We know that some people - us included* - like lists and numbers, so here are some for our big journey from 9th May 2010 to 20th April 2011.
*Actually, make that just Rob, but I'm impressed with all this! - Lesley
*Actually, make that just Rob, but I'm impressed with all this! - Lesley
The far corners
Our furthest North N 70° 13’ 39”, at Nyvoll (Norway) on 10/8/2010
Our furthest South N 36° 24’ 07”, at Cape Ténaro (Greece) on 10/1/2011
Our furthest East E 29° 59’ 13”, at the Finnish-Russian border (Finnish side),
on the Kajaani-Kostomuksha road on 19/8/2010
Our furthest West E 01° 36’ 32” near Berck (France) on 20/4/2011
Counting the days (and stays)
Number of nights away (Calais to Calais) 346
Number of nights sleeping in van 332
Number of places we stayed 229
Number of places we stayed in van 227
Number of places we stayed
- 1 night 171
- 3 or more nights 24
- 5 or more nights 5
Longest stay in one place 17 days at Yíthio (Gytheio/Gytheion) in
Greece, over Christmas and New Year
Average length of stay 1.5 days
Number of nights wild camping* 144, or 42%
Countries with most % wild camping* (1) Switzerland – 71% or 5 days out of 7
(2) Norway - 64%, or 25 days out of 39
(3) Greece - 59%, or 37 days out of 63
*Wild camping defined as : in a place not designated for overnighting, and without obtaining specific permission.
Number of nights on proper campsites 99
Number of free overnight stops* 188, or 54%
*Not always the same as wild camping – some designated sites are free, in other places we paid to park on an ordinary street or carpark and slept ‘unofficially’ inside.
Counting the countries
Number of countries we visited 21 (multiple visits to a country not counted)
Countries we stayed longest Greece 63 nights
Italy 60 nights
Norway 39 nights
Countries we stayed least time San Marino 1 night
Netherlands 3 nights
Luxemburg 4 nights
Distances and diesel
Distance Calais to Calais 16329 miles or 26279 kilometres
Furthest driven in a day 251 miles or 404 km, 29/5/10, from Barr in
Alsace to Vincelottes near Auxerre, France
Number of days over 100 miles 44
Number of days under 30 miles 35 (not counting days when we didn’t drive)
Average distance per day 66 (not counting days when we didn’t drive)
Number of days we didn’t drive at all 99
Amount of diesel used, Calais to Calais approximately 2560 litres or 563 gallons
Average miles per gallon of diesel 29 ; up to 30 on long, fast(ish) drive ; rather less on the windy little hill roads that we so like
Money and costs
Money spent while away
total* £15750, or about £45.52 per day
excluding exceptional items** £14000 (approx) or about £40.46 per day
*total : this includes major repairs (van, bike) and replacements (camera), and renewal of insurance and road tax.
**excluding exceptional items, ie. mainly those listed above. This gives a better idea of day-to-day living costs.
Our cheapest countries – we often spent under £220 per week
from Estonia down to Bulgaria – low prices generally
Southern Greece – lowish prices, but mainly as we stayed put
and didn’t use much diesel
Our most expensive countries – sometimes £330 a week or more
Norway, Sweden and Switzerland – so no surprises there.
Cost of overnight stops :
Average of all paid-for nights £10.65
Most expensive night £36.67, renting a holiday cabin in Finland when we had family out to visit us
Most expensive night camping £27.69, on a campsite at Vitznau in Switzerland
Most expensive countries for (paid) accommodation :
Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway
Cheapest countries for (paid) accommodation :
Romania, Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark
Oooo, I love figures! Will be publishing something very similar when we're finished also :)
ReplyDeleteHi Charlie Dog Blog,
ReplyDeleteWe have been planning our own year long trip around Europe in a van similar to yours and have been following your blog along with others. Very exciting! We are struggling to get van & personal insurance to cover us for the whole year and wondered if you have any recommendations?
Gez & Sarah
We had awful problems getting insurance initially, partly because our cars were both company cars (Rob worked for Peugeot), which we then bought. Under their scheme you have the car for a year and when you give it back every nick and ding has to be claimed for under the company insurance scheme. Several years of this had given us the claims history from hell! Mostly no-one would touch us for the van. In the end Rob managed to get past the initial lowly telephone sales staff at Campton and we got a reasonable deal with them. We've just renewed with them and it cost £625 which includes Europe wide breakdown & recovery. Their number is 01883 742460.
ReplyDelete