What we spent: Australia
Australia is famously expensive, and coming off three months in southeast Asia only exacerbated our initial sticker shock when we arrived in Sydney. The cost for various travel necessities such as restaurant food, hotel rooms and local transportation felt alarmingly expensive. For example, in Apollo Bay, we managed to spend A$11 on a single (exemplary, it must be said) almond croissant. But we (sort of) got used to it. By the end of our time in Australia, we genuinely respected those higher prices because one significant reason prices are higher in Australia is that the national minimum wage is more than A$20 (about $15) per hour and the average wage for a server in Sydney is closer to A$30 per hour. Obviously, this reality makes every aspect of the service industry more expensive. But it also makes Australian society more fair and that fairness is easily felt as we traveled around New South Wales and Victoria.
14 days in Australia
We mitigated the higher cost for service goods to some extent by doing most of our own cooking and by camping for one night while we were in Australia. We probably would have chosen to do more camping — it seems like Australians really love to camp! Campgrounds were everywhere — but even by early May, it was cold and rainy. Not exactly perfect camping weather (unless you’re Brian who adheres to a modification of the famous Nordic maxim: there is no bad weather, only poorly designed tents.)
A well designed tent
It also comes in regular tasty
Things that were not expensive: national parks and wine. Entry into Australian national parks is free, so the fun category in our spending appears thin but is more a reflection of the fact that pretty much every day we were living it up in various national parks for free. Entry at the Australian Museum in Sydney was also, bizarrely, free.
Finally, a country where you can hike without a guide
Wine is famously inexpensive in Australia and there’s a recurrent joke circulating around the internet that in Australia, wine costs less than bottled water. I’m not sure that’s exactly true, but it feels true enough to be funny. Drinkable Australian wine can easily be found for less than A$5 a bottle.
A dreamy day in the Australian Alps
Now we are in Normandy and I have one additional financial note of interest to share. I think, coming from the US, healthcare in other countries can feel opaque and maybe a source of anxiety during travel. That hasn’t been our experience at all. One the one hand, we haven’t needed much healthcare this year and we’re very grateful that the year has been more or less free of accidents and sickness. The guys had dental cleanings in Istanbul, Brian and I got (free) Covid boosters in Cape Town, and Joe got a (free) Covid vaccine in Sydney. Joe also needed emergency dental care in South Africa but this was surprisingly easy to arrange, reasonably priced and ultimately completely covered by our travel insurance. Last week though, I needed to obtain a refill on a prescription medication before we leave on the GR10. With some trepidation, I googled general practitioners in Dinan, where we were staying at the time. Even though Dinan is a small town (population ~11,000), I was easily able to schedule a next day appointment a comfortable walk from our house. The doctor was friendly and spoke passable English (almost a disappointment: I had practiced how to say “thyroid” and “seventy-five micrograms” the day before) and after charging me €25 (about $26) for the consultation, sent me on my way with a prescription for levothyroxine and a lab slip. I filled the prescription the following day: €5.02 for a three month supply. TROP FACILE!
