Entry 20 – 2023 – SUMMARY of our retirement travels.
Our cost summary for 2023.
All costs have been rounded out to the nearest $100.
Days spent travelling = 187
Expenditure averaged out $80 per day
Kilometres travelled 13,600
Food expenditure = $2,700
Fuel expenditure = $5,400
Accommodation expenditure = $2,700
Other living expenditures = $2,800
We spent 23 nights in National Parks, 36 in caravan parks, 94 at free camping locations and 32 at showgrounds / low-cost camping areas.
Below is our personal record, for our future reference.
2023 was a year full of special commitments. We still managed 187 days of caravan travel to various locations in Australia.
There was Steve’s mum’s 90th birthday gathering with all of our family in attendance.
There was the first gathering of our immediate family in its present format and the first time we had all been together since 2019.
Early 2023, we had clocked up 10 years of retirement, with a primary focus on our Australian caravan travels. We found ourselves contemplating what type of lifestyle we might like to lead during our future years. There was considerable time devoted to thoughts and discussion, with many different proposals put forward for our future direction.
Some of our thoughts; do we sell our caravan, replace with a small 4wd motor home, is it time to move into a lifestyle/ retirement village, do we down-size our home, should we spend more time travelling over-seas exploring the world, etc etc.
Our last 10 years had been very special. There were no working life detractions, plenty of special family time and we were enjoying one another’s company, more than ever.
In the end we decided to continue with our caravan lifestyle, lashing out, ordering a brand-new caravan with a design including consideration of our future needs. Then there were more headaches with design and selection of equipment. It probably was similar to building a new home. And the 18 months wait till delivery time.
2023 was probably the most social year we had experienced in a long time. We managed to touch base with many personal friends and spend time during our caravan travels catching up with many of those special people we had come across during our last 10 years of travel in various locations of Australia. There were also some times where we were so busy socialising that we forgot to take any photos. Sorry.
And of course, there were many more memorable high-lights from our travel locations.
2023 was different, still good.
Great photos and memories for you. We retired 10 years ago and have done a lot of travelling in our van, its a great life. We have moved into a retirement village and still do some caravan trips but not such long trips due to some health issues. I hope you enjoy your new van and have many more adventures.
ReplyDelete