Planning - Distance/Time/Cost Guesses

I have spent the last few days sneaking off whenever I am able and jumping on-line to read the tonnes of blogs already up in cyberspace, from people doing similar trips. Wow. There is such a lot of good info out there for these overlanders. I plan to add a few of the ones I like on to a links page here so check them out when you get a chance.

The idea has well and truly taken root now and I have dedicated a fair few hours working out an approximate route. Still undecided which way to travel, either from or to the UK from or to Australia, however I guess the route will still be the same we will just face a different direction.

I figured the next step getting the plan together is an estimate of timing and costs.

Google earth shows the route at being 17465 kilometres long. So I throw some guesses at it. 50ks per hour gives 349 hours driving. With driving 6 hours a day, which I figure shouldn't be too hard between two drivers, gives 58 days driving. Happy with that as my initial estimate would be 3 months to complete, so this gives 32 extra days to play with. Also had a stab at working out fuel costs, now these will vary massively from terrain, to fuel price etc but as a loose guess I throw 600ks per tank, giving 29 tanks of fuel to cover the distance. As I am generally dealing in Aussie dollars I guess at $130 per tank, coming to $3900 in fuel. For some reason that's not as high as I thought it was going to be. This gets me thinking, food 3 meals a day, 58 days, $20 per meal....$3480 for each person. Again not as bad as I thought. Its easy to spend money on paper though! That's $10,860 I have just 'spent'.

Still I had grabbed $20K as an approx amount to budget for. So that leaves about 10k for shipping, flights, accommodation (Camping), repairs, emergencies etc etc.. Might be a bit tight...a buddy of mine Ross keeps looking at bringing a car back over from the UK are reckons that a shared container is somewhere in the region of $3000, and thats with out permits, inspections etc etc. which straight away takes a chunk out... I am starting to think 30K is more realistic, the more I think about it the more costs pop up in my head, visas, "facilitation" payments at borders...

Will be interesting to see how that all works out.

What's this all about then?

Well Jodie and I have decided to plan for an epic road trip.

Where to? Well to the UK from Australia seems to be the current top plan...of course...

Lets start off by explaining how this came about.

While I am away working in China I started thinking about a seed that had been laid a few years back about doing and overland drive to the UK from Australia or visa versa. I couldn't shake it, now this is often the case with me when I get an idea....It becomes all consuming...But in this case I figured well I will see what Jodie thinks. All our communications at the moment while I am overseas, are by skype and this was no different.

(It is probably worth pointing out here that we refer to the 4runner as Piggy, see the Vehicle page for the full story)

So on the 23rd October 2012 our conversation went a little bit like this.....

[5:41:12 PM] Matthew Johnston: by the way we are driving uk - Aus or Aus - Uk end of next year into 2014

[7:06:06 PM] Jodie Johnston: is that so

[7:06:13 PM] Matthew Johnston: yes

[7:07:47 PM] Matthew Johnston: why

[7:25:14 PM] Jodie Johnston: hehehe

[7:29:18 PM] Matthew Johnston: So..seriously I want to do a big adventure

[7:44:09 PM] Matthew Johnston: so I am really serious about this

[7:44:22 PM] Jodie Johnston: about an adventure

[7:44:22 PM] Jodie Johnston: ?

[7:44:47 PM] Matthew Johnston: yes either drive to UK and ship Pig back or ship Pig over and Drive back

[7:45:13 PM] Jodie Johnston: ok...but I think we need to do a smaller test trip...just in OZ

[7:45:15 PM] Jodie Johnston: like to WA

[7:45:22 PM] Jodie Johnston: or something like that

[7:45:34 PM] Matthew Johnston: ok when

[7:45:51 PM] Jodie Johnston: well the wedding is in FEB

[7:46:03 PM] Matthew Johnston: ooooo really!!!!

[7:46:09 PM] Matthew Johnston: can we can we can we can we

[7:46:12 PM] Jodie Johnston: maybe....

[7:46:22 PM] Matthew Johnston: WWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[7:46:27 PM] Jodie Johnston: have a look and see how long and how much approx

[7:46:31 PM] Matthew Johnston: ok

 [7:46:32 PM] Jodie Johnston: what car

[7:46:36 PM] Matthew Johnston: PIGGY

[7:46:43 PM] Jodie Johnston: ah ha

[7:47:24 PM] Matthew Johnston: We need to take Piggy as a test run

[7:47:31 PM] Matthew Johnston: for the drive to or from the UK

[7:48:03 PM] Jodie Johnston: ok

[7:48:08 PM] Matthew Johnston: serious

[7:48:27 PM] Matthew Johnston: ?

[7:48:45 PM] Jodie Johnston: well.... def look at it and cost it

[7:49:01 PM] Jodie Johnston: see how long ...and if it is feasible

[7:49:14 PM] Matthew Johnston: what Perth or UK

[7:49:37 PM] Jodie Johnston: well both ...but WA first

[7:49:46 PM] Matthew Johnston: ok UK 3 months

[7:57:17 PM] Matthew Johnston: 10 days to drive to Perth

[7:57:27 PM] Jodie Johnston: 10 days? woha

[7:57:37 PM] Jodie Johnston: which way

[7:57:41 PM] Matthew Johnston: West

[7:57:47 PM] Jodie Johnston: hehe

[7:57:51 PM] Matthew Johnston: hahaha xxx

[7:57:51 PM] Jodie Johnston: yes dear

[7:58:06 PM] Jodie Johnston: south ? north ?

[7:58:09 PM] Jodie Johnston: straight

 [7:58:17 PM] Matthew Johnston: pretty much but not through centre

[7:58:42 PM] Matthew Johnston: kind straight past the north of Adelaide

[7:58:53 PM] Jodie Johnston: so south

[7:59:15 PM] Matthew Johnston: sort of, out past Dalby

[7:59:26 PM] Jodie Johnston: ok ...google ?

[7:59:37 PM] Matthew Johnston: yeah Gympie to Perth...

[8:00:28 PM] Jodie Johnston: that only 49 hours

[8:00:50 PM] Matthew Johnston: ok so what you recon

[8:00:52 PM] Matthew Johnston: 7 days

[8:01:17 PM] Matthew Johnston: thats still 7 hours driving every day with no dramas or stops

[8:01:37 PM] Jodie Johnston: week there....4 days for wedding ...a week back

[8:01:47 PM] Matthew Johnston: so 7 days..?

[8:02:25 PM] Jodie Johnston: would have to work out places to stop I suppose

[8:02:53 PM] Matthew Johnston: camping

[8:03:02 PM] Jodie Johnston: prob

[8:10:04 PM] Matthew Johnston: straight there and straight back?

[8:10:12 PM] Jodie Johnston: just looking

[8:11:12 PM] Jodie Johnston: It might be worth checking out what's in SA cos I dont think we'll ever go back there

[8:11:24 PM] Jodie Johnston: I think the salt lakes are there

[8:11:34 PM] Matthew Johnston: yeah think so

[8:11:40 PM] Matthew Johnston: and kangaroo island

[8:11:45 PM] Matthew Johnston: or is it penguin island

[8:12:22 PM] Jodie Johnston: would have to look it up

[8:12:31 PM] Matthew Johnston: its kangaroo

[8:13:46 PM] Matthew Johnston: could come back via.....Kakadu....

[8:13:55 PM] Jodie Johnston: kangaroo island

[8:13:56 PM] Matthew Johnston: Kakadu

[8:14:06 PM] Matthew Johnston: yeah

[8:14:07 PM] Jodie Johnston: yeah

[8:14:13 PM] Jodie Johnston: and Litchfield

[8:14:29 PM] Matthew Johnston: what's Litchfield

[8:14:55 PM] Jodie Johnston: a national park...like Kakadu but not as famous

[8:15:04 PM] Matthew Johnston: north

[8:15:13 PM] Jodie Johnston: yep up that way

[8:15:18 PM] Matthew Johnston: cool

[8:15:21 PM] Jodie Johnston: ok so far I have

[8:15:24 PM] Matthew Johnston: so do a lap

[8:15:35 PM] Jodie Johnston: Moree 1

[8:15:40 PM] Jodie Johnston: Cobar 2

[8:15:50 PM] Jodie Johnston: then SA....?? 3

[8:16:12 PM] Matthew Johnston: yep looks good

[8:16:54 PM] Matthew Johnston: and then

[8:17:08 PM] Jodie Johnston: just looking at SA

[8:18:41 PM] Jodie Johnston: there is nothing between there and Kalgoorlie

[8:18:56 PM] Matthew Johnston: ok so just fire through

[8:21:00 PM] Jodie Johnston: its nearly 20 hours

[8:21:20 PM] Jodie Johnston: can you get jet packs for the Piggy

So I guess thats it then......"Challenge accepted"