After 12 months travelling around the world with kids we are back in our home town, Melbourne, Australia.
It has been a crazy and wonderful adventure.
So to celebrate our re-entry into Melbourne we have collated some (hopefully) interesting statistics about our family gap year.
The stats: 2017
Number of countries visited: 30
Places we have slept the night: 155
Continents traveled: 4
Total kilometres traveled: Over 125,000 kms (78,000 miles)
Kilometres traveled overland: 32,000 kms (20,000 miles)
Planes
Flights taken: 23 (on 10 different airlines)
Number of times other people clapped on landing: 2 (what is it with clapping on landing??)
Longest continuous flight: 14 hours – San Francisco to Taipei.
Wheels
Car rentals: 9
Campervans: 3 (Botswana, Europe and West Coast USA)
Longest drive in one day: 12 hrs, 750km. From Motovun, Croatia to Ventimiglia, Italy in our trusty campervan, Sunny.
Kids’ favourite soundtrack: Sound of Music. To clarify, we were in Austria. It seemed fitting. I am pretty sure I know all of the words now.
Longest border crossing: 2hrs 40 min by car from Bosnia to Croatia
Boats
Cruises: 1 in Halong Bay, Vietnam
Ferries: 14 including 2 overnight
Number of vomits on a boat: 1 (amazing the number is so small really!)
Trains
High speed rail trips: 2 (Japan and Taiwan)
Fastest speed measured: 294km/h on the high speed rail in Taiwan
Metro rail systems: 8
Overnight train trips: 1 in Vietnam
Getting Lost
Number of times the kids got lost: 0
Number of times I worried the kids would get lost: dozens, mostly in big cities
Number of times I wrote my phone number on their arms: at least twice
The bad stuff
Lost: 1 Ipad, 2 pairs of sunglasses, 1 beanie, 1 pocket knife, 1 hat, 1 dress, 1 bracelet, 1 pair of earrings, 1 drink bottle
Broken: 2 mobile phones, 2 pairs of sunglasses, 5 pairs of flip flops, 2 chipped car windscreens, 3 inflatables, 1 dining tabletop, 1 headlight, 2 ceramic souvenirs
Things stolen: 1 pair of flip flops on beach in Vietnam!
Trips to hospital: 2 (Japan and Austria)
Insurance claims: 3
Bed bugs: Once. The worst thing ever. I have never been so itchy in my life.
Most vomits in 12 months: Harvey. He has become a champion chucker.
Number of times one of us really wanted to go home: at least 10. Homesickness came and went for all of us over the year.
Worst illness: Whatever it was we all picked up on our last days in India and spent over a week getting rid of afterwards.
The earth
Highest point reached: 3031m (9943 ft) at Tioga Pass, California, USA
Lowest point visited: 86m (282ft) below sea level at Badwater Basin in Death valley, California USA
Hottest place: 42 degrees Celsius (108 F) Granada, Spain
Coldest place: -10 degrees Celsius (50 F) in Japan
Number of oceans we have swum in: 3
Most beautiful place: No agreement on this one. Too many places.
Activities
Number of hikes: over 40
Different types of adventure activities: skiing, zip lining, snorkeling, mountain bike riding, underwater walking, whitewater rafting, kayaking, stand-up paddle board, rock climbing, hiking, sand boarding, game drives, boogie boarding.
Number of waterfalls: Too many to count – we never got sick of seeking them out
Fun parks: 3
The food
Cheapest beer: 23 cents (AUD) in Vietnam
Best value gin: Aldi
Most expensive icecream cone: $39 HKD ($6.50 AUD) in Hong Kong
Number of icecreams consumed: Probably best not to count them. It is lucky our kids wiggle a lot. They may have eaten their weight in icecream in 12 months. The withdrawal symptoms are going to be bad.
And on that note, that’s it. A year well traveled. Millions of precious memories, thousands of photos and years of “remember when” stories to share with our kids.
If you are planning a Family Gap Year, see all our articles here.
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This is way too cool! We found that Russians always clap on landing
I read that Aeroflot is one of the world’s worst airlines so I guess that makes sense.