Two years on the road - a summary.

 Sunday 08/11/20

It's hard to believe it was two years ago that we spent the final night in our house in Cryers Hill, gathered up the last of our belongings, did the final cleaning and handed the keys over for the new owners to move in.  We had more concerns than concrete plans but set off on a great adventure to see where it would lead us.  

Two years down the road and we are still loving the absolute freedom we enjoy.  We're healthier, happier, closer to each other and, in spite of no longer having a traditional income, wealthier than when we left.  As an experiment, the adventure is definitely working,  and we now have fewer concerns and many more plans than when we started out.  There is still a lot for us to explore and we are loving every minute of it, and are also grateful to be able to do this.

To keep up the tradition of the blog I have again summarised a record of some stats for the trip.

We have now spent 433 days in France, 184 days in the UK, 60 days in Portugal, 48 in Spain, 4 in Belgium and 3 in Germany.  In total we have spent 458 days house-sitting; something that was never part of our plans at all when we set out, and have met some wonderful people and amazing animals along the way.  

We have travelled 10,992 miles (17,587 km) so far. This is not a huge increase on last year as we spent a lot of time in house-sits due to Covid challenges, and have therefore not travelled much apart from our epic Brittany / Normandy trip while we waited for the UK to drop quarantine measures in June.

Bokkie has consumed 2,137 litres of diesel and 357 litres of LPG.  Our biggest monthly expenses are still groceries (£275 p/m), diesel (£109 p/m) and campsites (£72 p/m).  Our total daily costs were quite a bit lower in the second year and have dropped from almost £29 after 12 months to £21.57 per day after 24 months.  These are direct costs only - for interest our indirect costs are about another £28 per day and covers insurance, storage, repairs, dental bills, glasses and contact lenses and international flights, etc.

What does the future hold?  We have had to get used to having plans cancelled and changed due to the ever changing world and are still desperate to get back to South Africa for an extended trip.  We have flights booked in January so are holding thumbs (or keeping fingers crossed) that they can go ahead.  After that, who knows?  

The more we travel, the more we still want to see before we finally settle down.  We have visited so many spectacular places,  and we are filled with wonderful memories as this blog attests to.  It seems too soon to stop, so we definitely want to keep adding to this as much as we can, and as much as the post-Brexit and post-Covid world will allow us to.  One thing is for certain: we will not be going back to a traditional 9-5 work set-up any time soon!