We learned a long time ago that more than 300km per day average in a car was a bit too much. If we have a long day we need a day off. 600km is a very long day.

We definitely slowed down towards the North of China. And even more so towards the end of Mongolia. Sped up again in Europe.

Its really an outcome of the schedule, which has fixed dates for China and length of visa limitations, plus how many detours we feel like making. Otherwise its road condition, on some rough roads its impractical to travel fast.

We don't feel particularly rested despite around 25% of days with very little or no travel. A large proportion of them probably involved some sight seeing, particularly in China. In other countries we stop and have "do nothing" days or drive one day and sight see the next. Apart from the middle of China, and the latter part of Mongolia, we haven't been too tired. We managed to slow down a bit when necessary.

Perhaps China was also a little different due to the lack of "attractive" camp sites - this comment is of course written while in Mongolia where camping is so radically different.

We are in Europe in the off-season. Its essentially closed. We have an Indian Summer but same time last year Europe was under one meter of snow. We feel like we ought to dawdle but conditions seem to be against us.

The distance takes no account of the road condition and speed we were able to maintain but generally our average speed has been well below 70 km/hr. At times its probably been below 25 km/hr over rough roads. Rarely is our maximum speed above 80 km/hr, except for a couple of expressways in China when driving a long way.

Of the three long days of more than 500 km before Mongolia, two were in Thailand where we felt limited by the 15 day visa available for road entry and a long day after Tiger Leaping Gorge where we were retracing our steps.

In retrospect we probably should have recorded driving time as well as distance. 

For the techies. The chart was drawn the hard way (with lots of if statements in a matrix of cells) after finding it totally impossible to work out what the MS Excel Histogram was really counting and to have it provide what I needed..

Fuel consumption is useful to know. If we drive too fast it goes up. It can also be an indication as to the health of the engine and other mechanical bits and pieces.

Also useful for understanding the effect on our budget is A$/100km which depends on fuel price and exchange rate. 

The higher than normal consumption in part of China is probably due to the diesel leak. The two fills after fixing it have distance estimated from gps due to the speedo failure. Diesel leak and speedo both fixed - though speedo is without the ratio adaptor for the large tyres so has a correction (calibrated from gps over long distance). It looks like diesel consumption has returned to normal.

The slow speed across the Gobi in Mongolia meant lower fuel consumption which partly compensated for the higher price. We think tyre pressure changes are also visible in fuel consumption but really haven't recorded sufficient detail. Not sure about the impact of when we locked the front hubs - probably haven't had them locked for long enough.

In Russia payment is made before fuel is pumped. Thus litres/100km is an estimate, I've used the average to date, until the tank can be filled to the top, or run to empty.

Europe is of course simply more expensive.

Exchange rates have changed while we've been traveling. Up by 10% (Aus dollar improves) and down a bit.

And the weekly cost. Just to exercise some sort of control. We have a vague idea of budget but don't feel constrained. After 5 months we are well and truly under budget.

Philosophically, cost is an outcome of how we approach the trip rather than trying to squeeze ourselves into a budget. Just like any good management accountant, if we wanted a different cost outcome we'd have to do something differently. Cost is really an indicator of how well, or poorly, other things are working. For the management, and other, accountants that don't accept or comprehend that I can recommend reading "Relevance Lost".

General expenses are the day to day living, transport, camping and entertainment. Extraordinary is things like hotel and other setup costs in Malaysia, the solar regulator, oil change, and the Chinese agency costs. We have a detailed break down but really haven't had to look too closely at it.

Fuel costs are about 50%. The last high week in China we filled up 3 times instead of the previous 1 or 2 times per week. The low week in China has only one fuel fill and a couple of rest days.

We stocked up on food in China before Mongolia in the expectation that some things we like wouldn't be available (like Orange Juice, Cow's Milk, margarine, chicken and steak, etc.). Apart from the supermarkets of Ulaan Bataar we were basically correct. The low cost of Mongolia reflects feeding ourselves and camping wherever we could - not to save money per se, just because that's how we like it.

We aren't tea total but have found that alcohol exacerbates a headache problem. This trip is challenging enough without alcohol so we've been substantially booze free.

In Europe we see higher fuel prices, significant road tolls in Slovenia and Italy though mostly avoided elsewhere by using minor roads, and camping ground costs have begun to have an impact.

Slightly confusing, the weeks start on Sunday and end on Saturday but none of our border crossings occurred on Saturday or Sunday so some weeks have costs from two countries.

With a bit of sensitivity included - what happens if costs increase by 50%? For example in Western Europe where we will have to pay for camping and fuel is more expensive.