Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast…
Matt Sims: We speak with a couple who travelled across the globe in a 20-year-old Adria twin campervan.
Keith Gooden: And we answer your questions on measuring the height of your van, disposing of waste and a great insurance experience. And happy birthday this week to Motorhome Matt.
Matt Sims: Thank you very much.
Keith Gooden: Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans, brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
Matt Sims: And remember to follow on your favourite podcast app. Or if you’re watching on YouTube, click subscribe and the little bell.
Keith Gooden: Now, as you may have seen in an episode a few weeks ago, Matt is due his heart surgery anytime soon and we’re recording episodes ahead of time. So for us, it’s currently September. So for you it’s November. We apologise if there’s been any big news or big developments in the industry that we haven’t shared here, but we’re doing our very best. And if it all goes to schedule, future Matt is currently tucked up in bed, resting, being waited on hand and foot by Mrs Motorhome Matt, and it’s his birthday as well.
Matt Sims: Waiting on hand. You’re joking. That will not be happening, I promise. You should be looking out for me. I won’t be given a bell to ring, if that’s what you mean.
Keith Gooden: I’m not so sure, you know.
Matt Sims: I’ll let you know. I will let you know.
Keith Gooden: Now, would you travel around the world in a campervan? That’s what we’re talking about in this episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast. Well, today we met two people who did just that. Tell us more then, Matt.
Matt Sims: Yeah, they’re an absolute inspiration. Chris and Marianne from Tread the Globe have literally driven around the planet in a campervan, and they’re doing it again. They’re mad. They’re absolutely nuts. We’ll smooth over my faux pas of giving you the wrong postcode and sending you to my house.
Marianne: Whoopsie.
Matt Sims: I’m so sorry.
Chris: It’s a very scenic drive, though.
Matt Sims: It’s a lovely spot to live. You’ve been around the entire world, and then I get you lost right at the end bit. So my apologies. Never mind that. How long ago did you come back from travelling around the planet? I mean, how long have you been back?
Chris: Ten months now?
Marianne: Yeah, about ten months.
Matt Sims: A little while ago. And a lot has happened in that ten months. And a lot is going to happen, which we’re going to talk about in a minute. But can we just rewind before you did this huge trip to what inspired you to do it? I mean, taking a 20-year-old Fiat Ducato around the planet – was that always your plan?
Chris: No, that was an accident.
Marianne: Would anybody actually make that plan?
Matt Sims: Well, I certainly wouldn’t. Not in a 20-year-old Ducato.
Marianne: No, we chose the Fiat Ducato Adria twin conversion because that’s the van my dad had. And Chris is six foot two and a bit, and it was the only van that Chris could actually sleep traverse with sort of straight legs. So that’s why we chose that van. But we had no intention, did we? We just thought, let’s just go around Europe, see what that’s like.
Chris: How we ended up in the van in the first place was – I think it was a mid-life crisis of epic proportions.
Matt Sims: Well, yeah. That’s fair.
Marianne: Not his first!
Matt Sims: You’ve got the goatee. You haven’t got the ponytail.
Chris: No, no. And I haven’t dyed it.
Marianne: No beads, no beads yet.
Chris: You reach an age in life when you realise that you’re not going to live forever. And you have to seize the moment and do what you really want to do. I had high blood pressure. Good job. You know, everything was good, but my blood pressure was high, and I had this real fear that I wasn’t going to make it to retirement. After much discussion, we just decided to pack up the jobs, sell the stuff, rent the house out and buy a van.
Marianne: Yeah, I realised that I liked him so much that the status thing wasn’t really the thing for me. I’d rather live in a cardboard box or a metal bo and be together.
Chris: I’d never slept in a van before, so I literally went from buying a van, moving out of my house and living full-time in it without ever spending a night in a van before.
Matt Sims: Your plan was originally just to go to Europe.
Chris: Yeah. Live the dream. Drive around Europe. Free aires, eating croissants, drinking red wine.
Matt Sims: For how long?
Chris: Forever. Well, until we got bored.
Matt Sims: Okay, but this escalated pretty quickly into driving around the planet.
Chris: Guinness.
Marianne: Guinness.
Matt Sims: Guinness.
Marianne: Okay, but alcohol is bad for you.
Chris: In so many ways.
Matt Sims: I understand you went to Ireland, to a wedding?
Marianne: Yes.
Matt Sims: And that’s where things changed.
Marianne: Oh-oh.
Matt Sims: What happened?
Chris: Well, I kind of branded the van a bit wildly. It says on the side of our van, we quit the 9 to 5 to travel the world, and we rocked up in Ireland and people were like, well, how many countries have you been to? And I was like, this is the first. And they looked disappointed.
Matt Sims: England and Ireland.
Chris: They looked disappointed. But I was like, I’ve got to start somewhere. But yeah, after too much Guinness, somebody read the sign and said, “Oh, you’re driving around the world.” And we looked at each other and we went, yes, we are. Why not? And that’s kind of where the idea came from.
Matt Sims: So the gauntlet was thrown. And so from Ireland you went to where?
Marianne: So we actually took six months to get Trudy ready. Because obviously she was designed for Europe. So we put extra solar on, and we put an LPG tank underneath because we’d researched and realised gas bottles might be an issue.
Chris: We did Europe first.
Marianne: Yeah, we did Europe whilst we were planning and then it just happened.
Chris: She says that.
Marianne: Yeah. Let’s just do it. You see, this is why we’re a great team. He’s the planner and I’m basically the free spirit.
Chris: She would drive into the sunset on an around-the-world drive and go, “Oh I didn’t realise I needed a visa,” you know. So I’m the one going. “But hold on a minute. How much is it going to cost?”
Matt Sims: So are you the voice of reason?
Chris: I have to plan.
Marianne: But things have changed now. He was the planner. But now I’m the research planner because he’s doing a massive project on editing. So I’ve had to do it. And now I understand why he was so worried all the time.
Matt Sims: Yeah, yeah, I can understand that. So you are bringing out a documentary?
Marianne: Yeah.
Matt Sims: Of the trip?
Chris: Yes.
Matt Sims: Which is a massive project to edit.
Chris: Yeah, it was a bit of a crazy idea when I realised how much footage I’d taken in four and a half years.
Matt Sims: How much footage have you taken?
Chris: 25 terabytes.
Matt Sims: That’s a lot of footage. I mean, most people have a clue what that means.
Chris: But.
Matt Sims: That’s some hours.
Chris: The last episode of this series I edited, I went through 5,300 video clips for one episode.
Matt Sims: Which is an hour long. How do you determine which bits to use?
Chris: I think about what stories I would tell if I’m in the pub with somebody. And then I kind of build it from there.
Matt Sims: And when is this series going to be out?
Chris: As soon as I’ve finished.
Matt Sims: No pressure!
Chris: I think it’s going to be late autumn, mid-November.
Matt Sims: So this year, 2025.
Chris: Yeah, it’s going to be on YouTube. I’ll put it on YouTube.
Matt Sims: We’ll look forward to that. So I had the pleasure of meeting Dan, your son, last weekend at a show. We were at a show together and I said, “What do you think of your mum and dad?” He said, “They’re both mad, but I’m so proud of them.”
Marianne: Oh.
Chris: It was his fault we started YouTube, wasn’t it?
Marianne: Yeah, it actually was. Because we’d always done those holidays when we went off, you know, backpacking and we took photos, we wrote little journals, and then we put it all back in a coffee table book at the end of it. And when we decided to do this, he said, “Why don’t you do YouTube?” And I was like, does this look like a Kardashian? And he said to me, “Dear God, no. But dad’s a workaholic, and actually it will give him a project.” And that’s why YouTube started, because we literally thought, this is for friends and family. We had no idea that we would have such a fabulous community that would join us on this journey and cheer us on from the sidelines. We have got the best community.
Matt Sims: You really have built a brilliant community. It has to be said.
Marianne: We are blessed, massively.
Chris: So thank you to all of you.
Marianne: Not only are they fabulous, but they are committed.
Chris: They cheer us on.
Marianne: Yeah, they cheer us on from the sidelines. But we come up with these community projects and they’ve backed everything that we’ve supported.
Matt Sims: I want to pick up on those in a minute. So there were a couple you shared with me previously, which were really inspiring. How did it feel to go from living in a house to a van?
Marianne: For seven years!
Matt Sims: Yes.
Chris: Well, I think the first week I was in there, I hit my head every five minutes. I said, “If I carry on like this, by the end of this trip, I’m going to be like a boxer.”
Marianne: You’re amazing.
Matt Sims: But you had a great quote. So it’s not actually necessarily easier, but it’s simpler.
Marianne: Yes, absolutely. I always say that life living in a van motorhome full time, it is not easier, but it is simpler. There are fewer things to go wrong.
Chris: We’ve only been back in the house a short while, but everything goes wrong. You know, there’s always something that you need to do on a house, isn’t there? And the more stuff you have, the more stuff that goes wrong.
Matt Sims: I guess you get different challenges, though, in a van, and you alluded earlier to visas, and you’d just go off without a visa. In terms of the planning for this trip, what paperwork and prep did you have to get together to go? I mean, there’s the obvious stuff like your V5 and the MOT, but in terms of doing a round-the-world trip, there’s a raft of stuff you need to prep for. Where on earth did you start?
Chris: Looking at a map. And we kind of went, we’re going to just do that.
Marianne: I’s only that big on the map, so it won’t take us long.
Chris: But you start looking at things like weather windows. Visa requirements. Because you might be allowed to go into a country for a certain length of time, but your vehicle as a foreign vehicle is very often allowed a different length of time.
Matt Sims: Right. Okay.
Marianne: For example Mexico, we can get a visa for six months. But Trudy could have stayed in Mexico for ten years.
Matt Sims: Okay.
Chris: That’s the most extreme.
Marianne: That’s the most extreme version. But then there are other times where, you know, you’ve only got 30 days for yourself or your vehicle and the paperwork to go with it, but it’s big and you’ve got to get across it. So there is no stopping. You are traversing and there’s no extensions.
Chris: And then there’s weather windows. So you’ve got to plan it so you don’t end up in some extreme…
Matt Sims: In a monsoon.
Chris: … place – either a monsoon or, you know, in the winter, and it’s -30.
Matt Sims: But that could be difficult here. I mean, you’ve seen the weather here this week.
Chris: It’s unpredictable.
Matt Sims: Sunshine and stair rod rain.
Marianne: Our internal thermometer errors out at 50. And in India, it errored out every day. And in Yellowstone National Park, because we had a problem, we had to stay at a garage for six weeks in Canada and sleep on his, like, forecourt. By the time we got across into Yellowstone, it was -12 inside the van. So, you know, it was just wild extremes, but that was just part of the challenge.
Matt Sims: And did your plan always go to plan?
Chris: No, it never went to plan.
Marianne: Never.
Chris: It went wrong. The first couple of months were okay. It kind of went to plan. We were going across Europe, down towards Turkey, and of course, then Covid hit. Well, nobody planned that.
Matt Sims: Well, absolutely. And where did you guys spend lockdown? Because it was mid-trip wasn’t it?
Chris: Well, we moved into the van in 2018, but we actually the world trip started in January 2020. So it was three months before Covid hit. We’d just arrived in Istanbul. We’d done two days filming in Istanbul, and then the borders closed, and then we spent 95 days in a car park.
Matt Sims: And didn’t you become resident?
Chris: We did.
Marianne: We did. But that was because we didn’t want to give up and just drive home. So we thought, we’ll sit it out, wait it out until Georgia opened. Russia opened because we had a visa for Russia at that point, but it stayed closed due to Covid. So we just waited it out and we grew vegetables in the muddy verge around the car park.
Matt Sims: You built an allotment, didn’t you?
Marianne: We did. We did.
Chris: In the grass verge.
Marianne: In the muddy verge. Yeah. I weeded it all out.
Chris: Grew tomatoes.
Marianne: Grew tomato plants, chilli plants, lettuce.
Matt Sims: Kept busy!
Marianne: Cucumbers.
Chris: There’s not a lot to do in a car park for 95 days.
Marianne: No, I trained the street dogs how to walk to heel.
Chris: We adopted a street cat.
Marianne: Yeah, we just kept ourselves busy.
Matt Sims: That’s incredible. And I always get asked by listeners and viewers of the podcast about insurance. It’s a huge topic – where people can get insurance to go abroad and so on. And some people face a challenge getting insured to stay in the UK. How on earth did you get insurance? Not just for Trudy, but for you guys as well. In terms of health insurance, who do you go to for that?
Chris: So there are two companies we use for health insurance. World Nomads is one of the few insurance companies that you can renew on the road. So at the end of the year, you can renew it without going back to your home country. Most insurance companies will say you have to go home for a certain period and then apply again. And then sometimes we’re forced across countries, maybe have travel warnings. So that invalidates your travel insurance. So then there’s a specialist company we use called Battle Face that insures people when the Foreign Office says you shouldn’t really go there.
Matt Sims: Wow.
Marianne: We also have a third one called Safety Wing. So if on World Nomad we can’t add it last minute and it’s not included in that policy, we can actually buy like a week, two weeks.
Chris: Yeah, just for one.
Matt Sims: And were you finding you were buying insurance for cash when you entered a country?
Chris: Oh, yeah. Outside Europe, basically you rock up on the border and they say, “Have you got insurance?” And you say, no. And they go, “Go to that hut over there,” and you rock up and you pay whatever it is. Varying amounts. And it’s probably not worth the paper it’s written on. In fact, there was one country we went to and there wasn’t a hut on the border. So he called somebody from the town to come and we followed him. You know, we followed his car and you’re thinking, “I’m driving through this country without insurance to get to the insurance office to be able to buy insurance.” It doesn’t work. You realise quite quickly things don’t work like they do here.
Marianne: I think us Brits, we like to conform and we’re quite risk-averse. So I think you have to chuck it in the bucket and just not worry about things like that. Because I can honestly say touch wood, hope I don’t jinx myself, but we didn’t have any accidents whilst driving around the world.
Chris: She’s said it now.
Marianne: But that’s because I drive according to their rules. So when they drive like lunatics in India, you just drive on whatever side of the road you want.
Matt Sims: I saw you doing it on that clip.
Marianne: Yeah, you just do whatever you want to, really. So for me, I just did whatever I wanted. So quite often I came up against policemen or traffic lights, and I just shout at them and go past them anyway. And that’s what everybody did. And in fact, if you stop, all the people around you start crashing into each other and start shouting at you because you’ve created an accident, because you’re not doing what everyone should be doing.
Matt Sims: Something I found was interesting is you did most of the driving.
Marianne: 95% of the driving, but that’s because I hate the pressure of editing, filming and everything else. And what happened when we first started? Chris would be driving, he would then come to edit and he’d say, “That really nice church on the hill,” and I’d say yes. And he’d say, “Well, did you film it?” No. Why would I film it? “Film it? Because I told you to.” So our marriage wouldn’t be this happy if I was responsible for filming.
Chris: Yeah. I thinkwhen making videos, it’s so much easier if I film it, I’m telling the story in my head and then I edit it.
Marianne: Yeah. He’s creative, I’m reactive. So I make a very good driver because I defence drive everywhere all the time, where he is very creative and I can’t see that vision.
Matt Sims: So some of this sounds quite stressful. How did you deal with the stress of the paperwork and meeting policemen who you’ve got to shout at? How do you deal with that?
Marianne: Well, it’s interesting.
Chris: One day at a time.
Marianne: Yeah, one day at a time. But I would give the example of trying to cross the border just to get a stamp to come back in, because in some countries, your vehicle can only stay for a certain amount of time. And we went out of Turkey to get us during Covid to come then straight back in. But when the second variant was coming, because we had a British number plate, the Turkish immigration said, “Sorry, you can’t come in because you’ve got a British number plate.” And I said, “No, no, we’ve literally just come through to get the stamp. And they went, “No, no, no, just pull over there.” So we were put in like a quarantine area with all the other British number plates. It all got quite animated. And I said to them, “Look, honestly, I’m just going to put the kettle on. I’m gonna make a cup of tea. Would you like one whilst you go and have a chat with somebody?
Matt Sims: Because I’ve got tomatoes to tend to back in my car park.
Marianne: I might have greenfly by the time I get back. So it’s that simple. You just try not to lose it and you just…
Chris: But it can be stressful. You know, you don’t know where you’re going to park, is it safe? Where do you get water?
Marianne: Can you drink the water?
Chris: Can you drink the water? You know, there’s so many… it’s that cycle of van life, isn’t it, when you’re not going to campsites? Because for the whole world trip, I think we only stayed in a couple of campsites.
Matt Sims: But was having each other important for you both?
Chris: Oh, yeah. Hugely.
Marianne: Massively. I think for us, being able to share something like this was one of the reasons we did it, because you can make more money, but you can’t make more time. And even when we ran a pub together, we felt like we weren’t seeing each other enough because we actually like each other. And we married each other because we like each other. So being on the road together, like, literally, we’re never more than a couple of feet away from each other in Trudy, and it’s just the best. We laugh with each other. We just have so much fun. And I think for us as well, we were a good team.
Chris: We’re not blue and pink. If one’s if one’s having a bad day, the other one, you know, just supports because you’re doing that kind of trip. I mean, a four-and-a-half-year trip around the world, you’re going to have ups and downs and you’re going to have good days and bad days. And when it’s, you know, extreme temperatures or, you know, you haven’t got enough food and, you know, all sorts of things, it can get quite.. Or you break down, it can get quite stressful at times.
Matt Sims: Yeah, absolutely. And there must have been lows where you thought, “This is why we did this.” Are there particular moments you really remember?
Chris: The biggest one for me was when we met… it’s a long story, but I’ll keep it short. But we met a lone woman on a beach in Turkey, and we found out she’d been living in this tent to protect endangered turtles because cars were driving up and down the beach. And I made a short ten-minute video of her story about why she was doing it. And we managed to raise about £12,000 at that time to build a conservation centre on the beach. I mean, this is going on a few years now since then. This lone woman in a tent – the beach has been protected. The Turkish law got changed on endangered animals. They put it in the school education. So it’s actually part of the syllabus to teach school kids. She gets busloads a day. The centre’s been expanded. It’s linked with the university. There’s vets, there’s a library, there’s rescue tanks for turtles. And that’s all from a ten-minute YouTube video.
Matt Sims: And so your viewers raised the money, donated the money to do this.
Chris: We said we needed help. I said to this lady, “We might be able to get you the money, but I don’t know how many years it would take,” and we had it within a week.
Matt Sims: Oh my goodness, a week.
Marianne: And we’ve raised up to nearly £50,000 now. And like all charities, it’s money draining. But she just keeps powering on. She lives at the centre now. She’s there all the time cleaning the beaches. She has 3,000 children and guests a week, and she teaches them about the cycle. She’s got two vets, three marine professors. All the students who are studying marine biology come and volunteer.
Chris: It’s a good story, because they were planning to build restaurants along that beach and they all got cancelled. It’s protected. So we weren’t actually that popular at the time with certain people because we were doing these videos and highlighting the fact that this beach has hundreds of endangered turtles on them.
Matt Sims: Wow.
Marianne: But I think for me, the biggest thing was when you donate money to a charity like we all do, to be able to be part of something this epic and see and feel the change… and we say to all our community, if you go to Turkey and you’re down near Antalya, it’s an hour and a half away from Antalya Airport. Go and meet her. She is powerful. She is Xena Princess Warrior.
Chris: Mad as a hatter.
Marianne: Mad as a box of frogs. But who would give up their life to do that? I don’t know.
Matt Sims: That’s incredible. What a story! And was there a moment for you, Marianne, that equally you remember?
Marianne: Driving through Kruger National Park in Trudy, our 20-year-old Fiat Ducato, and I saw this huge elephant on the side. So I slowed down and I realised that there was a baby just behind this huge mama elephant. So I just put her into reverse. I just pedalled on back a little bit, and if you watch the video, the mama elephant looked at me. She nodded her head. She started walking and this little baby’s ears go out. Tail goes up and it’s like… and off he went. I was just – I bawled like a baby.
Chris: It was like a connection where she actually looked and went, “Thank you.”
Marianne: I got goose pimples just thinking about it. It was just epic.
Matt Sims: Wow. Maybe you’ll meet the elephant again. They say they never forget.
Chris: Yeah. And I understand that you spent a night in Las Vegas as well.
Chris: Yeah, we had this mad idea – could we go and wild camp in Las Vegas?
Matt Sims: On the strip?
Chris: Yeah, yeah, we slept on the strip.
Marianne: Well, a car park on the strip.
Matt Sims: That’s a busy place.
Chris: We rocked up at the Mirage Hotel’s car park. Yeah. And the security were like, “Are you staying in the hotel, sir? Madam?” And we were like, “We’re looking for tickets to Cirque de Soleil. Can we get them from concierge?” And he went, “Sure.” You know. So anyway, we went in the car park. It still cost us, like, £30 for the night parking. But yeah, we actually went to Cirque du Soleil. We went out for dinner, put a few pounds in one of the slot machines and slept on the strip. Yeah.
Marianne: Although you couldn’t work out how the machines worked.
Chris: Oh, they’re so complicated. I just wanted the jar of quarters. Little coins or pennies you could put in. It’s not like that anymore. You’ve got to put your credit card in. It’s all computerised.
Matt Sims: Oh, gosh. Yeah.
Chris: Don’t do it.
Matt Sims: I went to put a dollar in a machine and lost it. And that was the end of it.
Chris: Yeah.
Matt Sims: That’s it. I didn’t do any gambling when I went there. So let’s talk about the future then. What is next? Do you have an epic road trip planned? You’re having a new campervan, let’s call it that, being built. Tell us a little bit about the van first.
Marianne: Okay, so we’ve got a Toyota Hilux 2.5 2018.
Matt Sims: That’s a car.
Marianne: Single cab. A truck. When I say car, my auntie from Canada tells me off. It’s a truck.
Matt Sims: It’s a truck.
Marianne: It’s a truck. So they’re taking the bed off the back and they’re actually building, or they have actually built, an aluminium frame, which is now turning it into a truck camper with a pop-up roof. So it goes into a shipping container.
Matt Sims: I thought that was a very clever observation by you. It’s a lot cheaper, isn’t it?
Chris: And your stuff doesn’t get stolen.
Matt Sims: Okay. Right.
Chris: Because that happened to us twice.
Matt Sims: I saw. Here in the UK as well. Disappointing.
Chris: Well, on the way back.
Marianne: On the way back and they actually offloaded her in Germany and Belgium.
Chris: You don’t know.
Marianne: You’re open to risk. That’s the actual sculpture of the vehicle. And then we’re going to have solar on the roof. We’re going to kit it out. We’ll share all of that.
Chris: And it’s in Malaysia.
Matt Sims: So it’s being built in Kuala Lumpur.
Chris: Yeah, we were on holiday out there and just kind of just thought…
Marianne: Loosely. We were filming.
Chris: We were filming around Borneo for three months, but at the end we stayed in KL for a few days and we thought, what’s the next vehicle? And then we went looking for a truck and we found one, and we just bought it two days before we left. So it’s there. It’s actually not in our names. It’s in somebody else’s name. But I think it should be there when we get there.
Matt Sims: There’s an awful lot of trust gone into that.
Chris: There’s a lot of trust.
Marianne: Yes. We paid for the vehicle. The truck company that builds these truck campers, it’s in his name. And we’ve sent some money over, and we have videos to show that it’s being built. But we’re flying over next week.
Matt Sims: And it’s right-hand drive.
Chris: Yes, yes.
Matt Sims: There’s a reason for that, isn’t there?
Marianne: Well, I actually wanted a left-hand drive, but it’s very tricky to get one. And the closest I could find was the Philippines. And then I would have had to ship it over. So we decided actually to suck it up because right-hand drive means we can’t go through Central America. It also means we can’t go across Saudi. So we wanted a left-hand drive. But it is what it is and we will make this adventure happen.
Matt Sims: So tell us where you’re planning to drive Trevor, as you’ve named it.
Marianne: Trevor.
Matt Sims: My dad’s called Trevor.
Chris: The Toyota Trev truck.
Matt Sims: So tell us about the trip. It’s in Malaysia. Are you going to fly out there?
Chris: Yes. Now, if all goes according to plan – and it never does, so don’t hold me to this. but the plan is that we’re going to pick it up, test drive it around maybe Borneo, Indonesia, for a few months just to make sure there’s no teething trouble. Because then we can go back and get it fixed before we leave. And then if we get the Chinese visas, we’re going to drive across China through Kazakhstan, across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, drive it back to the UK. That’s the warm-up.
Matt Sims: Good warm-up.
Chris: It’s a very good warm-up. And then we’re going to ship it to Halifax, drive across Canada, and then basically drive all the way down to the bottom of Argentina.
Marianne: Obviously there’s a gap.
Matt Sims: Avoiding Central America?
Chris: The gap. Yeah.
Marianne: Well, we can go into Guatemala and Belize because they’re okay with right-hand drive. But then we’ll have to ship from Belize to Colombia. Then we’ll go into Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia.
Matt Sims: And all the way down through South America.
Chris: And then that’s not the end. That’s the halfway point, because then we ship it to Durban in South Africa.
Matt Sims: Okay.
Chris: And explore some of the east coast of Africa, sort of up to Kenya and then back down and then up the west coast back home. It’s about 49 countries, and we estimate it will take us 4 to 6 years.
Matt Sims: 4 to 6 years!
Marianne: But I am researching. I’ve got three other countries that I’m researching. And if I can get in, I’m going. Well, don’t forget, I’m a granny now. I’m 58 years old, and once you hit 60 to 65, it’s actually harder to get insurance in those countries to drive those vehicles. So it all becomes a little bit more questionable.
Matt Sims: And will you see family whilst you’re away?
Chris: Yeah. We’re going to have to fly back every… we’ve got family, so we’ll fly back depending on what we can afford.
Matt Sims: And on where you can leave Trevor safely.
Chris: Yes. Because some countries won’t let you leave a foreign vehicle and leave.
Marianne: And when we’re shipping from Buenos Aires to Durban, we’ll have some shipping time.
Matt Sims: And of course, it will be on Malaysian number plates.
Chris: Yeah. It makes it a bit more complicated.
Matt Sims: Not wrong!
Chris: British passport. British Malaysian vehicle.
Matt Sims: This is going to be an epic road trip. So people can follow you on Tread the Globe.
Chris: Tread the Globe.
Marianne: On YouTube there will be a weekly video, which is about an hour. So make yourself a tea or coffee and just take a seat. Sit back and watch the chaos.
Matt Sims: These two are mad, I think you have to agree, listening to or watching this. I wish you every success with the trip. The planning must be epic.
Chris: Yeah, it’s a lot.
Matt Sims: And when do you go?
Chris: Whenever I finish the series.
Marianne: The vehicle will be ready at the end of December. So in a few months. We’re looking middle of Jan if I can get the series finished on time.
Matt Sims: So January 26th, you’re off.
Marianne: I have a big stick. I keep whipping him.
Matt Sims: Yeah. Come on! Stop sitting here talking to me. Get the videos done. We really want to see them. And I can’t wait to follow this next adventure. It’s going to be epic.
Chris: We’ll come back and talk to you whenever we finish.
Matt Sims: When you’re in the UK, pop in. Let’s hear how you’re going.
Marianne: Can’t you fly out?
Matt Sims: Yeah. Let’s go. I’ll come to Malaysia. I want to see Trev. All right – guys, you’re an inspiration. Thank you so much for coming in. It’s been great to have you.
Chris: Thanks for having us.
Matt Sims: We wish you every success and enjoy the next adventure.
Keith Gooden: So that’s Chris and Marianne from Tread the Globe. That is one hell of a journey there, Matt.
Matt Sims: It certainly is. And this next one’s going to be even bigger – 4 or 5 years long. And they keep changing things. They keep changing the route for lots of different reasons. So I’m going to be keeping in touch with them. They’ve become great friends of mine. So no doubt I’ll be keeping in touch via WhatsApp. And perhaps we’ll do a future episode in the new year, and we find out where they are and see how things are going. I’d love to keep in touch anyway.
Keith Gooden: And it sort of puts it into perspective, doesn’t it? You’ve got your motorhome parked outside, get in it and get travelling because you don’t have to go around the world, but at least you can go 50 miles down the road.
Matt Sims: You don’t have to go as mad as they’ve gone, that’s for sure. But yeah, if you’re thinking, shall we go to France? Shall we go to Cornwall? Just do it. Carpe diem. Life is short. I’m evidence of that. So just, you know, seize the day. Just do it. We’re all here for a season. Don’t put it off. Just go and do it. If you’re like me and often working, browsing and using your data on the road, especially if using campsite WiFi or random hotspots abroad, you’ll want to listen up. I’ve been using NordVPN for a while now, and honestly, I wouldn’t go without it. Whether I’m parked up in the van somewhere remote, or grabbing signal in a service station, NordVPN gives me that extra layer of protection. It basically creates a secure tunnel for all your online traffic so no one can snoop on what you’re doing, not even on dodgy public WiFi. But it’s not just about security. Say you’re in Spain, but you want to watch your favourite show back home. NordVPN lets you stream as if you’re still in the UK. Dead handy that it also has this clever feature called Threat Protection. It blocks pop-ups, trackers and dodgy websites before they even load, so everything’s a bit quicker and cleaner too. And set up – well, it couldn’t be easier. Just download the app, tap to connect and it just runs quietly in the background. It works across your phone, your tablet, laptops – in fact, whatever you’re using. So if you fancy giving it a go, head to www.nordvpn.com/motorhomematt, and you’ll get four extra months free when you take out the two-year plan. And there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, too. Honestly, it’s one of those things you don’t realise you need until something goes wrong. So get it sorted before your next trip. That link again – www.nordvpn.com/motorhomematt, and get four months free when you take out the two-year plan.
Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you www.thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe. It’s time now for our Q&A. Questions and answers. You ask the questions and thanks for them all. And Matt, he’s the expert, will answer them. And if he doesn’t know, as I always say, he will ask somebody who jolly well does. First of all, we’ve got Mike Gill who got in touch.
Mike Gill: Hi, Matt. Love the podcast. I just wondered if you could tell me how you could accurately measure the height of your vehicle. You get all the data sheets for width and length for the vehicle, which, yes, that’s quite easy to translate, but things like air conditioning units on the top makes it a little bit vague as to what the height is. Just wondered if there’s some clever thing you can measure. Measure it with radar or going under a boom or a bridge or something.
Keith Gooden: So there you go then, Matt. How do you measure the height of your motorhome? Quick little story for you. There was a BBC local radio station and we went from radio cars, which you pumped the pole up for, and it went up about 20 or 30ft. And then you could communicate from wherever the reporter was back to the studio, replace them for ones with a satellite dish, and so you didn’t have to do the pumping and all the rest of it. But it didn’t come with the training because there were occasions where people had some quite bad accidents putting the mast up and not seeing electric pylons and stuff like that. But with the satellite dish, they said, we’re going to get rid of all that training. So they did. And in the first week they had them, somebody from a BBC local radio station drove one into a car park with the barrier across the top.
Matt Sims: With a height restriction.
Keith Gooden: And took the satellite dish off! So it does matter, doesn’t it? Haven’t some mobile phones got some sort of black magic in them now where you can point and click and it measures things?
Matt Sims: Yeah, there’s apps that measure from point A to B as you move the phone. Yeah, that’s true. I’ve never done that. But I think Mike was on the roof of his van when he recorded that question. It sounded like it from the background noise! But I’ve done this. Mike, it’s a great question. When you’re going through the toll booths in France, they often have a digital measure that shows you the height of your vehicle, and the height of the vehicle determines how much you pay. I’ve been through a few of those. Often, they just have an L shaped stick, looks like a hangman, and they hold that up and that’s three metres tall. And if the stick goes on the roof of the van, it doesn’t touch the floor, they know you’re in the next toll category. It’s as basic as that. But I remember once we wanted to know how tall a motorhome was. It was actually for a hire fleet, and we wanted to convey this to customers driving it, because it had aircon on the roof and a satellite dome, so it wasn’t as per the manufacturer’s brochure. So we got a piece of wood, parked the van alongside a wall, got a long piece of wood, a piece of CLS, a piece of batten. Put a spirit level on it, which we taped to it, and we held it on top of the air con and poked it into the wall and made sure the spirit level bubble was in the right place. And then we marked the wall, and then we measured from the wall to the floor.
Keith Gooden: Can I just say I had to do a naughty boys speeding class in the last six months or so?
Matt Sims: Another one?
Keith Gooden: No, it was the one I was telling you about last year. I got done on the motorway for doing 80 miles an hour on the motorway, coming back from the NEC, funnily enough. Be aware, you know, 70 miles an hour means 70 miles an hour. But when I was in this naughty boys’ telling off course, which, by the way, I would recommend. They’re brilliant to keep you educated about driving, you know. Yes, it’s a pain. Yes, you have to pay £85, but you don’t get your points and it’s worth doing. But they were saying when you’re looking at lorries overtaking on motorways, “Why do the lorries always come out?” And the guy was saying because he was an ex-lorry driver, “Look at the rear axle. If it’s high on the rear axle, the lorry is empty and he knows he can then overtake one in front which is low on the axle because he’s carrying a full load. That’s why they overtake.” Is it the same with the motorhomes when you’re measuring them? If you’ve got stuff in it, will it be lower when you’re measuring its height?
Matt Sims: Yeah. Could be. I mean, motorhomes generally are always that weight because, you know, the leaf springs are usually horizontal. In our van we’ve got air suspension on the back. So it doesn’t really make a big difference when it’s fully loaded. But yeah, a fully loaded motorhome can be lower at the back for sure if underweight. But I’d always measure the height when it’s empty, and then you know the maximum height it’s going to be for that bridge. And you’ll know whether you’re going to fit!
Keith Gooden: Yeah. And pay attention to those signs on the bridges. I always wonder how buses and lorries and people, you know, come a cropper because you get the sign which says low bridge ahead. You get a sign saying low bridge, and then you get a sign on the bridge, which is huge.
Matt Sims: I think they just forget. They think they’re in the car. It’s like Costa drive-thrus as well. People just don’t look at them. Yeah, look how many drive-thrus are damaged! What Muppet did that?
Keith Gooden: Yeah.
Matt Sims: Yeah. And McDonald’s, all the fast food chains. Usually there’s a height restriction on it.
Keith Gooden: Yeah. I used to live in the South Circular Road in London, in south London, and there was a railway bridge that used to go over the South Circular, and they actually dug out the road. So you went down to get under the bridge. But even then, with the signs and the dip, and it was a main road in London, lorries would regularly crunch and get stuck underneath. And of course then the railway had to stop as well because they had to inspect the bridge.
Matt Sims: Yeah of course. Yeah. And there’s always posts on Facebook of motorhomes with the back end ripped off. You think, “That’s not going to polish out.”
Keith Gooden: So thanks for getting in touch then, Mike. We went round the houses a bit there, but at least we didn’t get stuck under a bridge. Rob Johnson got in touch.
Rob Johnson: Hi Matt. I’ve contacted you a few times. Sorry! I’m not stalking you, I promise. We’re possibly going to buy into a piece of land here in Spain, which we may make into a campsite for motorhomes. My question for you is this. I know that you’re into the cleaner, greener waste products and things like that. Is there such a thing in your knowledge that you’re able to install that is cleaner for disposal of black waste and grey waste and things like that? Just wondered if you’d heard in the industry. Thanks again for all you do. Cheers. Bye.
Keith Gooden: So what’s black waste?
Matt Sims: Wee and poo toilet. So the toilet waste is normally considered black. And then the waste that’s gone down a sink, plug hole or shower is grey.
Keith Gooden: I’m with you.
Matt Sims: So you know what? I think he’s flexing as well. Rob is saying he’s building a campsite in Spain. We always say, don’t we, “Say where you are,”? “I’m building a campsite in Spain.” Good for you, Rob. Oh, you know what? I’d love to know if there is something like this. I know there are filtration systems for grey water, and it can be treated and then become freshwater again. And obviously, sewage treatment works will treat black waste and ultimately turn it back into the water system clean. But is there a system you could employ on a campsite? I don’t know. Maybe you’re listening or watching and you know of a system. I would genuinely be interested to know. So do send us an email or record an Ask Matt and we can update Rob.
Keith Gooden: Yeah, a few decades ago in this country, in the UK, which has obviously got temperate climate, not like a lot of Spain, which is quite warm – apart from northern Spain, that is. Reed beds, do you remember? Make a bog garden, a large one with reed beds. And then they’d put the black waste in there and be a bit smelly for a week or so, but it would be processed ecologically.
Matt Sims: Yeah. I’m not sure how attractive that campsite would be with turds floating around the pool.
Keith Gooden: That’s a good name for the nightclub on the campsite, isn’t it? “Turds.”
Matt Sims: Yeah. Not somewhere I’d be going swimming.
Keith Gooden: “Where are you going tonight?” “I’m going down Turds.” Yeah.
Matt Sims: Yeah. I don’t think that would be very good for your campsite marketing, Rob, I’ll be honest. Yeah. So maybe there is a slightly less obtrusive or intrusive treatment solution. I don’t know. If you know of one, do let us know and then we can let Rob know.
Keith Gooden: Yeah. And Rob, make sure you talk to the local council as well when you’re coming up with any scheme. So we come to a question now for our sponsor, Ripe. “We insure our Hymer caravan,” says James Foot, “With Ripe. And they are great. Over the last two years, our insurance has gone up £70 to £277 for a new-for-old £55,000 German caravan. Even at £277, it’s well over half the price of the club and they no longer do new for old. They told me if we could not get a new German caravan, they will give us the £55,000 for us to buy what we want.” Very good. Can you just unravel that for us?
Matt Sims: Yeah. Basically new for old. So if the caravan’s written off or stolen – it’s an expensive caravan, but it’s a German one, so £55,000, then what James is saying is that Ripe would give him new for old cover.
Keith Gooden: Right. What did Ripe have to say, then?
Matt Sims: So Ripe said, “Hi James. This is fantastic feedback. Thank you so much for sharing. We love hearing things like this about how we’ve helped save customers money, but it’s also really good to know that they’re reassured by the level of cover too.
Keith Gooden: They went on to say, “We want to make sure that we can help take away some of the worry, and people can relax and enjoy their next trip, because that is what it’s all about.”
Matt Sims: Yeah. “Leaving the everyday worries behind and setting free on the open road. Thanks for your custom,” said Mel from the Ripe team. Make sure you get your exclusive 15% off your premium by clicking the link in the episode description.
Keith Gooden: So how do people get in touch then, Matt?
Matt Sims: We would love it if you did. Head to mhmp.info/askmatt. You can click the orange button and record your question. And remember, please tell us where in the world you are. Or you can fill in the form and we’ll read the question for you.
Keith Gooden: If you’re looking for trusted brands and services, then make sure you visit the Motorhome Matt Approved directory. It’s at mhmp.info/approved.
Matt Sims: And remember to follow on your favourite podcast app or click subscribe if you’re watching on YouTube.
Keith Gooden: I’m going out tonight. Fancy Turds?
Matt Sims: I’m not bringing my trunks and coming swimming with you.
Keith Gooden: Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com.
