400 days on the road travel costs

It’s time to do our 4th spending update, after 400 days on the road travelling around Australia

Time is flying, and this 100 days was vastly different to the previous ones, due to a major mechanical failure on our Isuzu Dmax, where it cracked the inner guards.

This post covers the days between Day 300 and Day 400, and looks at all of the money we’ve spent on our travels. That’s food, camping fees, car maintenance, fuel, general costs, bakeries and treats out and so forth.

You can go back and read our costs of our first 100 days on the road, and then the second 100 days travelling Australia and finally our third 100 days on the road if you’d like.

Like previously, we’ll do a summary of this 100 days, and then a total of the 0 – 400 days so you get a better idea. 

In the 300 – 400 days period we spent the entire time in Queensland, and much of it was spent staying in the Sunshine Coast with relatives after our 4WD broke. For the details, you can see our lap of Australia Itinerary.

If you haven’t been following along, welcome! We’re travelling in a 2016 Isuzu Dmax, and 2018 Reconn R2 Hybrid Caravan.

Watch the vlog

If you’d rather watch a video, here’s our vlog covering similar to this post, but in a different format:

Statistics for days 300 – 400:

Total kilometres done: 5469km including 920km done in our hired Toyota Hilux while the Dmax was being repaired

Average number of kilometres each day: 55km (385km per week)

Diesel fuel consumed: 784L (55L per week)

Average fuel economy: 14.3L/100km 

Most expensive diesel: $2.299 at Eagle Farm (had to top up Hilux near the dealer)

Cheapest diesel $1.725 at Townsville 

Total fuel cost: $1345 ($94 per week)

Total number of camp sites stayed at: 27

Average length of stay: 3.7 nights per stay

Camp sites cost breakdown (of the 27 destinations): 5 were paid but low cost (under $20), 9 were completely free, with 13 over $20 per night.

That makes it 33% free camping, 19% of our camp sites under $20 a night and the remaining 48% were over $20 per night.

How many camp sites required grey water to be contained? 0. Yep, absolutely none, which is not uncommon at all.

Number of nights in caravan parks: 1

Number of nights staying with relatives in their house: 53

Total camping fee costs: $1172 ($82 per week)

Average cost per night: $11.72

Most expensive camp site per night: at $38.83 per night at Hold it Flats

Total cost of food and general groceries: $3393 ($237.5 per week)

Eating out, bakeries and treats cost: $635 ($44.45 per week)

Experiences cost: $226 ($16 per week) – Australia Zoo, Museum, Boat ride in a river

Total other random costs: $2760 ($193 per week), including gas bottle refill, a $600 dentist bill, Catch Can filter, Car and camper registration and insurance, internet and satellite phone plan.

Total cost for 100 days: $9768 ($683 per week)

Average cost per day: Around $98 per day.

This includes internet, but not phone recharges, health insurance, and other costs that are personal, and not necessarily relevant to your situation.

We’re doing our best to keep this as the base costs, without including all sorts of random things (like mortgage repayments, home rates, house insurance etc etc. We have record of all of this, but won’t be including or sharing it.

Please add your own additional, individual costs to this if you are relying on the numbers.

Favourite places/camp sites/experiences: Catching up with a work colleague and his wife after many years, Finch Hatton Gorge, The Diggings Campground, Notch Point and Cape Palmerston, Stanage Bay, Gardners Falls, The Gorge, Australia Zoo and catching up with a heap of family (including those who so kindly let us stay for 7 weeks!

Overall feelings: We found some amazing places in this 100 day period, and had a heap of fun. Obviously the Dmax failure was a massive let down that completely stopped our Lap of Australia, but realistically it couldn’t have happened any better for us.

Watch our 400 day travel Australia cost video

If you want more detail, including every dollar we’ve spent in 400 days on the road as a family of 4, check out the below video:

Total costs for 0 -400 days:

So, in total then, here’s what we’ve spent, summarised as best as possible for 400 days on the road:

Kilometres done: 31720

Total money spent: $51559

Total fuel used and cost: 4660 litres at $9184

Total camping fees: $5941

Average camping fee per night: $14.8

Total cost of groceries and food: $13869

Total cost per day: $129 ($902 per week)

Total cost per kilometre: $1.62

These posts take a lot of time to complete, and are honestly super frustrating, so please share it around if you’ve found it useful!

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