5000 miles

We have just topped the 5000 mile mark which is a pretty exciting milestone (for us anyway). As we have been pretty unsuccessful in catching any fish and, over the last couple of days, have had no major events to report apart from chilling out in the sun, we thought we would share some statistics:

Countries visited so far:

Cornwall

England

France

Belgium

Holland

Germany

Denmark

Sweden

Norway

Finland

almost circumnavigated the phallic shape

Days on the road                     57       

Miles driven                            5092

Miles per gallon (avg)             30.38

Money spent on diesel            £ 1142.00

Average overnight cost           £ 5.07 (over half of our stays have been free of charge)

Average food spend per day  £ 19.00 (for the two of us, including drinks in van)

Cost of LPG                           £ 85.00 (for heating, cooking and hot water)

All in all it’s not bad. The high cost of food in Scandinavia has been balanced by the low (if any) cost of overnight stays. Now we have left the area of endless tolls and ferry charges (Norway) our costs should diminish further.

Touch wood Dickie has behaved very well indeed and seems to love driving at 50/60mph which is the speed limit (80kph) on many of the roads in Norway and Sweden. He just purrs along all day and unlike our previous vans he hardly notices the hills and mountains. Kevin the Small But Mighty troll sits menacingly on the dashboard ensuring all is well.

We have managed to get online in the van at about three quarters of our overnight stops thanks to the wonderful, external wifi antenna. Sometimes we take a lunch break outside a Tourist Information or McDonalds and catch up on any urgent correspondence courtesy of their free wifi. Ah the joys of the modern age.

Getting water and emptying the cassette toilet (Dickie’s dunny) has not been a problem. In Norway many garages provide all the required facilities free of charge. In Sweden many of the rest areas in lay-bys have dedicated chemical toilet emptying points and external fresh water taps – all free of charge. It can get a little ‘close quarters’ however and we were most amused by a chap emptying his dunny this morning. He seemed to have an exceptionally large deposit in his cassette which took a rather lot of shaking and jiggling to remove. He was so embarrassed he kept going away before the job was complete, then returning for another round when he thought we weren’t looking. #chortle.

Motorhoming is very popular over here and in some parts of Norway every other vehicle seems to be a Bobil (as they are called there), so they are well catered for. Free parking is often offered to motorhomes even if cars have to pay.  It is appreciated that drivers of Husbils (Swedish for motorhomes) will buy their supplies and generally spend money where they are made welcome – a lesson that the UK could do with learning!