Charge Around The Globe – Lexie and the Ford Explorer head to Australia

Lexie Alford (@LexieLimitless) and Ford Explorer’s electric-powered Charge Around The Globe continues into its third continent, Oceania. The journey started in Adelaide, Australia, with the vast size of the country making itself apparent from the off as she faced a six-and-a-half-hour drive to Warrnambool, the overnight coastal stopover on her way to Melbourne.

The following day allowed for the scenic Great Ocean Road to be experienced before arriving in Victoria’s capital, where the Explorer pulled up outside the Big Esso all-day bar and kitchen. The restaurant is run by chef Nornie Bero and puts indigenous Australian food and native ingredients to the forefront of the menu. Lexie used her adventurous nature to do a bit more exploring, this time of the different flavours on offer, as she and Nornie shared a meal and Lexie heard more about the ethos behind the tastes.

After Melbourne the Explorer was pointed northeast towards Sydney with another stopover in the city of Albury. Around one hour outside of Sydney, the stunning Sea Cliff Bridge was crossed – a 450 metres long bridge, named by an 11-year old primary school student, that opened in 2005 and has become something of a tourist attraction – with panoramic views of the waters Lexie would soon be on.

As October is a time of year when humpback and southern right whales migrate along this coast back towards the Southern Ocean from the Pacific, Lexie called in on Sydney-based marine biologist Dr Vanessa Pirotta. Dr V (as she likes to be called) invited Lexie out to see her innovative way of collecting whale ‘snot’ using drones that hover above the water as the whales come up for air. As the whales blow out the snot these drones use flip-lid petri dishes to capture it, which can then be analysed to check the whale health and contribute to helping their conservation. And the whales don’t even know it’s happened.

On her last morning in Sydney, Lexie headed to the famous Bondi Beach to find out from beachgoers their favourite things about Australia, their favourite foods and even some local slang terms. No shrimps were put onto barbies. Then it was back in the Ford Explorer to make her way towards Byron Bay, with very little drama aside from a flat tyre on the way to the overnight stop at Port Macquarie.

At Byron Bay, Paul, one of the Yellow Jackets from RecordSetter met Lexie at the Cape Byron Lighthouse, which sits on the most eastern point of the Australian mainland. After checking the car and verifying mileage it was time to add more kilometres to the journey in her bid to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe in an electric vehicle.

And Australia certainly added those. With the next few days driving to Noosa Heads, then Gladstone, Mackay, Airlie Beach, Townsville and finally Cairns, Lexie had travelled well over 4,000 kilometres through the country by the time she was watching the sun set on her Australian adventure.

You can track her attempt to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe in an electric vehicle on the dedicated RecordSetter page, and follow Charge Around the Globe at Ford News Europe’s X, Instagram and YouTube as well as at Lexie’s Instagram and YouTube. Or simply follow the #ChargeAroundTheGlobe hashtag.  

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