Creekside car camping in the Snowy Mountains
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Car camping in my Tesla, beside a creek, off the beaten track in the Snowy Mountains.
It took me a while to find the site. Earlier, in my search, I pulled off onto two tracks that ended up in someone’s property. At least it gave some local kids an excuse to run outside to see what the UFO sound was I did a three point just outside their gate. I waved and grinned.
A cup of tea and a snack from my Teraglide drawer, sitting in my camp chair, watching the bush life. Until the bush life started eating me (just a few bugs), signaling time for bed.
I again wished I had remembered to pack a collapsible stool, to help climb into the back of the car. Followed by the commando crawl to get on top of the Snuuzu mattress and Teraglide platform. This is the highest sleeping option, which gives lots of storage space and a very comfortable bed. The only down side is requiring more effort getting in and out. Once I’m in, it’s great with plenty of room to move.
Please forgive the “Tesla Tripping – after dark” photos. Hopefully it helps give a real world idea of the space inside.
Sleeping in air conditioned comfort, thanks to the Tesla’s Camp Mode, immune from the outside temps that went from 30 down to 8 ish. Powered by the car’s massive (by camping standards) 60kWh battery, with no generator noise and fumes, or powered site. It also runs my fridge, lights, phone charger etc
When some rain started in the wee hours of the morning, I was very glad to be in a watertight cocoon. When I finally decided to get up, I asked Siri to “open Tesla boot”, to reveal the nature and my exit, under a small awning (the elevated tailgate). I grabbed a poncho from the storage under my bed, and headed outside. I packed up the wet camp chair and just dumped it in the “frunk” (bonnet storage space), pressed the “deflate” button on the Snuuzu mattress, flicked the hinged top of the bed platform back, and pressed “Restore” on the Tesla screen to put the front seat back into my preferred driving position. Super easy camp pack up, even in the rain.
Now to drive down the road to the public amenities for a shower, breakfast, oh, and a conveniently placed public EV charger, miles from anywhere.
Links
- Our review of the Teraglide platform Our Teraglide Pro: how the back of our Tesla became a kitchen, drawer and bed
- Our review of the Snuuzu mattress Snuuzu: the mattress made for sleeping in a Tesla
Do you carry spare tyre or space saver for those dirt roads?
Sleeping quarters look at little cramped compared to my EV5 where I can sit up. I'd need to press fob key to open tailgate.
For the cold I use a subzero sleeping bag.
Nice that there's a charger but at 7kW it's a long wait but do understand being in sticks the capacity of grid won't be good.
The 7kW charger is slow, but good for a top up while having a meal. Enough to charge up for the night’s air conditioning and to get to Orbost the next day.
Just did 5,300km trip to Adelaide with all. Had to use the charger as got stuck in West Wyalong as only charger was out of action.
I do carry the charge all the time.