40,000km's later!

I have had a lot of questions regarding how much we spent? Well here is a basic breakdown on our expenditure.

Fuel $9,800

Food $8,600

Accommodation $8,100

Entertainment $8,000

In total recorded expenses were $34,500 but I can honestly say it was closer to $70,000. I would never take on a trip like this without having at least $52,000 in the bank. It’s realistic to cover things going wrong (new car fridge $1,200) and expensive once in a lifetime experiences like the Horizontal Water Falls Tour $1,835. Why would you come all this way and not have the cash to do these amazing things as you probably won’t ever be here to get the chance again.

Fuel - This was our biggest expense! It was so expensive ($2.20 ltr) in some of the small outback towns, we carried two fuel jerries and topped these up in the cheaper areas whenever possible.

Food - This was our next biggest expense! We hardly ever ate out, making all our snacks and lunches each morning and taking them with us on any day trips. I also cooked every night in the van utilising produce purchased from the side of the road and fish whenever we were able to catch it or had it given to us. Again we bought up big in the larger towns, and avoided the smaller towns. Keeping a menu, and planning meals made this easier.

Accommodation – This could have been heaps lower if we had not had Scarlett along with us. Having an only child, and one so young, meant that we always went to big van parks with pools and playgrounds every other week or so for her to socialize. There are so many free camps out there that are beautiful, and Shane and I (had it just been the two of us) would have stayed many more nights at them. Our favourite free camps included – Gregory Downs Free Camp just outside Lawn Hill NT, Mary Pool Rest Area NT and Spring Creek Rest area NT where we left our van for the day while exploring the Bungle Bungles.

Gregory Downs Free Camp

The best caravan park was Cairns Coconut Resort, where Scarlett had an awesome time in their cool pools, playgrounds and Water Park. Followed by the Whitsundays Big 4, where we had a membership card giving quite a good discount on multiple night stays. We also invested in a Top Tourist Parks membership card giving us good discounts in their parks too.

Cairns Coconut Resort

Horizontal Waterfalls

Entertainment – The most expensive was the Horizontal Waterfalls Day tour out from Derby being $1,835.00 and by far the best experience we had on the trip. Second was the Whale Shark Swim at Coral Bay being $870, but also worth every cent. Also worth noting was the Kuranda railway/skyway at $220.50 and the yellow waters sunset tour at Kakadu NT $196.91, also two amazing tours we all thoroughly enjoyed. (These prices are/were for the three of us combined).
 

So what were our top 10 most favourite things?

1. Fraser Island

2. Horizontal Water Falls

3. Karijini National Park

4. Ayres Rock

5. Kakadu

6. Coral Bay

7. Margaret River

8. Cervantes

9. Kangaroo Island

10. Bremer Bay

So when you add up the van ($42,000), the car ($28,000), and the expenses ($70,000); we could easily have made a great headway into a mortgage……but in the end it’s only money, and the experiences and time spent together as a family….PRICELESS