We've been on the road for 3 months now. In the interests of continuous improvement, budget planning and other effective habits, it's time for us to review the last quarter.
Distance travelled
The odometer tells us we've driven 5285 kilometres since leaving Perth. However, we're currently enjoying sunsets at Cottesloe beach, so we don't appear to have gone very far at all. It's been a round-about path through the WA's south-west, southern coast and then up to Kalgoorlie and back to where we started in Perth.
Dollars spent.
We've been averaging $75 dollars per day, which happily means we are living within our planned budget.
24% is spent on camp fees, which can range from $0 to $38. Our favourite campsites are in the National Parks like Fitzgerald River. Once you've paid $14 campfees there's nowhere to go to spend money at all.
24% of our budget is spent on groceries, even though Cameron is able to sometimes supplement our larder with fish.
12% of our budget is being spent on petrol. Our most expensive to date was $1.56/l from a little coastal town, Hopetoun. But at least beaches, like this one in Esperance, are free entertainment.
And the rest of the budget? Well, Cameron has developed an expensive fishing lure habit. And the other day he lost his shoes whilst fishing.
Proximity to towns causes major budget blowouts. Kalgoorlie has lots of pubs and opportunities to pay for entertainment.
Major achievements.
Number of birds species identified: 29
Number of fish species identified: 26
(Yes, we have bird spotting and fish spotting field guides.We're looking up real books and keeping a list in a notebook. This is what people people did to while away their hours, before the internet was invented and you could just google “rock parrot” or “southern fiddler ray".)
Future plans.
We've decided it's time to head north.
We found southern coast and beaches east of Esperance to be too cold (even though the scenery was beautiful, there was a lot a rain and wind).
Kalgoorlie was too hot (and once you've seen the Superpit and visited all the pubs there's not much else to do.)
So now we're in Perth where it seems to be just right (so why did we leave?), and we'll start going north from here. Northern WA, here we come!
