Michigan: Route Survey - Day 5

A lot of driving. Pass through Tennant Creek and Katherine. Large brushfires create low hanging smoke clouds, which is the closest thing to weather we've seen since the first night (weatherman Nate is bored). Actually see some smoldering/burning trees on both sides of the road. Pull into Darwin in the evening, stop briefly at our hostel. Wash off two and a half days of dirt. Walk downtown for dinner at the Hog's Breath Cafe, experience burgers with beetroot. Sleep on something other than rocks.

--Garrick Williams

Michigan: Team Members Arriving in Australia

The second group of race crew members has arrived in Melbourne and we've been busy preparing for the receipt of our equipment here in Australia. Both the race semi and air crate will be arriving at port tomorrow (Saturday) and will be cleared through customs here in Melbourne first thing on Monday. Brooke Bailey and Roxanna Vigil have been working closely with our contacts at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, New Zealand Air, and Nippon to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch. Holden has supplied our team with a fleet of vehicles for this year's race and we've already picked up a handful of their 4WD cars. Though driving on the "other side" of the road is a little strange at first, we've gotten used to it surprisingly quickly.

After a brief stay in Melbourne and a quick stop in Adelaide, Garrick Williams, Jeff Ferman, Nate Lehman, and Michael Kezelian have hit the road for some pre-race scouting in South Australia. They've already met up with Bob Allen, our long-time Australian weather and communications expert, in Adelaide where we'll be assembling our equipment for pre-race testing.

The engineers in Ann Arbor are taking some much needed rest after finishing packing Continuum for shipment earlier this week. They are the last (and largest) group of race crew members leaving for Australia, so our operations division will be working hard to make sure that everything is prepped and ready when everyone arrives in Adelaide later this month.

--Tom Carroll

Michigan: Route Survey - Day 4

We awake early to the sunrise and a great view of Island Lagoon, a huge dry lake that stretches to our south (this particular stretch of the highway runs mostly east-west). Enjoy? a quick meal of frosted flakes in the blustery conditions. Standing with back to the wind prevents frosted flakes from blowing off spoon.

Route survey continues north toward Glendambo, the next control stop, with Mike at the helm and Dave manning the survey computer. Arrive at Glendambo roadhouse without incident, press on without stopping as gas guage is still over 3/4. Inverter pops and smells of smoke. Pull off on the side of the road, repairs unsuccessful. After a brief conference, we determine to press on without the inverter, losing the ability to collect GPS data. Will buy an inverter at the earliest opportunity (not too many electronic stores in the outback). This is not too much of a problem, as the return trip GPS data is what will actually be used.

100 km to Coober Pedy, vehicle display shows a remaining range rather smaller than that. No gas stations between here and there. Mike reduces speed to save petrol, but range is still lower than remaining distance. We coast to a stop and remove the luggage from the roof rack to reduce aerodynamic drag. Only a minor improvement in range outlook, so we proceed with AC off at 80 kph. Somewhere just past the sign indicating 20 km to Coober Pedy, range remaining reads zero with the gas needle on empty, but the car is still running. I'm pretty sure I see a wedge-tailed eagle circling. We decide that 2 of us will start walking when the car stops and 2 will stay with the car. We get out the sat phones to stay in contact.

Somehow the car makes it to Coober Pedy (source of something like 90% of the world's opal), sputtering a little bit as we pull up to the gas station. We fill up and eat a quick lunch of sandwiches and red dust just north of town. Continue to drive, crossing border into the Northern Territory. Pull into Alice Springs, the biggest town between Adelaide and Darwin and the halfway point of the route, around 6 PM, shortly before sunset. Everything apparently closes at 6, so no luck with the inverter. Dinner at KFC. Nate asks nicely and gets a free extra chicken wing with his "ultimate burger meal" (Aussies call basically any hot meat sandwich that isn't a steak sandwich a "burger" apparently, so a chicken burger is just a grilled or breaded chicken breast sandwich). Press on northward for a couple more hours, stopping at Ryan Well, a mid 1800s stock watering well. Wind is much less than last night, and the rocks are somewhat less sharp.

--Garrick Williams

Michigan: Route Survey - Day 3

Awoke early to a breakfast of toast and tea at the hostel. Group heads out and we make our first stop at Dick Smith's electronics to grab an inverter (one of the key pieces of equipment stuck in customs) and some miscellaneous other electronic bits. We then go to Flinders camping to meet Roscoe Shelton, a longtime Australian friend of the team. Roscoe treats us to coffee, gives us our bearings a bit on the Stuart Highway ("The Track"), and kindly asks "what happened on the gridiron on Saturday?". I had hoped we'd gotten far enough away from Ann Arbor to escape that, but it's a small world these days. Roscoe sends us off with some good advice and a pair of two person tents for the trip. Next stop is at the shop of Bob Allan, another longtime contributor to the team and weather / communications equipment guru. We unpack a bit of our excess luggage, get some more sage advice, and get in touch with Chris Selwood, director of the WSC. He agrees to meet us back at Roscoe's to deliver the official route book, which has just arrived hot of the press. After a brief lunch at McDonald's (which is basically the same here, although they do offer a burger with egg), we stop back at Roscoe's to pick up the book. I should note that Roscoe, Bob, and Chris are all fine chaps with many good stories, so this process actually took somewhere around 5 hours all told. With all that settled, we booted up the computer and began the official route survey in Victoria Square in the heart of downtown Adelaide.

We drove north until about 10 PM, with a stop at the Big W and also Woolworth's in Port Augusta (the last WSC control stop) for supplies (lunchmeat, bread, PBJ, water, a cooler, a shovel, TP, etc.). We stop in the pitch dark (the stars are clouded over) at a barren little rest pull-off just north of Pimba. Mike and Dave can't take the cold (it's below 12 C) and sleep in the car (an arrangement which will continue throughout the trip). Nate and I brave the gale force winds and tie the tent to the car to keep it from blowing away. Lightning flashes ominously in the distance.

--Garrick Williams

Michigan: Leaving For Australia

The beginning of the fall semester marks a critical time for the 2007, 2008, and 2009 race seasons. The 2007 World Solar Challenge is only 47 days away and we're finally able to see our years of work translate into performance on the road. At the same time, our Team is seeing new beginnings as we prepare for the 2008 North American Solar Challenge and 2009 World Solar Challenge.

To ensure sufficient testing before the 2007 World Solar Challenge in October, our 23-student race crew is currently boarding planes for nearly 2-months of testing and prep in Australia with the UM Solar Car Team. The operations and strategy personnel will arrive in Melbourne this week to begin initial preparations while the engineering division finishes packing Continuum for shipment. Our Team has reached this important milestone after a hectic 6 weeks of work following the unveiling in mid July. Continuum has completed initial dynamic, endurance, and road testing in southeast Michigan after months of construction. The vehicle's solar array has just recently been completed and will continue testing after arrival in Australia later this month.

As we continue to prepare for the World Solar Challenge, our Team has a stable future in North America following the confirmation of the 2008 North American Solar Challenge (NASC). Teams from the US and Canada will compete in the 9th running of this cross continental event now sponsored by Toyota. This fall, students in Ann Arbor will be preparing for the running of Continuum in the 2008 NASC while others begin the design process for the 2009 World Solar Challenge.

--Tom Carroll

Michigan: Route Survey - Day 2

Head to the shopping mall in the morning, purchase SIM cards, pillow, soap. Enjoy lunch - for myself, a mix kebab with all the salads and doner sauce (This roughly translates to a chicken and lamb pita wrap with lettuce, tomato, and onion (all the salads), with a mayo-like lamb (doner) sauce). David is laughed at by food court staff for asking what "tasty" is (it's "american" cheese). Visit freight forwarder, learn that shipment is being held by customs and won't be released until the car crate arrives. Decide to strike out for Adelaide and complete route survey without weather gear. Hit the road, see some great landscapes, beautiful stars (when it gets pitch dark at 7 PM). Arrive at Adelaide hostel (Cannon St. Backpackers) at 10:30 Adelaide time, promptly fall asleep.

--Garrick Williams

Michigan: Route Survey - Day 1

Arrive in Melbourne ~9:45 AM local time. Clear customs with no troubles. Mike and I grab a cab to Holden headquarters, where we pick up our vehicle - a light blue, 6 cylinder, AWD, 7 seat Adventura wagon. After getting a crash course in Australian driving (stay on the left, mates), we head out, or at least try, as apparently I managed to get the parking brake stuck. Mike puts his weight into it and we're off. Immediately embarrass myself by activating the windshield wipers rather than the turn indicator (the levers are reversed). Mike takes over driving, with no further incidents sans a couple of clipped curbs (that whole wrong side of the car thing again). Arrive back at airport. Stack an absurd number of duffel bags onto the roof rack, load up and head out. Take a wrong turn. Arrive back at airport. Drive off toward the freight forwarder to receive our weather gear that was shipped via air freight. Road listed in Google directions does not exist. Turn around. Arrive back at airport. Ask for directions at gas station. No worries mate, head out towards freight forwarder. Determine that Google directions hopelessly out of date.

Finally arrive at freight forwarder, drop off customs documents. Will return to pick up gear in morning once it clears customs. Visit Big W (Wal-Mart, down here), buy an atlas. Drive to downtown Melbourne and make a short visit to OmniStar, who have generously agreed to loan us 2 high-accuracy GPS units for our survey. Arrive at the hostel, the Pint on Punt, at around 6 PM. Enjoy $10 steak night at the pub on the first floor, then promptly fall asleep at 8:30 PM.

--Garrick Williams