My trip took me to 13 countries, of which 8 I had not
visited before; this brings my visited EU countries up to a total of 14 (Norway
is not an EU member) so I’m just over halfway in my quest to visit them all. I
have been away for 107 nights, staying 100 nights on 63 different paid
campsites and free camping for 7 nights. The average cost for all the paid camping
sites was £16.38/night incl. electric and showers. In the 4 Nordic countries
(where I spent 54 nights) the average was over £24/night with several nights
costing over £32each and yet the cheapest night was in Finland at only £8.10.
In the 3 new Baltic Nations and Poland the average was just over £12 a night as
was, surprisingly, Germany.
It rained during waking hours and I got wet on 34 days, on
just 3 days I had to change my plans. I saw snow, either falling or on the
ground every day from 7th May in southern Norway until 2nd
June in Inari, Lapland, Finland.
The van did not move on 34 days! It had 1 puncture in
Sweden; I reversed into a tree in Belgium, just missed a reindeer in Lapland
and in Finland a piece of metal cracked the windscreen. The cracks were further
extended in Poland by the heaviest hail storm I have even seen!
I drove a total of 11259 miles 18014kms, with my longest
driving day being 334miles/535kms from Stockholm to Oslo. The van used 265gals/1207lts
of fuel at an average cost of £1.28/lts (highest £1.57 in Norway and lowest
£1.03 in Poland) and returned on average 42.39mpg/6.62lts/100km (Highest
46.2mpg) which I think is pretty good! My highest speed was 66mph/106kph and
the moving average was 37.5mph /60kph. The van travelled a total of 11427miles/18391
kms with ferries accounting for the 168miles/268kms difference. The ferries
plus bridge tolls cost me an additional £460 with the Orsunbrun Bridge from
Denmark to Sweden costing £32 and the ferry from Finland to Estonia being £62
whilst the ferry home from Dunkerque to Dover was only £27.
My trusty camera took just over 2300 photos, some of the
best you have seen, some I will share with individuals and some, well, even I
will not look at them again!
Finally: I know that the one question that many will ask
is: How much did it all cost? The truth is, it’s really difficult to give an accurately
figure as there are so many things that I would have had to pay for anyway,
like eating out and groceries (I spent just £12 a day on these) I would also
have to have sent on fuel at home maybe £30/wk. I saved £140 by cancelling sky,
about £120 from not using electricity and cancelling the internet for 4 months
saved a further £60. Wear and tear on the van plus service cost are almost
impossible to isolate. So I am going to duck the direct answer and put it this
way: If you add up the cost of smoking 30 cigarettes a day and drinking 15
pints of beer a week: for a year, it would cost more than my trip! So was it
worth it? Emphatically, Yes. Would I do
it again? Watch this space!!!!! As Bugs Bunny put it "That's all Folks"
