As we mentioned yesterday, today was the day we turned the team hierarchy on its head, giving students full control of all activities and letting the adults take a back seat. Having tumbled down the rabbit hole, we found ourselves in a nightmarish parallel world, where young people ruled with efficiency, maturity and a willingness to learn. Notwithstanding the disappointing lack of anarchy, we can declare the experiment a complete success. We faced many challenges (not of our making) and met them all, completing our biggest day so far of around 500km, from Erldunda to Coober Pedy. A few notable standouts included Jacob Holmes who acted as co-pilot, managing communication between the busses, and Brad Decker, who took control of all vehicle and radio batteries.

The long ride was also a chance for our emergency riders to step up to the plate once again. Rory Purdie rode 100km today, and Chloe Ridge-Burns gave another demonstration of her personal speciality – high speeds up hills. Lacey Peitsch had her third ride, completing 60km in tough conditions. With our telemetry down, she had no access to information about her battery and motor use. It was discovered after she finished that in fact she had used almost no battery for the entire ride, relying much more heavily on human power. Other riders for the day included Ryan Decker, Aleece MacPhail, Clancy Purdie and Lucus Brennan, all of whom opted for shorter, faster riders in the heat of the afternoon. During Clancy’s stint, we passed a man on a pushbike, who is completing an outback ride down the Stuart Highway. We all agreed that riding through the outback was a ridiculous thing to do, and that he was obviously some kind of madman.

Throughout the day, Leigh Taylor, Nick Hodges and Jay Matherson managed all cattle-grid crossings with military precision, even though the roads threw up some unwelcome surprises due to problems with an incorrect cattle-grid map. It has begun to dawn on us that Northern Territory road information comes with a fairly arbitrary level of accuracy, a realisation that unfortunately came at about the time we crossed the border into South Australia. The crossing itself posed several challenges. To begin with, we lost an hour of our day due to the time difference between the two states. (This did not however prevent us from getting to Coober Pedy on schedule.) Furthermore, we were not permitted to bring fruit across the border, due the risk of spreading parasites. Determined not to let our food go to waste, Matt Hill and Daniel Montgomery put their gastrointestinal comfort on the line and devoured 15 oranges between them. We are all fervently hoping that the story ends there.

Challenges aside, the entry into South Australia has not changed a lot for us so far. The landscape in the north of the state is just as arid; if anything it is flatter and less vegetated than anything we have seen so far. As we head further south we can expect temperatures to lower and the number of towns to increase. There has been much rejoicing at the prospect of temperatures below 30 degrees and real toilets.

In the mean time, however, we remain very much in the centre of the desert. Coober Pedy is famous for its underground housing, which protects against the astonishingly hot weather here. We were highly fortunate to arrive on a 38 degree day; temperatures here are regularly in the mid 40s or even 50s. The highest recorded is 56 degrees, and that was for 3 days in a row.

This fun fact and many more were presented to us at a mine tour at the Umoona Opal Mine, which will also serve as our accommodation for tonight. The building is a real opal mine, which is closed now but has produced millions of dollars worth of opal. We were able to explore hand-dug tunnels that date back to the 1920s, along with more recent machine-dug tunnels and a modern display home. It was entirely captivating, and I’m not just saying that because the Umoona Mine has been a generous sponsor of our project (although their support is also much appreciated.)

Speaking of support, we have been delighted by the interest shown on our website, with 200 000 hits so far. This goes a long way towards our goal of increasing awareness of everyday solutions to climate change. On the other hand, we are a little disappointed that the interest hasn’t translated into support for our charities, which are the other main reason behind what we are doing. We really hope that those of you who are following our progress with so much interest will donate to help support sustainable food and energy in communities that desperately need it. We know that some people are planning to donate at a later stage, but it would be greatly appreciated if these donations could be made as soon as possible, as it would be a great source of encouragement for us.

Meanwhile, we continue to be grateful for you support and enthusiasm, and for the experience we are sharing. We have discovered today that our younger team members are capable of great things; our trial in leadership roles was a success and we are keen to keep learning, so the decision has been made for students to continue to be in charge, with the adults taking on a more active teaching role.

Tomorrow is our biggest riding day. We look forward to the challenge.

View photos here.

GG