Bluebell made her longest ever trip yet to the Hay Festival on Sunday morning (19 miles each way by the back roads) with 3 aboard. We had emailed in advance to ask if we could charge her and a helpful Andy Fryers (“Mr Green” of the Festival) explained that we were the first ever Hay visitors to make this request but he would sort us out.
Fortunately, we arrived about 40 minutes before our ticketed session because the security staff on the parking sites were friendly but bewildered by our need for a charging point. After about 30 minutes of scootering around the site, we eventually were provided with a place where Bluebell could park and a long extension lead. We stupidly had neglected to bring along one of our own. (Safety note for long distance Bluebell adventurers). The above photo of is Bluebell happily recharging behind the portaloos with our helpful Hay Festival steward in attendance.
The experience brought home to us that, for all the talk of electric vehicles, there is still a real gap between hype and reality. We felt like real pioneers!
The good news? We parked for free and charged for free – Thank you Hay Festival!
We plan to return in Bluebell on Friday and see if repeating the exercise is any easier….
Actually, we think we *might* have made the round trip without recharging but it would have been a slow and alarmingly close run thing. Not recommended. In the 3 hours we were at the Festival, Bluebell recovered all her charge and we zoomed (in a Bluebell sense of zooming) home to Talybont.
Tags: Electric Car, Hay Festival, Talybont energy
June 11, 2010 at 5:36 pm |
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