Do we need any and, if so, what? Although we consider ourselves to be relatively fit and healthy there is no doubt that a comprehensive health insurance in our back pocket would provide us with the security of knowing that we can get access to medical attention as and if we need it. We have been covered by Bupa for the last 20+ years and so this seemed like a good place to start. We weren’t expecting them to be particularly interested given that we weren’t going to be residing in Australia, but, surprisingly, they were able to offer us an international policy for Australian ex-pats which included evacuation and expatriation as well as the usual health cover world wide. The quote was a hefty AU$15,000 per annum! Whilst researching our options, plenty of cheaper alternatives popped up on Google but they were mainly a combination of travel and minimal health cover and as we were not looking to be compensated for delayed flights or lost luggage did not fit the bill. Eventually we came across Cigna Global Health, a huge American company who specialise in international health insurance for globally mobile individuals (whoo-hoo, that’s us!). They were easy to deal with and unlike many other companies did not require a permanent residential address and there was no age limit - everyone else we spoke to had an age cap and some were as low as 64. They offered us worldwide cover (excluding USA), International Evacuation and Crisis Assistance, Vision, Dental and Well-Being as well as covering any expenses incurred due to Covid, something that will surely be required as we continue to live with this virus. The final quote came to $7,800 per annum which definitely justified all the late night international phone calls.

The car proved to be a bit more tricky. Firstly, we needed to look at any cover from two aspects, local/third party liability and vehicle loss and/or damage. Whilst some countries do not require vehicle owners to have third party insurance, others will only recognise policies that have been issued by their own country. As such it should be pretty easy to obtain on entry and so we decided not to worry about this for the time being.

Insurance against vehicle loss and/or damage poses the question of whether we want it or not and also whether we could find an insurer to offer a global policy. Unable to find any cover from an Australian insurer, we made many calls to UK and USA, eventually finding just one company which were prepared to offer us the policy we were looking for - Clements Worldwide Insurance, who have offices in USA, UK and Dubai. We decided on a value for Bob which covered the initial purchase price but not the additional kit-out costs (AU$55,000) and took out a policy costing $1,900 which included a $1000 excess. It is worth mentioning that regardless of when the policy is taken out this insurance will not cover Bob for any mishaps during shipping. Cover for this can be purchased via the shipping agent but is expensive. I suspect that once we are on the road and a bit more laid back about such issues we will not renew after the initial 12 months but it does give us a bit of security starting out on our journey.