on photovoltaic cells
Pros – cheap, RenEn, available almost everywhere, technology is well advanced, low maintenance, can be close to users (on rooftop), very clean
Cons – initial cost for setup, doesn’t work at night, needs storage & supplementing with other sources, best in a sunny climates. England in winter is a bad idea.

Wind: air currents push a turbine around and physical motion is converted to electricity
Pros – cheap, RenEn, technology is well advanced, equipment lasts a long time, very clean
Cons – expensive kit to set up, medium maintenance, limited to windy locations, needs space, possibly dangerous for birds (unproven), high maintenance costs. Communities don’t like having them in their own backyards. Most are happy for them to be in other people’s backyards though.

Nuclear Fission: the nucleus of some big atoms like uranium and plutonium are broken apart and release a lot of energy

Pros – Sustainable, power production is clean (stations emit water vapour), produces large volumes of energy, a little goes a long way
Cons – Material is expensive, mining it is messy and disposing of it is worse. Stations are expensive to set up and maintain properly, nuclear material is sought by undesirable people for bomb-making. Mistakes and natural disasters are very bad <looks at Chernobyl & Japan>.

Nuclear Fusion: two small nuclei (like hydrogen or lithium) get jammed together, fuse and release a lot of energy
Pros – Elements are extremely common, all the best things about fission without the mess, risk or hazardous waste.
Cons – We can’t do it yet. It does exist though, the sun has it down.

Fossil fuels: burn fuel made from dead organisms that decayed underground for millions of years.
Pros – its cheap and we are good at making it
Cons – very limited supply that will run out at current consumption rates, not renewable and creates pollution. Has been immensely useful but has had a semi-disasterous effect on our environment.

Biofuel: recovering the energy that living tissue (usually plants) make for itself from food and growth, usually through burning it, such as ethanol extracted from sugar cane waste, vegetable oils, wood or even glucose and oxygen in the body which can be harvested for implanted devices such as pacemakers, valves, sensors & drug delivery systems (see The Conversation).
Pros: convenient, available at any time and produce as required, can fill in the gaps with wind and solar, glucose cells are highly portable and close to user.
Cons: burning can cause pollution, sometimes small volumes of energy produced, isn’t necessarily the most efficient (energy lost in the making). Good use of last night’s leftovers.

Hydroelectric – electrical power from falling or flowing water, most widely used type of RenEn around the world
Pros – cheap, clean, available in large volumes, can be combined with harvesting a water supply for communities/cities, attractive.
Cons – if you have to build a dam and alter water courses, it will massively change the environment & be high maintenance, mistakes can also be bad. Flow turbines can still have some effect the downstream ecosystem with dams slowing the water.

Ocean Currents, Tides and Waves: deep ocean currents, tides and the crashing of waves on the coastline can push turbines.(see
CSIRO’s Energy Transformed program)
Pros – clean, readily available, RenEn, predictable, reliable, not visible, calming ocean areas for industry
Cons – high maintenance cost, limited locations, distribution, calming ocean affects the marine environment

Blue energy: using the difference in electrical charge produced by mixing fresh and saltwater, as naturally occurs where rivers meet oceans (see Science Daily)
Pros – clean, could produce a good amount of energy
Cons – still in research, only produce harvest-able energy at the mouths of rivers, not sure of economic and technological costing

Geothermal – using heat from rocks deep underground, particularly good in locations that are near or above volcanoes and magma such as Iceland.
Pros: clean, efficient for heating, excellent in some locations where magma is near the surface
Cons: expensive if you’re not in one of those limited locations, requires drilling, expensive kit, high maintenance and distribution

Dyson Sphere – sphere of satellites around a star (the sun) to harvesting solar energy
Pros – huge amounts of almost free energy available for as long as we’d need it
Cons – it’s completely fictional. Would need an advanced space program, technology and materials that don’t exist, incredibly expensive to make, and difficult to transport energy back to where it’s needed on earth. However, we are looking for evidence of Dyson Spheres in the night sky in the search for advanced extra-terrestrial civilisations (!) (see SETI).

Others:
Piezoelectric – energy from touch pressure, can be captured in a film (so could have an iPad that recharges itself as its used) – doesn’t make much energy.
Kinetic – directly captured from movement, such as treadmills, rotors. Kinetic watches have been around for a while, a weight rolling around inside capturing hand motion. Moving parts wear out, low power generation but both can be excellent for low power, portable devices.

Selection Criteria

Cost – how much does it cost to setup? Maintain? Produce energy? And how long will that investment last?
Storage – most energy systems need some form of battery for storing the energy until it’s needed – are the storage needs short or long term?
Distribution – how close is the energy source is to the customer? Big centralised plants need infrastructure and services to deliver electricity to consumers. (see why closer is better)
Efficiency – In production, can we get a high ratio of energy-out to energy-in for a sustained period?
Waste produces – what are the impacts of the waste products produced? Does it generate pollution like coal or burning carbon, or is there a waste product at the end for disposal, as with nuclear fission?
Consumers’ Energy needs – Different locations have different requirements. For example, colder climate needs more heating, hot climates tend to use air conditioning, big cities use a large amount for lighting and entertainment.
Technology Maturity – Is it ready? Some of the techniques still being tested to see if they economically viable. Fusion is still a long way off and the dyson sphere is .. well, cool for a Star Trek TNG plotline.
Public opinion – “not in my backyard”. Honestly people, suck it up or live without your fridges, freezers, tvs, computers, lighting, hot water, …
Volume of electricity – some glucose, piezo and rotor kinetic can’t make much energy but may suffice to power some devices. It all helps.
Lifetime – a glucose energy cell for a pacemaker in a rat can currently last for one month, whereas 1kg of uranium can provide energy for 100 years. Will the lifetime validate the cost?
Consistency/Reliability – does energy produced drop off at times, say with seasonal changes or day/night? If so, back-ups will be needed in the form of storage or an alternate source for reliable power.

Most Suitable Solution Is …

All of them. Yep, sorry people. There isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all solution in the near future and its all heavily dependent on location and environmental conditions.
Wind, solar and hydro are the big 3 RenEn sources that are the most advanced and can perform extremely well if the conditions are right, but that won’t be everywhere. There are arguments as to whether these sources could provide the baseload power supply but it looks viable *if* we increase the efficiency in which we currently use energy – we currently waste an awful lot – and if the gaps in service can be backed up with biofuels or another alternative for constancy. Nuclear power can handle the volumes but no one wants a nuclear plant on every corner and until we find a way of jettisoning nuclear waste into the center of the sun, we have to find some safe way of storing it here for thousands of years when its no longer useful. Ocean and blue energy have an enormous amount of potential for large scale energy production with minimal impact on society, and could also fill those gaps but they are years away from production. Fossil fuels are needed to buy us the time we need. If every rooftop had solar panels and houses installed solar hot-water services, we could dramatically reduce our dependence on dirty energy and budget our non-renewable fuels to last until we can get to that 100% solution. All that sunlight is currently just heating up my roof tiles – seems like a shame to let it go to waste.

There you have it. That bring us to the end of the 5 minutes I promised, so here’s my end of the bargain. The next soapbox ranter than thinks they have the solution for everything, ask them for the specs of their Dyson Sphere and a job on the next shuttle out to the sun to make your fortune. If they can’t arrange it, tell them to get working.

An exploration of science funding in Australia through quotes

science (n)
• the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment; a systematically organized body of knowledge on a particular subject
– Oxford English Dictionary

“.. science refers to:
• the natural and physical sciences, such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology
• the applied sciences, such as engineering, medicine and technology
• newly emerging and interdisciplinary fields, such as environmental science, nanotechnology and phenomics
• mathematics, a field of study in its own right, as well as an essential tool of the sciences
• the social sciences and humanities, critical to the interface between science and society. ”
– Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, The Australian Government¹

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
– Benjamin Franklin, former President of the United States

“Galileo’s work in the 16th and 17th centuries, for example, was supported mainly by wealthy individuals, including the Pope. Darwin’s Beagle voyage in the 19th century was, on the other hand, funded by the British government — the vessel was testing clocks and drawing maps for the navy — and his family’s private assets financed the rest of his scientific work. Today, researchers are likely to be funded by a mix of grants from various government agencies, institutions, and foundations”
– Understanding Science project team, University of California, Berkley²

“CERN contributes about 20% of the cost of [Large Hadron Collider] experiments, which is a total of about $5.5 billion a year. The remainder of the funding for those experiments is provided by international collaborations.”
– Alex Knapp, Forbes ³

“The level of foreign investment in Australia’s business R&D in 2009 was just 1.1 per cent, compared to more than 20 per cent for Austria, the United Kingdom and Ireland.”
– Professor Alan Pettigrew, Australian National University (ANU)⁴

“We do good science here, but if we wish to compensate for our small population and low levels of investment, we need to do better – and we need to do more.”
– Amanda Barnard, Leader of the Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory at CSIRO⁵

“The bulk of Australia’s world-class research and development takes place in its universities.”
– Professor Alan Pettigrew, Australian National University (ANU)⁶

“Forty of the world top 50 universities with the highest research impact – are located in the United States, with the rest in Europe”
– The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)⁷

“Australia produces only around 2% of the world’s science knowledge.”
– Professor Suzanne Cory, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne⁸

“We need to be prepared to take a few more risks, and allow researchers some degree of freedom to explore the cutting edge of science more often. Low-risk research is usually iterative, and iterative outputs do not deliver high impact. A renewed focus on discovery, in addition to refinement, will serve us well.”
– Amanda Barnard, Leader of the Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory at CSIRO⁹

“..many more publications have arisen from people re-analysing Hubble Space Telescope data than from the scientists who originally acquired the data. The cost of conducting the Human Genome Project is acknowledged to be dwarfed by its economic benefit to scientific productivity because the data are publicly available. For a physically more isolated country like Australia to participate in cutting-edge international science, the free sharing of research data is particularly important”
– Matthew Todd, Alex O. Holcombe, The Conversation¹⁰

“Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.”
– Richard P. Feynman, Physicist

“Of course, all of this technology costs a lot of money, and it’s funded typically by the taxpayers … all things being equal, if I’m faced with two interesting problems and one of them has a medical foundation and the other is purely intellectual, if it’s all equal, I would choose the medical one.”
– Dr David Clayton, neuroscientist at the University of Illinois¹¹

“Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit.”
– Marie Curie, Chemist

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References:
1 – Inspiring Australia – A National Strategy For Engagement With The Sciences
2 – Understanding Science – Who pays for science?
3 – Forbes – How Much Does It Cost To Find A Higgs Boson?
4 – Chief Scientist’s Office – Australia’s Position in the World of Science, Technology and Innovation
5,6,8,9 – The Conversation – Scientific research spending lags behind smaller countries
7 – OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2011

10 – The Conversation – Scientific data should be shared: an open letter to the ARC
11 – Science News – Justifying research, basic or otherwise

Has anyone told you how fabulous you look today? Gardeners become like their gardens – bright, full of life and with a healthy glow after a job well done. There are enormous health benefits to getting out and shaking that booty around outside, so we should do more of it!

In reality, I probably don’t get out as much as I should. There’s that time spent appreciating good food and wine. Oh, and the Internet – don’t we all love the Internet?! Books, games, movies and tv… hang on, this is going downhill. Then there’s work sitting at a desk all day… oh dear. Maybe that’s responsible for the few <cough> extra kilos I’ve been noticing lately.

Perhaps it’s not so surprising that there is an obesity crisis after all. Let’s talk about what’s really going on then.

In 2008, the Australian National Health Survey found that 61% of adults and 25% of kids are overweight or obese, which means they have a Body Mass Index (or BMI) greater than 25. Obesity is responsible for the biggest and most expensive health problems in Australia: heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes and the Big 3 cancers – bowel, prostate and breast cancer.

The health care system is straining under the cost, which is of course being passed along to the Government and taxpayers. The Government is spending millions on advertising campaigns to convince us to get off the couch, providing tools and overloading us with information on what we should and shouldn’t be doing and when. This is what the Department of Health and Aging recommends for me: Healthy Eating at Various Lifestages. All of a sudden, planning dinner has become like doing my taxes.

The junk food industry doesn’t make you think – just choose what you like and everything is easy. It is worth billions of dollars, as is the fitness industry and the battle between these economic titans provides employment and financial revenue for the Government. We’re so busy working day and night to pay the bills that we don’t want to think about food. In the meantime, the kids are being targeted by marketers with cool new chocolate bars, snacks, cereals and take-away food while watching tv.

We know that high-fat-high-sugar foods and sitting on our behinds isn’t good for us, but we do it anyway. Why? Because it tastes good, takes little effort and is inexpensive. Sometimes it seems like the best idea in our cash and time-strapped lives.

It’s no surprise that this is a complicated issue.

What does the latest research say?

There is a link between obesity and depression A major study published in 2008 showed a strong relationship between obesity and depression – that obese people are more likely become depressed and depressed people are more likely to become obese.

Diet and physical activity have been shown to ease bouts of depression.

Fit, active kids do better academically Perhaps it’s the extra oxygen to the brain, or self esteem issues but researches aren’t yet sure why obese kids are doing worse in school.

Overweight does not necessarily mean lazy or unhealthy There are a number of medical conditions that can cause weight gain and there are many body types which can happily accommodate more or less fat and still be perfectly healthy. The BMI is the most commonly used measurement for determining how much weight a body carries, but not necessarily how much fat there is and there are other measures that give a better indication of general health such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, bone density and waist measurements.

Breakfast is important Those who eat breakfast binge less on junk food during the day. In the US survey, 93% of people think breakfast is the most important meal of the day but only 44% say they eat breakfast every day.

Society has body weight issues Through history and different cultures, being heavy has been seen as desirable as it is a sign of wealth and success. Today in western society it is the opposite – wealthy people can afford gyms, personal trainers, chefs and being overweight is immensely unpopular. Nearly every teenager thinks they’re fat, whether right or wrong, and we end up with conditions like anorexia, bulimia, binging, fad dieting, depression and social problems like bullying. All of this is unhealthy, mentally and physically.

If you eat less, you taste more Clinical Nutrition journal published a study in 2006 showing you can become desensitised to sugar and fat. This means that if you’re accustomed to it, you can ingest more without noticing, possibly leading to gaining weight.

Obesity levels are higher in low income areas Studies in the US have shown that women living in poverty are 50% more likely to be obese. Low nutrition, processed food is cheap and more readily available than fresh fruit and vegetables due to transportation costs, reduced food production, diversification of corn crops to produce biofuels and a struggling economy.

Solutions

Obesity is dangerous, expensive and needs to be discouraged. However, we have the right to eat and live our lives however we wish, as long as it doesn’t hurt others. I work hard, contribute to society and have earned the right to eat whatever I damn well please, particularly given that society dictates that I will sit behind a computer for 8 hours a day. As such it shares some responsibility for my physical activity level.

The Government has proposed a “fat tax” – that is, higher taxes on soft drink and junk food. Other financial disincentives include health care programs to cut support to those who choose to be overweight and taxing airlines to make people pay for their weight like “excess baggage”. This might work if cost were the prime factor in making the food decisions, however it usually isn’t (see The Conversation) nor is it acceptable to leave people out in the cold when they become unwell. Nonetheless, this means extra money for the Government and “economic stimulus” so this is a popular approach. Subsidised gym memberships, exercise programs and regulations on sugar and fat content in food would likely be more effective.

Education is the key to managing the obesity problem. Dry government policy advice can’t compete with the fortune spent on junk food advertising, but families and schools can. We MUST teach our kids about food and cover not only which foods are healthy, but also how to cook and prepare delicious food.

Tell a kid to go eat a carrot instead of a bag of chips and that’s a lung full of air you’ll never get back. However if they know how to make easy food that tastes good, they’re more likely to do that when starting out making snacks and meals at home. Celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver gave an exceptional, prize-winning TED talk about this issue and his work in teaching kids about food in 2010.

Finally, I think the best strategy is one I haven’t seen anywhere yet: growing your own fruit and vegetables! It’s the cheapest option around, food is fresh and it tastes amazing. Kids feel the satisfaction of making things grow and little goes to waste as excess produce can be preserved and stored or swapped with neighbours for variety. Then produce is always available straight from the garden or freezer and there’s no need to run to the shops for ingredients when exhausted after work. There are some great cookbooks around such as ‘Maggie’s Harvest’ by Maggie Beer with suggestions for what to make with bulk produce when it all ripens at once.

Best of all, gardening is excellent exercise all year round. So grab the kids and some seeds, get outside and shake that booty for all its worth. It will raise your spirits and you’re body will love you for it.

Time to bid a fond farewell to Adelaide, family and old friends to begin the next leg of my journey around Australia. Excepting people, I’ll miss my mother’s garden the most. We spent quality time spent drinking tea out on the deck, completely surrounded by senescing trees and singing birds. Its peaceful, being wrapped in foliage and you can easily forget that you have neighbours nearby. I must find a way of recreating that at home.

An old friend from high school was eager for a roadtrip and joined me in the journey across to Perth. It was even more exciting to have someone to share the first challenging leg of my adventure and we talked so much on the first afternoon that I lost my voice (!). We headed out late aiming to make it to Port Augusta by night, where we found a cheap but comfortable motel for a good night’s sleep before attempting the Nullarbor Plain crossing the following day.

After a breakfast of champions – egg and bacon roll with a good dollop of BBQ sauce – we hit the road as early as possible aiming to reach the WA border by nightfall. What could have been a rather sedate drive was a lot of fun with company as we chatted, sang to old music and listened to Radiolab podcasts. For anyone not familiar with Radiolab, go to www.radiolab.org – its a great national public radio show for curious people, involving science, philosophy and sharing people’s stories and experiences. Best radio show EVER.

Outback South Australia is fascinating in its starkness. Gnarled mallees, yellow sand and unidentifiable scrubby bushes as far as the eye can see. We stopped in Streaky Bay for fish and chips, looked out over the water and rested tired eyes, before cracking on across the Nullarbor Plain. Here we learned the true meaning of being in the middle of nowhere. It is a huge expanse of flat, brown nothing in all directions, as far as the eye can see. It is punctuated only by a run down motor inn with exorbitant prices in the centre and the occasional heavily laden cyclist who bizarrely thinks riding across the plain is a good use of holidays.

It was dark by the time we approached the campsite, only 10km short of the WA border. This was to be our first night of free camping and we’d chosen a site that was on the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight, but thankfully was treed so we wouldn’t be blown off the edge into the water during the night. After driving what was probably around in circles, we picked a spot and pitched camp, doing remarkably well in the dark, and decided that a bottle of wine and some night sky appreciation was in order before bed.

Sunrise was equally spectacular over the Bight and after taking some time to enjoying the views (photos will have to wait I’m afraid), we began our push on through towards Esperance – another 8 1/2 hours of driving. En route, we passed through Norseman on the far side of the Plain, an old gold mining town with a rather unusual sight. From the town we could see a large, heavily channeled cliff face and when we got up to the lookout at Beacon Hill, we realised that it was actually one side of a square of land thrust up out of the flat surrounding land that had been gouged down all sides where gold seams must have run. There were still trees and an old shanty on top. It looked like a massive computer chip mounted on a motherboard, pins exposed on all sides, but eternally shrinking as the machines eat away at it from the outside. I imagine that in not too many years, there will only remain a thin finger of stone with that cottage perched precariously on top.

We got in to Esperance with enough time to settle into our cabin and shower – an experience so glorious that its hard to believe it had only been one night on the land – before wandering into the town for dinner at the local pub. One drink and we were done for – we staggered back and collapsed into bed. The morning showed us that Esperance had been well worth the trip. We found a french bakery open early and again enjoyed the sunrise. I could get used to this early rising business if I’m to be rewarded with views like that.

On our way out of town, accidentally ended up on the Great Ocean Scenic Drive and figured that we might as well have a bit of a look. What we found was long, staggeringly beautiful stretches of beach with white sand and crystal blue water. It was all we could do not to stop, run down the sand and throw ourselves into it, parched as we were for the sight of the ocean after so much dry desert.

Refreshed by coastal air and beautiful views, we continued on to Albany for lunch which was almost completely closed on a Sunday and lacking any of the beauty that its neighbour commanded. Our experience getting lost in Albany only resulted in annoyance, much wasted time and giving up on our quest for fish and chips on the beach – one we hadn’t thought would be a stretch, though as it turned out there were neither nice beaches nor open fish and chip shops!!! – having to resort to a woeful lunch at KFC. We finally managed to extricate ourselves, shaking our fists and determining to blame the town for our late arrival into Margaret River and indeed everything else that was wrong with the world.

In the afternoon, we passed through some of south Western Australia’s national parks and I found my favourite region of the trip so far – the Great Eucalypt Forests. The trees were enormous and majestic – it was magnificent to see them in a native forest untouched by humanity except the tiny ribbon of road that passed far below their canopy, barely worthy of their notice. I wish I could bottle the forest-smell. Its surprising that we revere European style forests so much in Australia when we have such incredible native beauty – its a pity we don’t appreciate and protect it more.

It was dark when we arrived into Margaret River (damn you Albany!), but the main street was lit up like an adorable mountain village somewhere in the snow Swiss Alps. Of course, its quite warm and is a renowned wine region which possibly makes it my ideal place to live. We stayed in a very comfortable motel and had a spectacular breakfast at the coolest bakery ever in the main street, with mismatched couches, crockery and eclectic style only beaten by fabulous inexpensive food and homemade meringues the size of a small child’s head. (I actually verified this with a friend’s 15 month old.) Unfortunately we were on a tight deadline to deliver my travel buddy to the capital for her return flight to Adelaide so we tried visiting one winery, found that most of the world does have opinions about what time in the morning is suitable to drink alcohol and with a sigh left the lovely little town vowing to return for a decent visit. Perth is only three hours north so a day trip (or rather a weekend trip) is definitely possible for me during my stay and my friend swore she intends to repeat our roadtrip over a longer time frame with her partner and kids sometime in the near future.

A short drive later, relative to the distance we’d already covered at least, and we arrived in Perth with plenty of time to say our goodbyes at the airport and for her to catch up with a local friend before her flight home. It was a delight traveling with you, my friend! Come visit me any other time you wish on my trip and we can do it again.

So here I am now in the big smoke, with friends, wine and a replaced air mattress for more adventures.

Best: Camping – stargazing. Nothing can compare to the view of the night sky when there aren’t city lights nearby to blot them out. The Milky Way was radiant. Its no wonder that the ancients worshiped the stars. Being slightly more modern in our approach, we discovered that all residual knowledge from first year Astronomy was gone and resorted to launching the Google Sky app on our phones to tell us where the constellations were. I do so love technology.

Worst: Camping – the air mattress. Within an hour of going to bed, a slow leak had reduced our mattress to a thin covering over the cold hard ground. Grateful for thin foam mats, we got through the night and decided maybe cabins and motels might be more comfortable until it could be replaced in Perth.

Most Random Sight: On a stretch of open road at least 20kms outside of a one-horse town, a young man with a backpack and no shirt skateboarded past and away from us back down the road. No idea where he came from or was going to – we saw nothing for at least another 50kms.