TRIP STATISTICS so far:

NUMBER OF TRAIN TRIPS – 13 (Kunming – Dali, Xian – Beijing, Beijing – Ulanbaatar, Ulanbaatar – Irkutsk, Irkutsk – Omsk, Omsk – Ekaterinburg, Ekaterinburg – St Petersburg, St. Petersburg – Moscow, Moscow – Odessa, Odessa – Chisinau, Chisinau – Bucharest, Thessaloniki – Florina, Florina – Thessaloniki, Tangier – Marrakech, Marrakech – Casablanca)

NUMBER OF OVERNIGHTS IN TRAINS – 12 nights

NUMBER OF TRAIN HOURS – 227 hours

NUMBER OF PLANE TRIPS – 7 (Darwin – Cairns, Cairns – Darwin, Darwin – Singapore, Singapore – Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur – Kunming, Lijiang – Xian, Thessaloniki – Heraklion, Heraklion – Athens, Athens – Madrid)

NUMBER OF PLANE HOURS – 23 hours

NUMBER OF BUS TRIPS – 11 (Beijing – Great Wall, Great Wall – Beijing, Irkutsk – Lake Baikal, Lake Baikal – Irkutsk, Ruse – Stara Zagora – Plovdiv, Plovdiv – Thessaloniki, Agios Nikolaos Heraklion, Chiclana Cadiz, Chiclana – Tarifa)

NUMBER OF BUS HOURS – 35 hours

NUMBER OF TAXIS -14

NUMBER OF HIRE CARS – 4

NUMBER OF TUKTUKS- 1

NUMBER OF FERRIES – 5 (Lake Baikal Olkhon Island, Heraklion Santorini, Tarifa – Tangier)

NUMBER OF BOAT TRIPS – 4 (Lake Baikal, Lake Baikal fishing trip, Santorini – Volcano – Thirassi, Spinalonga Island)

NUMBER OF CONTINENTS – 4

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES – 13 (we count Tibet as a real country!)

NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TIME ZONES – 12

NUMBER OF ZOOS – 8 (Adelaide zoo, Perth zoo, Darwin wildlife park, Cairns tropical zoo, Singapore Zoo, Xian Panda Rescue centre, Ekaterinburg butterfly park and zoo, St Petersburg Zoopark)

NUMBER OF WATER PARKS – 4 (Darwin, St. Petersburg, Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Hersonissos (Crete))

NUMBER OF DIFFERENT OCEANS/SEAS SWUM IN – Western Port Bay, Southern ocean, Indian Ocean, Coral Sea, Black Sea, Cretan Sea (on the north side of Crete), Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Libyan Sea (on the south side of Crete), Atlantic Ocean

NUMBER OF HOSTELS – 4

NUMBER OF GUEST HOUSES – 12

NUMBER OF AIRBNB APARTMENTS/HOUSES – 5

NUMBER OF HOTELS – 3

NUMBER OF HOME STAYS- 2

NUMBER OF NIGHTS CAMPING – 34 (not including the ger in Mongolia as that was on beds in their permanent accommodation )

Number of SERVAS – COUCHSURFING STAYS – 4

DAYS SO FAR – 278 (31-12-2013)

NUMBER OF Kms TRAVELLED BY OUR CAR IN OZ – 10156km

NUMBER OF DIFFERENT BEDS – 42

HIGHEST ALTITUDE – 4,200m (went up by chair lift from Dali in Yunnan, China)

LOWEST ALTITUDE – Sea level

HIGHEST COST OF ACCOMMODATION – $125 per night for 2 apartments in Granada, Spain followed by $100/ night for a 6 bed dorm in a small hostel in Irkutsk, Russia

LOWEST COST OF ACCOMMODATION – (other than free) – $42/night for two rooms in a Kunming guesthouse, China

LONGEST TIME WITH NO SHOWER – 8 days (Mongolia)

BEST MEAL

C – In Thessaloniki, having appetisers with Sandy at an ‘ouzeri’ (a place that sells ouzo and appetisers) with the most delicious ‘melt in your mouth’ calamari, wonderful bread, Greek salad and delicious walnut cake and ice cream to end with.

S – the barbecued calamari a described as the best calamari in Greece at an ouzeri in Thessaloniki as well as my favourite dessert was a sundae a groovy Beijing coffee shop near our hostel.

Y – The Thai Restraunt in Beijing near our hostel where we had spicy chicken, prawns in coconut sauce, Thai bread and rice and veggies. The potato gratin also at Teta Mirka’s house was amazing – I had four serves.

T – the night before my birthday in Darwin at our aunty Jenny and uncle Paul’s place with our cousins Lachie and Josh – we had pasticcis, party pies and sausage rolls and aunty Jenny got us a wonderful birthday cake – mine was cheesecake. Actually I loved all of Jenny and Paul’s meals in Darwin but my birthday one was the best.

K – Barramundi at Jen’s house there was lemon juice and veggies and at my birthday I had chicken snitzel – best snitzel I’ve ever had. Also I loved the nachos at the Mexican place for Tobes’ and Yas’ birthday in Darwin. I also have one more – My complete FAVOURITE – the fish we cooked on a stone BBQ at lake Baikal that we caught ourselves. It was incredible. And I have to mention the huge (so much) Nutella waffle I had with mum in Heraklion.

Z – Pasta with tuna sauce in the village with Papou Doni’s tomatoes and I loved Mihali’s milk in the village

E – Giros pita by the lake

WORST MEAL

C – The second day of our ger stay when we had veggies and Soya TVP with some sort of pasta but the whole meal and air and everything just smelt of mutton fat and I was feeling quite ill from it – after which I just got used to it and enjoyed the experience.

S – The first meal in Kunming where the smell just made me want to vomit and I put on a brave face for the kids and then we wised up and got some written instructions for other prospective food places.

Y – Our first noodle meal in China in Kunming cause it was spicy and very hot and we hadn’t learnt how to ask for less spicy yet and people were all looking at us.

T – In Beijing in a Chinese Restraunt near our hostel that everyone else loved but always put me in a bad mood – the food was lots of veggies and noodles and stuff like that.

K – On Jetstar flight from Darwin – Singapore we had rice and chicken it was so plain and yuk

Z – The spicy food in China

E – Reheated past tonight cause it didn’t have enough sauce

TOTAL LAND KILOMETRES – 15,970km

TOTAL SEA KILOMETRES – 167 km

TOTAL AIR KILOMETRES – 10,635km