I thought that it would be a good idea to include some statistics on the Odyssey and details of our expenditure especially for those who may be thinking of embarking on a similar journey.
Odyssey Statistics
We left Butleigh on 3rd September 2007 returning on 21st October 2008, a total of 415 days – just under 14 months.
We stayed in 175 different locations, a mixture of campsites, camperstops and, very occasionally, wild camping spots. For the uninitiated, camperstops are official overnight stopping places and are either free or charge a small fee. They are very common if France and Germany where they give a wonderful opportunity to investigate beautiful villages, towns and even some cities.
We stayed an average of 2.37 days per stop although this was obviously a mixture of longer and shorter stops. Whenever we found somewhere that we really liked, we stayed a little longer.
We visited a total of 18 countries – England, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro (in a hired car whilst staying in Dubrovnik, Croatia with friends), Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Switzerland.
We drove 19,927 miles. This is a question that we were always asked and I never knew the answer! The distance travelled was not important to us, it was what we saw that was of interest. This is almost the same as the annual mileage that I drove in my car whilst I was working.
Henrietta averaged just over 31 miles per gallon for the whole of the trip.
I took approximately 14,000 photographs, 1,000 per month but only because I have a digital camera! Needless to say, only a fraction of those are really good and many were photographs of information boards that allowed me to recall facts when I was writing the blog, sometimes days later.
Odyssey budgetWe spent some time working out a budget before we left but, given that we had never done this before, it wasn’t very accurate. We actually spent over the 14 months slightly less than we budgeted to spend over 12 months. This was very good news, especially given that the Sterling exchange rate worsened from less than 70p/€ at the beginning to over 80p/€ at the end. Fuel prices also increased dramatically. On the positive side, we had budgeted for occasional nights in an hotel because we thought that we would need a rest from the confines of the motorhome but neither of us ever felt the need to do this.
Our total expenditure for the trip was £16,250, which includes absolutely everything that we spent whilst we were away but not the cost of the three return flights that we made to the UK. It obviously does not include home expenses such as utility bills, community charge etc.
Here is our average weekly expenditure split into different categories:-
Camping £71.50
Fuel (diesel and gas), tolls and public transport £64
Food and Groceries (including beer and wine consumed in Henrietta) £52.50
Eating and drinking out £45.50
Admission fees £15
Other (covers a multitude of sins – washing machines, Internet, presents, cards, spending money when visiting friends & family, guidebooks, reading books etc. etc.) £27
If you were trying to do a similar trip on a smaller budget, the ‘other’ expenditure could certainly be reduced but the biggest avoidable expenditure is definitely ‘eating and drinking out’. We wanted to sample the cuisine and the wine and beer of the different countries but, even when food and drink is cheap, it is surprising how quickly the costs mount up. We were certainly not excessive, eating in the majority of the time but our expenditure in this area came close to the costs of our ‘food and groceries’. We spent most nights in campsites but spending more nights in camperstops or wild camping (where legal / practical) would certainly reduce the costs.
If you do get the opportunity to go on a trip like ours, grab it with both hands and have a great time!
