Mary Taylor, the Mornington Peninsula grandmother who hasn’t let her 89 years dampen her spirit of adventure, has set off on yet another long-distance road trip around Australia -- except this time she is going green in a petrol-electric Honda Civic Hybrid.
Mary’s 46-day odyssey will see her cover 16,000 kilometres as she travels clockwise around the continent, from Mornington to Echuca, the Red Centre, Perth, Darwin and then back home via Longreach, Broken Hill and Mildura.
This trip is Mary’s 14th around Australia and could well be her last.
Mary is no stranger to travelling long distances in Honda cars, with previous journeys completed in a Jazz and Accord. This journey, however, will be the first to use environmentally-friendly hybrid technology.
A hybrid car uses a petrol and electric engine in combination to lower fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. The Civic Hybrid uses 4.6 litres of petrol for every 100 kilometres travelled.
Choosing to drive the Hybrid instead of an already fuel efficient, regular petrol-engined Civic means Mary will save almost a tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on her journey.
Mary’s taste for adventure came late in life following a fifty-year marriage to one of Australia’s top soldiers, Major-General Tim Taylor.
After Tim passed away some years ago, Mary -- who despite having a licence had rarely driven -- decided to see Australia, and do it by road.
“I was driving home from my daughter’s house and thought what if I kept on going?” said Mary.
“That started me thinking about how to go about planning such a trip. Having been married to one of Australia’s most senior soldiers, I’d had some experience at planning, I bought road maps and started to plan. Something like a minor military exercise”
Not long after, Mary set off on what was to be the first of many adventures driving around Australia.
A keen author and photographer, Mary has also published a book about her outback adventures entitled "Baked Beans in the Outback and Curry in Kashmir".