I'm just home from a 350 day, 43000 klm around Aus trip - Ask Me Anything

[trevc]

Hi Swaggers

Having been home for a few days I thought I'd throw a few stats up from our journey. I can't believe we were gone for 12 months it only seems like last week we departed on our trip of a lifetime. Australia is a large and beautiful country and we feel like we only scratched the surface.

I did heaps of research from the info swaggers have posted over the years and would like to give a little back, so if you have any questions about our experience that could help you, ask away!

We departed Brisbane 7/1/14 in a 150VX V6 Prado and 'bitsa' 9 ft soft floor off road CT.

Days on the road: 350
Total Klm's: 43,000
Number of separate camps: 129

Days in:
QLD: 17
NSW: 43
ACT: 4
VIC: 38
TAS: 30
SA: 46
NT: 47
WA: 120

Accommodation type:

Commercial Caravan Parks: 90
Private Camp Grounds: 45
Council Parks: 37
National/State Parks: 100
Free Camps: 59
Family and Friends: 20

Budget:

Average daily cost of:

Grocery Food and Booze: $55.63
Fuel: $39.54
Accom: $18.67
Entertainment: $5.26
Takeaway / Counter Meals and Drinks: $17.02
Camp Items (Gas refills, Laundry etc): $4.58
Total Daily Average: $140.70 (Budgeted $135)

Vehicle Repairs:

4 x Prado Tyres (new)
2 x Prado Tyres (2nd hand)
3 x Trailer Tyres (2nd hand)
4 x UHF Aerials
3 x Trailer wiring plugs

Favorite Places:

Trev: The Olgas NT, Cape Range WA, Cape Leveque WA
Bec: Karajini NP WA, Tunnel Creek NP WA, Great Ocean Rd VIC
Sam: El Questro Resort WA, Bell Gorge WA, Grampians NP VIC
Olivia: Windjana Gorge WA, Litchfield NP NT, Adelaide Zoo SA

Trev

[D4D]

Welcome back

[Bad Scott]

Welcome back

X2

[trevc]

We have about 14000 pics so can't even begin to fathom choosing them.
We had a travel blog on FB, Cummings & Goings - that's were the daily pics and travel reports live.

However if you have any questions, ask away!

[jmorgan1981]

Guys outstanding.

Wish I was you.

[vicandug]

Welcome home.

I followed you on Facebook. 

[xcvator]

My back yards not on your list of favourite places 

[trevc]

My back yards not on your list of favourite places 

Keithy

We wanted to keep your and Bronnys fabulous hospitality our own little secret.
Definitely best roast chicken in Australia, without question!!!

Merry Xmas from me, Bec and the kids

[xcvator]

Hey Trev, interesting reading your stats, I read somewhere months ago that a budget of $1-20 per/klm gives a pretty accurate overall figure, looks like it's true for you 

[trevc]

Keith

We kept track of every dollar spent, sounds a bit anal but we didn't have a bottomless bucket of cash and it wasn't hard to keep receipts and whack them into the spreadsheet every few days. We don't feel we missed out on anything and in fact was a great to live within a tight budget.

[xcvator]

I think you've done very well with 2 small carnivore/bottomless pits along on the food and entertainment side 

[DannyG]

Do you like naked midget jelly wrestling?  You said ask you anything.....

Seriously though, I was just ready your stats on Facebook, I am very envious 

[firefox]

Hey Trev
Glad to see you guys got back. Sounds like you've had lots of fun.

[trevc]

Danny, indeed I do - did you see my search history?
FF - we had a ball and could of just kept on driving past Brissie and gone around again if we could.

[jeeps]

Was it for four people?

[trevc]

Yes Jeeps

Myself, wife Bec, Sam 12 and Olivia 9.
Numbers had no affect on fuel but obviously everything else.
CP's charge anywhere between 3 and 10 bucks/per kid per day and NP's vary but usually around 2 to 5 per kid.
The 12 year old eats as an adult so all in all we did pretty well $$$ wise

[speewa158]

So which was the Best Camp fire you attended at a Swaggers Catch up          

[Moggy]

Can you post a link for the blogs. I dont have a fb (took awhile to work that out) account

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[KingBilly]

Welcome home.  Sounds like you had a great adventure.

Those stats are pretty impressive.  Calculated the total cost, wow!!  Quickly adds up 

I too would appreciate a link to your FB blog as I'm a bit of a numby with FB

KB

[terravista]

Hi Guys and thanks for the info.
You had a pretty low ratio of free camps. Was that by choice?
Cheers

[trevc]

Can you post a link for the blogs. I dont have a fb (took awhile to work that out) account

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Not sure how to post a link, try this: https://www.facebook.com/cummings.vagabonds

The blog was primarily for family, friends and interested strangers so we thought Facebook was the best medium for that.

[trevc]

So which was the Best Camp fire you attended at a Swaggers Catch up          

Jamie you know you Mexicans put on the best campfire not just in Australia but the world. The Eildon fires made all the rest look small.
The kids still talk about our Nagambie adventure and the firetruck.
Looking forward to catching up with the Vic swaggers again.

Trev

[KingBilly]

Not sure how to post a link, try this: https://www.facebook.com/cummings.vagabonds

The blog was primarily for family, friends and interested strangers so we thought Facebook was the best medium for that.

That worked.  Thanks

KB

[vicandug]

I just calculated how much the total cost was.
I had better start saving more $$$$$

[trevc]

Hi Guys and thanks for the info.
You had a pretty low ratio of free camps. Was that by choice?
Cheers

Good question TV. Before we left I thought about 1/3rd each in Free, NP CP's, and did budget for an overall daily cost of $20 so even though we had a lot less free camps than projected our daily spend was less than forecast. Also the numbers are a little skewed as I included all nights spent in National and State Parks although out of those 100 we didn't pay for 28 of them.

Some places, like Tassie and SA, there seemed to be heaps of free camps whereas the NT and WA were less so. If we were in a caravan and wanted to spend nights in roadside stops that would be a lot different but that wasn't the type of travelling we were after.
Some areas were there is little free camping around the 'attraction' like the gorges on the Gibb River road you can camp some klm's away but it can be a false economy if you have to drive 40k's each way to save $20. Particularly if you want to spend a few days in the area.

We preferred not to use Caravan Parks but sometimes they do serve a purpose, particularly in southern WA where the weather was unsettled and having games rooms and camp kitchens took some pressure off the 4 of us living in a 3x3 meter space.
Also you need to access washing machines and 240v to recharge batteries from time to time, and we stayed in heaps that were only $20'ish a night so it's not a bad compromise.

But all in all most of my favorite camps were free; on the banks of the Gibb River just past the Kalumburu turnoff from the GRR, Boat Harbour Beach in the north of Tassie, Ophir just out of Orange, and my all time favorite was Quongdong Point on the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome where we had our own private headland and beach for a week.

Trev