A corporate lawyer from Birmingham and her new husband are taking an environmentally friendly trip around Australia - powered by discarded oil from fish and chip shops.
Rachel Mimmo, 28, married Sydney-born civil engineer Gerard Mimmo, 36, and emigrated to Australia in April. For their honeymoon, the newlyweds have set off on a trip around Australia in a Toyota Landcruiser which has been adapted to run on vegetable oil.
The couple have dubbed the vehicle the "battered fish" because of the smell it makes and are asking fish and chips shops along the route to donate unwanted oil.
On the couple's website Around Oz on a Battered Fish, Mrs Mimmo wrote: "Before we settle into the 9-5 working lifestyle, we have decided to embark on a 30,000km 'eco-pioneering' adventure around the whole of Australia.
"The Mission: to attempt to travel around the whole of Australia 'eco-friendly'. By eco-friendly, we mean: - using waste vegetable oil from roadhouses and fish & chip shops to fuel our second hand 4WD (which we are calling 'the battered fish' due to the aroma that will be ascending from the exhaust!); - staying in bush camps; - using eco-friendly and bio-degradable products; - cooking over camp fires; - using solar-panels to power the fridge; - using solar-powered equipment; and - catching (we hope!) our own dinner and buying local produce.
"The challenges that lie ahead of us are vast - from the huge distances that we will be travelling, the corrugated roads, deep creek crossings and not to mention quite a few man-eating animals along the way!"
She said they have encountered some problems in the first week of their trip as they have found most fish and chip shops have contracts with people who turn the waste oil into biodiesel. But some have been helpful and the couple have already made it from their home in Sydney to Brisbane. They hope to be back in Sydney for Christmas Eve.
Mr Mimmo said the vehicle has to be started using diesel fuel but is switched to vegetable oil once the engine has warmed up.
