178 COUNTING THE COST...

We know where we are visiting on the trip, have a rough estimate of how many miles we will cover, and know what public transport we will be using, so we can start calculating the cost of our epic journey.

Although we have booked some hotels, we still have a couple more to do. Therefore, there is no final cost for accommodation yet, so I'll keep that summary for another post.

We have settled on the train to take us on to mainland Europe, and the ferry to bring us back. Based on the date we head out, the Le Shuttle from Folkestone to Calais costs £113. If we want a bit of flexibility, a £153 ticket allows us to arrive up to 4 hours before our booked time and board the train.

Our return to England's green and pleasant land comes via a Brittany Ferry service from Bilbao to Portsmouth.

For a car, two passengers and a cabin, the total comes in at an eye-watering £647 (£518 for a Flexi ticket, £129 for an outside cabin - by the time we were ready to book all the outside rooms had gone).

A quick internet search shows that the average price of a gallon of petrol in the countries we will be visiting is €6.50, which works out at around £5.60. Abbie does around 30 MPG (she may be small, but she has it where it counts - plus she is being driven by me and my lead foot). We will cover about 2,100 miles, so fuel will cost about £400.

That means we are £1,200 down before factoring in accommodation, food and drink. If we pencil in a conservative £75 per person, per day for food and drink, that adds a whopping £1,500 to the bill.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and at these prices, I can only afford to do it once!