We are looking to emmigrate from the UK to Australia in April 2010 in our standard Isuzu Bighorn (Trooper Import). Changing our leave date is not very flexible - maybe a couple of months either way - but no more than that.

Money is going to be very tight, and we thought that we should just fly back to save money - but wheres the fun in that?

I've come up with a really rough budget, having got the costs to total around £8,000 based on 6-8 weeks travelling. Information has been found on other traveller diaries, threads on here, and a little guesswork!

We are looking at a fairly direct route, with a little extra time to visit Malaysia, Thailand & Laos - anyway, route is roughly as follows...

England
France
Italy
(ship to) Greece
Turkey
Iran
Pakistan
India
(ship to) Malaysia
Thailand
Laos
Thailand
Malaysia
(ship to) Australia

Please feel free to help me with my figures below - constructive feedback and helpful advice would be really, really welcome...

Injections & Meds - £600
Carnet - £1000
Bighorn Fitting Out - Jerry Cans, Tools, Cooking, Sleeping etc - £700
Cheap Primetech Tent & Roof Rack / Bars - £500
Petrol - £1000
Accommodation - £1000
Food - £500
Ferry - England to France - £100
Ferry - Italy to Greece - £250
Shipping from Chennai to Port Kelang - £350
Clear Container in PK - £350
Ship from PK to Oz - £600
Clear Container in Oz - £1000

I will be honest and admit that these figures are as low as I think that I could possibly get them. So, are the figures way out - could it be done for the above amounts with a small Credit Card contigency?

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Rich & Zowi
http://www.zo2oz.com

Good luck! Seems ambitious but I only have experience of W Africa. Do try to have a means to some extra money (visa card, possible bank load pre-arranged) not only in case of emergencies, but it would be a shame to have to rush through such fantastic countries because you feel unable to stop.....

Regarding equipment I would suggest you go to the 'For Sale' Forum and buy the My Way tent from mistress Kate. We have an identical one which served us every night (bar 7) of a 6 month W Africa trip. They are a fantastic product very well made. Ours still feels like new! I have met a few folk who have used the cheap Primark (or whatever they're called) tents, and they really are not designed for serious overlanding. If you're on a tight budget the one thing you need to get right is accommodation!

Good Luck,
Jonnie

Your budget does seem rather optimistic. I'm wondering if you got your budget from travelers diaries back in the days that the pound was worth 1.5 - 2 x what it is now - £8000 used to translate into AU$25,000 - $30,000, now it's 'only' AU$16,000

Have you accounted for visas for all the countries?

3rd party insurance? Compulsory in many countries..

Diesel averages around US$1-1.30/litre at the moment for the trip you're doing, you'll be driving at least 40,000, so a more realistic budget for petrol might be £2,500-3,500. This based on using 13-14 litres per 100km. (The bighorn might use a bit more?)

Last point: most countries you'd be hard pressed to average 700km/day (which is what you'd need to do to drive 40.000 in 8 weeks),
a good guide is averaging 40km/hour, once you get out of europe (that includes traffic jams, stops, delays, etc), if you're driving 12 hour days you'd average 500km.

In other words, you'd be setting somewhat of a speed record if you were to do it in 8 weeks?

melbournetolondon.com did your trip in 6 months, which is at least half the time most people take to do it, and they were 'in a hurry', doing long days driving...

Getting your vehicle off the wharf in Darwin might be cheaper then Melbourne or Sydney, and it's the only port where you'd be able to ship into for £600, the others are at least double that...

Then of course you'd have to drive from Darwin to wherever you're going in Oz, and Darwin is far away from everywhere - count on another 1-2 weeks to get to Melbourne...

Don't let the above discourage you though, for instance look at cutting out SE Asia, by shipping direct from India to Oz, at least you'll be able to enjoy the countries you DO travel through that way...

Good luck!

I don't think this guy spent a vast amount of money

Dad Dwight Wood drives family from UK to Singapore and back in a £300 car | The Sun |News

Failing that, here are some other options

a) Sell the Isuzu in the UK, fly to Oz and buy a new one there.
b) Ship the Isuzu straight from the UK to Oz and fly to Oz to collect it.
c) As b but travel to Oz with Kumuka or Dragoman.
d) As b but travel to Oz as backpackers.

But seriously - have a look at this thread
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...vehicles-36093

And my own website gives some ideas of costs
overlandcruiser.net

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www.overlandcruiser.wordpress.com

I think that we'll have to give the Primark Tent a miss! - another person who doesnt have something good to say about them - does anyone?

Thanks Brethouwer - I completely forgot about the Visas! - I'll look into the costs and recalculate the Budget.

I've done a rough calculation for mileage, does anyone know of any websites or tools that would give me a better idea than the numbers below?

Country
To Bari / Brindisi Italy - 2000 miles - (Google Maps)
Greece - 600 miles?
Turkey - 1000 miles?
Iran - 2000 miles?
Pakistan - 1000 miles?
India - 2000 miles - (Google Maps)
Malaysia / Thailand / Laos - 5000 miles?
Australia - from Sydney 600 miles / from Darwin 2500 miles - (Google Maps)

So we've got an approximate total of around 17,000 miles - and only 12,000 miles if we ship direct from India to Australia - though we would like to see SE Asia now, it could always be done a few years later down the line.

__________________
Rich & Zowi
http://www.zo2oz.com

Based on Brethouwer's earlier post, I'm having another look at the amount of miles that we would have to do each day to get there in the 8 weeks - and its a lot! - even on my mileage examples, we would be looking at around 300 miles a day with SE Asia, or 200 miles a day without - with no days off!

We are going to have to seriously consider taking SE Asia out of the equation, it will cut out around 5,000 miles, and therefore lower the number of miles each day.

I'm not sure if it is possible to add too much time to the equation for the drive, but I think that I'm to have to easily add another 4 weeks.

Out of interest, what is the quickest that someone has done UK to Australia (or vice-versa)?

Thanks for your input so far.
Richard

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Rich & Zowi
http://www.zo2oz.com

I'd like to think I've read most uk/Europe to Oz blogs, and don't recall anyone doing it in less then 6 months, most take anywhere between 1 and 4 years. This is supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, it will cost money, and in my experince is not enjoyable if you spend all your time driving, take your time and enjoy it!

I did holland to eastern turkey and back in 4 months, 20,000km, which was driving 6-10 hours most days. If I had done that any quicker I would not have enjoyed it.

I've heard of a group of 4 getting to India in 2 weeks, but they drove 24/7 taking turns - driving at night is dangerous once you leave Europe and drivng when tired is dangerous anywhere.

I suppose you need to ask yourself if you want to see the countries you're driving through, which takes time, or just drive.

PS another cost to budget for are the toll roads in Europe, add up France, the tunnels in switzerland and the tolls in Italy to get to the ferry...

Nick Sanders probably did it in a week on his R1.

How he has a chance to look at anything I have no idea!

I wish we had more time to see the countries that we'll be going through, but I'm afraid it isnt an option... well, this time anyway!

It comes down to a choice for us between flying which means seeing nothing of the countries at all, and a quick drive which will give us a little taste of the wonderful countries.

The first travel blog that I read was the Dublin guys who made the journey in a BMW 3 Series in around 3 months -> Roadtrip from Dublin To Sydney <- - my first inspiration!

I've just had some quotes back regarding shipping the car from Malaysia / Singapore to Australia in 20ft Container...

Perkins - Darwin - US $2400 but excludes Malaysia loading & excludes AQIS.
Zentner - Perth - AUS $4500 fully inclusive

both quotes more than I figured - are these good quotes or should I keep looking?

__________________
Rich & Zowi
http://www.zo2oz.com

Re south east asia - you could do that bit without the truck given your tight timescales - whilst the truck is being shipped you could spend some time there and then pick up the truck in Aus. Given your tight timeline it might be a way of maximising it.

Hmm, we'll have to think about that one... I guess there would be no point in shipping the Bighorn to Malaysia and then onto Oz if we didnt drive in Malaysia. We could just ship directly from India to Oz and visit Malaysia whilst the shipping is in progress.... - its worth thinking about.

__________________
Rich & Zowi
http://www.zo2oz.com