DAY 82 - EDITHBURGH SA

EDITHBURGH SA

DAY 82


I feel vindicated after the storm today.

What it did was dissipate the wind and now I’m free to keep moving.

And if you’re going to be trapped somewhere for a while, then Edithburgh is really not so bad for a day or two.

All of my sightseeing was completed this morning before the rain.

I must have known it was coming.

There was some nice photography around the tidal baths and I also made it up to the Wattle Point Wind Farm – Australia’s largest of its kind.

54 of the 55 turbines were working today.

Each 67 metre tower powers 950 homes each and these 55 turbines are spread over 11 sq. kilometres.

So I did some math.

It is approximately 1500 kilometres from Ceduna to Esperance.

Based on spreading the approximate 5 turbines over each square kilometre, 7500 turbines could potentially line up along the entire length of the Great Australian Bight, powering over 7 million Australian homes.

Increase this to 7 or 8 turbines per sq/km and you’re basically powering the entire country.

The only problems here are the upfront costs and manpower to get the turbines up and running and then of course, plugging them into the main grid.

I argue most strongly that any country that can organise and waste billions of dollars on Olympic Games as well as build multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art torture chambers for boat people can surely put a few more wind farms around the place and choose to part of the solution for once…..

The forecasts that count had the wind changing by tomorrow.

The drunks at the pub last night had the northerly buster hanging around until August.

In fact, the wind has moved on altogether.

Suits me just fine.

I also need to attend to some running bike repairs – broken spokes aplenty and they need to be fixed, so all the more reason to start heading back north and getting things done.

Yorketown, Minlaton, Port Victoria and maybe even Stansbury are on the radar for tomorrow.

Where I end up is entirely unknown, but as usual I know it will all work out.