The first 9 weeks…

Here is a bit of a summary of our first 9weeks on the road… I figure this might help others that are planning to do the same thing get an idea of how much it really costs to travel. We are doing this with a budget! But we have a balance of not sacrificing important things but also not wasting money. So we are doing the activities that are important to us but not splurging. We don’t eat out of a night and we have generally packed sandwiches for lunches except on those days when eating somewhere nice was part of the local experience for us. Because of the ages of our kids we have generally not had to pay for accommodation or entry fees for them so families with older children will need to all a bit extra.

We have traveled x kms over 63days at an approximately total cost of $6250.

Fuel- $2,100
Accommodation- $1,225 (An easy mix of van parks, cheap camps, and free camps)
Shopping- $1,415 (groceries, regular daily purchases)
Snacks- $400 (things like coke, eating out for lunch, cake & coffee etc)
Laundry- $120 (I also used our own little washing machine as a supplement, but keep in mind we are using cloth nappies so a regular family without nappies would wash a heck of a lot less)
Alcohol- $295 (mostly cartons of beer rather than pub prices)
Activities- $440 (entry fees, helicopter flight etc)
Other- $180 (clothes, rechargeable torch etc)
Gas- $75 (for the weber and running the fridge, I think the bottle is mostly still full)

There are probably some things that I am missing… I don’t think I have the $75 for the waeco fridge cover in there for example but that’s not a typical traveling cost so I think it’s all near enough for the purpose.

So essentially we have had to allow about $700 a week to do this. I think for most families that have allowed themselves, say, a year to travel Australia then we would be moving at about the right kind of pace, but for our future travels (when we don’t have an existing work commitment to make) we intend to do it much, much slower. Which would reduce our overall fuel costs and drop our weekly expenditure to about $500. But for a family with two kids between 5 and 15 I think you need to allow an extra overall cost for accommodation of between $500-$700 plus activities etc so on average another $100 a week.

Essential travel bits, and things we wasted our money on!

Big winners-
The waeco- so handy having the fridge in the truck with us. An absolute lifesaver with keeping sandwiches and snacks on hand for the kids when we need to push through that extra half hour and also in the heat to keep our drinks cold. Worth every cent!
Tinting on the truck windows.
Our Camps 4 book.
My 4 thin plastic Tupperware chopping boards.
The in-car DVD player (again for the kids)
300w inverter which converts the trucks 24v system into 240v power which has been bloody handy.
Weber BBQ
My menstrual cup (sorry blokes if it‘s too much information! but the women might appreciate the tip)
The inner-spring mattresses.
The internet gateway thing so we can both have wireless internet connection on our own laptops,
Not sure if it was worth it-
The washing machine. I think if you got into the habit of setting it up, or stayed somewhere for more than just a few nights then it would be different. We used it anywhere we camped for more than a few days but it was more effort than it was worth to get it out and set it up. If it was plumbed in inside the van then that would make a huge difference to using it.
The annexe walls. I love them and I love the extra room it gives us when we are stopped for a period of time but for the vast majority of short-stop traveling I think the shade cloth surrounds are much handier simply because they are soooo much quicker to set up.
The TV. We really never turned it on. Maybe if we had a better easier antenna it would get used more.

Total waste of space or money.
The boat.
The tools we bought along we really don’t need. Regular tools are ok but we also bought working tools like the which I think are just taking up a heap of space and dragging down our fuel economy and are not going to make any difference to us finding work at all.
My red wine. I am not drinking anywhere near as much as I had hoped! LOL! It’s been so hot I have not felt like a red wine. I think I have drank three bottles! So another 53 bottles to go.

shake down cruise

we are midway through our shake down cruise to Sydney and back. Time to get the bugs sorted and see what we need to do/change/fix/pack before we head off for good.

A few little things... all sorts of issues with our internet connection. We signed on to Telstra Next G (only company with remote coverage) but if we had a choice i'd go someplace else. They were deadset useless to deal with and made an absolute mess of things. I hate to see my mobile phone bill after the multiple phone calls and hours waiting for them to fix it. I hear that Westnet will soon have wireless internet but we've had to sign up for a three year package with Telstra. If you are thinking of travelling make a phone call to Westnet!!!!

Our 12volt is not working so when we get back we'll have to sort that out.

We got an innerspring mattress for the rear bed from the Jayco dealer here. Wanted one for the front bed but they gave us the wrong size and after a second trip back to the showroom they could not figure out why their computer system had no information on the size of mattress we needed.... ??? So we'll try another Jayco dealership as we head up the coast. I would have liked to have used Made to Measure Mattresses but they never phone back when they say they will and can't tell me if they can make it to suit our van or not.

But we've had a range of temps here from 44'C for a few days to hail last night and lots of rain! And the air con worked rather well and the van bed ends don't leak so we're happy with that. The fridge struggled a bit so we'll fit those fans that other Expanda owners have talked about.

I've wanted to get out and go for a walk to practice some of my photography lessons but it's either been waaaaay to hot or sprinkling (now) so i've not had a chance. I'm itching to do it though!

With all the rain up north we are not sure of our travel plans. We'll wait and see until late March but instead of crossing through the the NT gulf we might need to drop down to Cloncurry and head in that way. Which would be a shame cos it would mean missing Lorella Springs. Got an email from them last night and we could have worked there for the tourist season too but we have already made arrangements with Litchfield so.... next year maybe!!

a big decision

We have always known we would travel. But it was always something we would do after the next baby, when we had paid off the house, when work permitted, when the children were older..... and then one day amongst the looming recession, stock market doom and gloom, and an increase of financial pressures we looked at our life and looked at our boys and then looked at each other and said "Why not? Let's just go."

And so we are going.

It feels wonderfully liberating to have made the decision. But the task ahead of us is not a simple one. There is just so much to be done to sell the house, set up our caravan and prepare for our future. Some of it is wonderfully exciting to plan! Flipping though caravanning magazines, our Camps 4 bible, imagining where we will be in six months or next year... and some of it is downright daunting; insurance, budgets, opportunities for work, buying the right gear.

I can't wait for the journey to begin. And i can't wait to share it with you. If you are thinking about travelling with children, or wondering if you could possibly live in a caravan for a couple of years then i hope we can share a few tips or offer a little inspiration.