UK2017

Oxford - York

In the morning we decided to drive to a parking close to city center and walk around before leaving for York. Long story short: parking in Oxford is not a pleasant experience - busy, expensive and lot of unclear rules. Anyway, we walked to the center and had a nice guided tour in the Bodleian Library and the New College (don't be fooled by the name, the New College is one of the oldest and was founded in 1379). The guide was himself an Oxford alumnus and entertained us with various trivia: did you know that the only two studies you cannot do in Oxford are dentistry and veterinary science? And since New College was used for filming some Harry Potter movies, he also quizzed the group on knowledge of the characters and scenes. After the tour we had a super-delicious lunch at Turl Street Kitchen: the place comes highly recommended. Last but not least, we couldn't resist the temptation and dove into the Blackwell's Book Shop on Broad Street, especially its basement department - the Norrington room.

At about 15:30 (40 minutes late for parking, fortunately we got away with it) we left Oxford. We had 73% (about 325 km) charge and stopped for 10 minutes at Warwick SuC to answer nature's call and top up. A tesla employee was repairing a stall - someone had backed up into it.

Continuing our route we got into some traffic around Birmingham which cost us about 45 minutes. After Birmingham we took the M6 Toll North which was clear of traffic.

Tip: use the UK Supercharger Guide if you are preparing your Tesla trip through the UK. Some of the chargers are officially accessible in one direction only, the site lists some 'work-arounds' which may be unsupported by Tesla but still work.

The Stoke-on-Trent SuC is officially only available in the southbound direction. We decided to skip it because we figured we would have enough to reach Barnsley - the route through the scenic Peak District would not use much energy as the winding roads wouldn't permit us to drive more than 60 km/h on average. So we couldn't test the work-around: hopefully we will do so on the way back from Scotland.

Buxton Opera House

The Peak District was a breathtaking experience: first and foremost, because of its beauty (see photos) but also because Katja - in the passenger seat - had to endure closely passing vehicles on narrow roads. We stopped in Buxton to see if there was a charger available and caught a glimpse of a beautiful opera house but we decided to move on because we wanted to see the whole Peak District before dark.

SuC Barnsley

We reached Barnsley SuC with 6% charge. This is a small 2-stall SuC near a nice-looking hotel. The food they serve is, unfortunately, not on par with the looks.

After another hour of driving we arrived in York around 0:30 which brings our total trip time to 9 hours. We stopped for about 2 hours in total, which gives us a net driving time of 7 hours, or 6:15 without traffic delays. Google maps predicted 5:46 which is still a bit optimistic. Lesson learned: the estimated time should be corrected by about 50% which we should do from now on.

The good news is that tomorrow we have a day in York - we can sleep in!

Canterbury - Oxford

  

After a walk through a hot and surprisingly crowded Canterbury we left for Oxford with plenty of charge. We skipped Maidstone and stopped at the Oxford SuC (5 stalls, 5 are under construction). The area has a nice peaceful feeling to it, with a Ramada hotel and a WelcomeBreak food court where we had a quick bite.

Oxford SuC

Oxford SuC

5 stalls under construction

5 stalls under construction

During the trip I finally understood how Tesla reads signs in the UK. First, I reset the units back to kilometres. Apparently, the instrument panel always shows the speed it actually reads, no matter the unit setting. So if the speed limit is 70 mph, the display shows 70, but when I set the TACC to that speed, it becomes 118 kmh! Confusing but there is logic to its madness.

When we arrived in Oxford at our B&B (Actually, this B&B turned out to be just the first B without the second B, so just a B), it started raining. We waited until the rain stopped and then took the bus to the city center. It was a marvellous experience: the sun was setting, the sky was clearing up, the streets were quiet and the ancient buildings were still and mysterious. An impression follows below. 

Den Haag - Canterbury

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Last night I didn't sleep well - excitement before departure. Despite attempts to pack everything the day before, we still were running around the house at 9:00. Left at 9:40 with 412 km range.

Supercharger Ghent has 4 temporary stalls  - funny big red cable bundles proceed to a greenish building which probably contains an electricity power station enough to power a medium sized village.

Today we confirmed that using Waze in addition to Tesla nav is a good idea: it's up to date and frighteningly smart about route optimising - once it sent us to a parallel stretch of road to bypass about 1 km of traffic jam. Tesla nav is very useful for SuC data (such as their locations and usage) and the energy estimates. So we generally end up using both.

Arrived to Calais on time but due to traffic at checkin the trains were delayed by about 45 minutes. The shopping center is extremely uninteresting, but there is a 4 stalls SuC here, so time well spent! Lesson learned: if you can help it, don't plan the crossing during high season in the weekend. It's crowded and expensive.

Speaking of Superchargers: the first time I crossed the Chunnel, I planned to charge on the other side in Folkestone, only to find out that that supercharger is 'Calais-bound' only. In Calais there is one supercharger which you can visit without taking the train, and the other one is behind the check-in.

Tip: when going from the Continent to the UK, be sure to charge before crossing unless you have enough to reach Maidstone (53 km). 

The crossing itself is very smooth and painless and takes 35 minutes. A word of caution: Model S is very wide and space in the train is tight. Special care if you have 21" rims since they are easily damaged due to raised edges of the metal train floor. 

On the other side we quickly turned off the motorway to a beautiful winding road in the direction of Canterbury (footage from dashcam hopefully forthcoming). We changed the units to miles but something weird happened: Tesla started to convert the speed limits on road signs from kilometres to miles. Hopefully after a night rest she will discover she is in the UK and will adjust her behaviour.

Train

Extra stalls in Ghent SuC

Alien cables

Calais UK-bound SuC

Almost boarding

Careful with those rims!

Here are some pictures of Canterbury. It's a lovely medieval city with 40K inhabitants and 40K students. It's rather touristic in high season but the magnificent cathedral is definitely worth a visit.