23 - 2026 - SUMMARY of our Western Australia travels for 2026

 

Entry 23 – 2026 – SUMMARY of our Western Australia travels for 2026.

Our cost summary for 2026.

The provided numbers have been rounded out to a close enough guide.

Days spent travelling              =                                      264

Kilometres travelled              =                                      17,600             (2025 16,000 kms)

Fuel expenditure                     =                                     $11,200           (2025 $6,500)

Tow tug service & repairs                                             $2,161

Accommodation expenditure           =                         $4,600

Expenditure including food + other expenses =           $111 per day              (2025 $85)

 

If the Expenditure column had the Iraq/America war fuel price increase “removed” and an infuriating expense of about $3,000 addressing a banking issue, caused/created by the bank. Then :

Daily average expenditure for 2026 would reduce to around $85 per day.

We do live comfortably and frugally at the same time, by other people’s standards. Our alcohol expense would likely average 50 cents per day or less, naturally for medicinal purposes. Meals out are not a frequent event.

Though Mary did try on a $100,000 pearl necklace when we visited Cygnet Pearl Farm. Alas, we did not follow through on the purchase.

 

We spent 71 nights in National Parks, 33 in caravan parks, 106 at free camping locations and 54 at showgrounds / low-cost camping areas.

 

2026 we incurred an increase of about 73% for the cost of fuel averaged out over the year due to the America and Iraq war, impacting world fuel supplies. Our averaged out daily costs figure included our fuel expenditure prior the outbreak of the war. Thus, the real cost of fuel during the war was a higher percentage.

January/February our fuel (diesel) incurred cost was about $1.70 per litre. By late March about $3 per litre. Late April $3.60 per litre. Mid-October around $2.85 per litre.

Below is a brief overview of our 2026 travels, primarily for our reference, though we are happy to share our life’s perspective thoughts at that point in time.

2026 was a year dedicated to experiencing some of the highlights of Western Australia. It is a big state and we thought we would have experienced less than 10% of its highlights during the year.

We could have visited more locations but we would have felt exhausted from flittering here and there. Retirement travels for us are about relaxation and fun times. Minimising strain on our bodies and soul.

Our most memorable stay was inland about 200 kilometres east of Port Hedland at Doolena Gorge. The scenery and weather were perfect and we didn’t tire of its ambience during our months stay.

Western Australia is promoted with a coastline of 20,781 kilometres, (includes its islands.) We especially enjoyed the coastline’s sandy beach locations on the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome.

The Ningaloo Reef area coastline nearby Exmouth.

Cape Le Grand national park nearby Esperance.

Kalbarri National Park was delightful viewing, with a very magnificent wildflower display.

Yanchep National Park was a wonderful location. It hadn’t registered on our radar prior to researching camp locations just north of Perth. Our three days stay could have easily extended to a week or two. At the time we had other commitments down the road a bit.

The Kennedy Ranges was another wonderful rugged setting.

There were some unique arty locations.

Western Australia is rich with resources. Mining activities are huge. Everything to do with the mining sector was big. Even the ships for carting iron ore were around 360 metres in length.

Some of our family members flew in for a special birthday celebration. It was an exceptionally heart-warming experience.

We arrived back at our home base around six weeks earlier than planned due to our overseas based daughter surprising us with a visit. She also continued with the special birthday celebration, providing a lovely birthday present.

 

2026 was an exceptionally special year.

22 - 2026 - October - Drive time, Western Australia to South Australia

 

Entry 22 – 2026 – October – Drive time, Western Australia to South Australia.

We do enjoy our Australian caravan travels. We travel with a pencilled in plan, targeting scenic locations. A caravan in tow provides a lot of flexibility without the worries for a need to constantly plan ahead. Seeking out accommodation, requiring payment of substantial money upfront, with imposed time limitations at these facilities.

Due to family reasons, we found ourselves heading home earlier than initially planned. We were grateful not to have had any other commitments, eliminating added hassle, assisting with our decision.

We had an imposed target with a need to drive an average of around 300 kilometres per day.

It was a time to be mindful of our bodies coping mechanisms. Yes, we pushed ourselves. If we were feeling tired, we stopped for a lie down on our comfortable caravan bed, until we were ready to roll again.

Leaving Busselton, we decided to initially travel away from the main highways. We travelled along country side roads away from busy highways. The landscape was covered by farmers crops. There was quite the change in the appearance of the crops, from our recordings back in blog 18 during our August and September wanderings. Then the crops were a healthy-looking green colour. Now into October the crops were looking brown, approaching maturity for harvest.

The roads weren’t as quiet as we had hoped. It seemed most of the fleet of grain carting road trains were still carting grain from the previous bumper years crops. There were still large piles of grain at collection facilities to be moved on, to cater for another expected extra-large harvest.

Our actual average daily driving distances ranged from around 200 to 650 kilometres each day. Departure time to arrival time ranged from about 4 to 11 hours each day.

The 650-kilometre day we were planning a stop for the night at the 450-kilometre mark. The arrival of a rain event had eliminated the option of several dirt surfaced camping locations. Not wanting to risk becoming bogged we forged on to a known hard surfaced camp location, arriving at dusk. Thankfully without any kangaroo events.

We allocated walking time to help manage fatigue from sitting in the tow tug for long periods.

The town of Norseman had some good viewing when on a walk-about. It is famous for its roundabout of camels and Steve enjoyed leading them around.

Norseman is the western starting point of the long and lonely Nullarbor Plains drive. A distance of around 1,200 kilometres.

The ongoing war between America and Iran, creating worldwide fuel shortages was still generating fuel access issues. We decided to top up our fuel tank more often than normal, in case we struck fuel access issues along the route.

It was a good feeling being back in the outback, the Australian bush. Overnight stops we would find a dirt track leading away from the main highway, where we would get a quiet night’s sleep far away from the traffic noise.

There were a couple of stops to view the setting of The Great Australian Bight at authorised lookouts. We could understand the authorities imposing restrictions, preventing people from camping willy nilly on the edge of the cliffs.

At the “Head of Bight,” we decided to participate in one of our walk-abouts. It is a location heavily promoted to view whales in the ocean below. The signage at the highway intersection showed 2 whales presently in the bay.

We spoke to someone leaving and they informed us you would only be able to view the whales with binoculars. We decided to pay the access fee as we were in need of some body stress relief.

It was quite a beautiful setting. It took some time before we spotted a whale through the binoculars. Steve was pointing the camera in the direction of the whale and Mary utilising our binoculars, would yell out when the whale floated up to the ocean surface.

The camera zoom was unable to provide actual visual sight of the whale, though when we zoomed into the obtained photograph it showed we had good team coordination. Mary yelling and Steve following orders pressing the camera button.

We were still on the long, isolated Nullarbor Plains, with our first South Australia fuel stop. Mary was at the counter to pay for our fuel when she commented about the price of the fuel. The attendant advised she could get 20 cents per litre discount if she produced a South Australian Royal Automobile Association card. (RAA) Well we did have an RAA card and were delighted to obtain a discount even if the fuel price was ghastly.

We checked the RAA web site, finding it was an initiative available for three days only, expiring that day at participating fuel stations across the state. The discount would then revert to the normal 10 cents per litre.

This provided another incentive to push on a bit further than planned for the day to obtain some further fuel discount down the road a bit.

By the days end we had received savings in fuel costs of $38.20, courtesy of our RAA membership. Though we still incurred an expenditure of $521 on fuel for the day. At least we started the following day with a full tank of fuel. We were paying about a 50% premium for fuel from what we had paid on this same route back in January prior the start of the war.

Our last night’s camp was at Bowman Park a reserve nearby the town of Crystal Brook. It was a fantastic bush setting with views from our caravan window of magnificent river red gum trees. It was a fitting setting to finish our 2026 travels, providing positive vibes. The only background noise coming from the tree leaves rustling from the wind and a constant sound of bird chatter.

Leaving Busselton, we drove for 8 days straight to our base in Adelaide.

There will be one more blog edition providing some statistical figures of our years costs and stays exploring Western Australia’s beauty.