Three-year update while in Hartebeespoort

 Thursday 30/12/2021

We’ve been on the road for over three years now (it will be 1,150 days tomorrow) so we thought it was a good time for an update.

In spite of Covid and Brexit being added into the mix, we have still been able to travel, albeit not always when or where we wanted to.  We have spent two thirds of our time travelling outside of the UK.  The bulk of our time has been spent in France (497 days), the UK (370) and Portugal (133) followed by SA (92) and Spain (51) and whistle-stop tours of Belgium (4) and Germany (3).

We’ve covered 18,690 miles (29,904 km) in Bokkie and 5,437 miles (8,700 km) in Bakkie, my Dad’s Pajero in SA, and spent almost £4,300 in diesel.  Our biggest single cost is, as expected, groceries which has been £9,703 for the three years but this actually works out to only £8.35 per day.

Bonsai with a view

We’ve managed to keep our total annual spend below our target for all three years which is very encouraging.  World markets have performed well, which has meant our investments have also grown well and this, coupled with our lower spend, has put us in a better position than we had estimated when we set out.

This is a real win for us and means we feel comfortable enough to keep on with this lifestyle for as long as we enjoy it.

We've made so many good friends along the way.

For some reason, bats come and visit us when we are watching TV.

We’ve loved being in South Africa, seeing family and friends as well as seeing many of the sights, but miss Bokkie and the lifestyle she offers us. It's also been tough being away from Charmaine so long, and we are missing her a lot - somehow, being on another continent to her makes the distance seem real (in spite of FaceTime).

We’re ready to head back to Europe as the next twelve months are already mapped out and we are keen to stick to our plan.  

Walking the dogs - seconds before Streep surprised a spitting cobra.

Streep came off worst in the encounter, now nursing a very sore eye.

Bonus video:-

We learned very early on that we need to give the gate a head start when we go for a walk...

We're coming to the end of our sit and, as we will be on the road for a while, would like to wish everyone who's been reading this a Happy and Healthy 2022- we'll keep you posted on our travels