EOS: We achieved our ultimate goal!

Today was an especially exciting day for us because it was our first day testing Lissie sans electrics, so we could compare her petrol-only performance to her performance as a petrol/electric hybrid.

We're happy to say our little car achieved exactly what we wanted her to as a hybrid! Although the figures won't be confirmed until WSC officials announce the results on Sunday, we've calculated that Lissie uses just over 10 litres of petrol for every 100 kilometres when driven via petrol only whereas when she's switched petrol/electric hybrid mode she uses around 7 litres. That's a 30% reduction in petrol consumption. We're very proud!

Our team travelled approximately 550km from Coober Pedy (where we had time to visit the underground opal museum while we participated in the morning public display) to Port Augusta today, with only driver/navigator swap-over stops and a lunch stop. The roadhouse café staff must not have been informed the WSC would be cruising past because there was only one person in the kitchen. With much running around, she did a great job but I bet she'll sleep well tonight.

The landscape changed a fair bit today. The scenery on either side of the highway transformed from flat red earth with little vegetation to a browner coloured earth that was hilly in spots and quite shrubby, especially as we got close to Port Augusta. It was lovely to see some colour.

We had dinner out tonight, wandering into the city centre to eat at a local restaurant, where Meg Craven (the EOS Project surrogate mother) read out a letter written by a long time supporter of Annesley's EOS Project and we swapped stories about our amazing trip.

It is incredible to think our journey is almost over. It has flown by! We are only 298 kilometres from Adelaide, where we should cross our destination check point at around 12:30pm tomorrow and have our final fuel measurements taken.

At 2pm the Greenfleet vehicles will travel to Victoria Square in convoy with a police escort for the Ceremonial finish and public vehicle displays. Once that finishes at 4pm, we will spruce ourselves up for the Civil Reception, being held for all participants at 6pm in the Town Hall. Then, all Greenfleet Technology Class entrants will exhibit their vehicles at the Greenfleet Emerging Transport Technology Conference at Adelaide Convention Centre on 29 and 30 October.

The Panasonic World Solar Challenge has been an adventure of a lifetime in every respect. We are very grateful for the support of our major sponsors, Mortgage Choice and Holden, and for the wonderful efforts and advice of those who travelled with us. The 2007 team has become a close family and will never forget this experience we have been so fortunate to enjoy. Annesley looks forward to its next Challenge!