[00:00:00] Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast…
[00:00:03] Matt Sims: We speak with Kat from Wandering Bird, Tash from Life Beyond Bricks and Jackie from Early Retirement, Wanderlust on why they all gave up their houses to live on the road full time.
[00:00:14] Keith Gooden: Plus, you can check out the all-new Pathway 4G Gen 2.
[00:00:20] Matt Sims: And we answer your questions on which motorhome clubs to join, chassis servicing, and whether you can leave your van permanently hooked up.
[00:00:37] Keith Gooden: Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden and.
[00:00:40] Matt Sims: I’m Motorhome Matt.
[00:00:40] Keith Gooden: Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans. It’s brought to you with thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
[00:00:50] Matt Sims: Now remember, please follow on your favourite podcast app or if you’re watching on YouTube, hit subscribe and the bell.
[00:00:57] Keith Gooden: Our product of the week, POW is like what I like to call it. Pow! Pow! Pow! It’s the Pathway 4G Gen 2. If you don’t know what we’re talking about. Well, you’re in for a treat, my friend.
[00:01:08] Matt Sims: Oh, I’ve got one here. It’s a brand new box. Okay. This gets you online. So this is an internet router which is designed for use on the road. It could be used anywhere. We’ve used it in a hotel. Yeah, but you put a SIM card in it and you just plug it in and it works. Any sim, it doesn’t have to be a data sim. The point is, it will take any flavour of SIM from any network. And it works across the UK and Europe and further afield.
[00:01:33] Keith Gooden: Fantastic.
[00:01:34] Matt Sims: And this is the new version Gen 2. So we’ve had lots of customer feedback. We’ve sold thousands of them and loads of customer feedback on it and it’s been really positive. The first one is can I have a handle on the carry case? But the big change inside there’s a few, but the big one is that the unit itself is actually USB-C powered. So on the bottom there’s now a USB-C socket. It’s 5-volt, whereas the previous one was 12-volt. So now you can run it on a portable power pack, and we’ve given you to come with it a very long USB-A to USB-C cable.
[00:02:06] Keith Gooden: Because a lot of companies selling lots of different things, which are USB-C powered, they do you get them. Oh, that’s good. And you get. And when it comes the cable, the charging cable, it’s like that.
[00:02:19] Matt Sims: Yes, very short, which is no use. So this is actually it’s actually this is a very clever USB cable. It’s USB-C to USB-C with an adaptor. So it can be USB-A to USB-C. So you’ve got both options.
[00:02:31] Keith Gooden: If you don’t know what we’re talking about. They’re just it’s upgrades. It’s slightly different.
[00:02:36] Matt Sims: The big one or the.
[00:02:36] Keith Gooden: Small USB Universal Serial Bus. So look it up. Google’s your friend.
[00:02:42] Matt Sims: I do know and I can’t remember.
[00:02:44] Keith Gooden: Yeah, no, I can’t.
[00:02:45] Matt Sims: Long time since I saw that. The other bit of feedback we got was that the mains cable was short. Could it be longer? It now is. It’s very long, twice the length.
[00:02:53] Keith Gooden: So if you’re not powering it off USB, you can power it off a socket.
[00:02:56] Matt Sims: Off mains socket. You can also power it from the 12-volt accessory socket. The previous cable was very long and this one is too. So this is the accessory socket or I call it the cigarette socket. Not allowed to call it that anymore. And there’s two sizes here. This actually comes apart and becomes the Hella version, the European German version, which is much smaller. So you’ve got an old van, an old Hymer that would be quite common in those. Or it’s the standard size. So you’ve got you’ve got both comes a network cable, so you can plug a printer into it. If you want to add that to the network. The other thing we’ve done is these aerials are now more powerful.
[00:03:31] Keith Gooden: They’re now now this is the thing about this, isn’t it? Because it uses the cellular network and people say, well, my phone’s this and my phone’s that. The aerial on your phone runs around this little bit of tin foil around the edge of your phone. This is the thing, isn’t it? With it, because it works on the cellular network. These aerials pull in so much more weaker signal.
[00:03:49] Matt Sims: They do. And we’ve had loads of feedback that I had no network on my phone and on the same network this was working. This was picking up a signal from somewhere. And these new aerials are up to 6 dBi, which basically means they are more powerful. So this new unit should be able to pick up a signal from even further away, and an even weaker signal than the previous one could. And we’ve had them working in a tin box. We were at a show testing one earlier this year, and we’ve done hours and hours and hours of testing on it. I was stood behind a concrete wall and went through another concrete wall into another exhibition hall, and I could still connect to it, and it was still picking up a signal.
[00:04:27] Keith Gooden: And when we’re at the NEC, you use them for your tills, don’t you? You know, when people do the card thing.
[00:04:32] Matt Sims: Yeah, we use them in all the showgrounds. And of course, the NEC is a big metal box. Yes. Big Faraday cage, as is potentially your motorhome. We even had someone report the old unit worked all the way through the Mont Blanc tunnel, which is incredible. And I said, how did you know? And they said, well, we had internet radio on and it was still working.
[00:04:49] Keith Gooden: This is a fantastic invention. The Mark 1 version, as Matt says, sold thousands. This is a true upgrade.
[00:04:56] Matt Sims: Well, there’s some more upgrades I’ll tell you about. More? Yeah. Hang on a second.
[00:04:59] Keith Gooden: Hang on a.
[00:04:59] Matt Sims: Second. So the team also collected all of your feedback. The instructions now come in a lovely faux leather pouch. I don’t know why we did that.
[00:05:07] Keith Gooden: Well, in case you spill your wine on it.
[00:05:09] Matt Sims: I don’t know. It protects the instructions. That’s true. But Darren and the team, Maddie and Ben, have gone through these with a very, very fine tooth comb and massively improved them. It’s a much more all inclusive book about everything you’d need to know about how to change settings. The other big change to this. It has what we call a chipset, a new chipset. So you don’t need to be changing settings when you’re going in and out from the UK to Europe. It just works. That’s a big change to the inside and that’s taken quite a long time.
[00:05:40] Keith Gooden: So for people who are nervous about computer technology and such like, there’s nothing to be nervous about.
[00:05:45] Matt Sims: Nothing at all. It now just works. You can change settings in it very, very easily. And they’re all contained with the instructions. But now it generally depends on the SIM and there are some nuances to it, but 99% of the time, in my experience, going in and out of Europe, you don’t need to change anything. And they come with a free sticker that says, I’m connected with Pathway 4G and it comes with suckers as well, a free keyring. Look at that. I didn’t even know I opened one when they arrived, but what’s this? It’s a keyring. So there you are. They are free. We have got extra key rings and stickers coming, so if you’ve got Gen 1 and you’d like a sticker or a keyring and pop into the shop, or if you’re placing an order, just let us know and we’ll include one with your order. So we are getting more of these. So there we are. That is Pathway 4G Gen 2.
[00:06:37] Keith Gooden: There’s something really rather special isn’t there was.
[00:06:41] Matt Sims: A spare sucker because people lose those. So that’s included in every kit. And there’s another little leather pouch with leatherette. Let’s put that inside. This was a.
[00:06:49] Keith Gooden: Big.
[00:06:49] Matt Sims: Complaint with people like me with massive fingers getting the SIM card in and out of the device was a challenge. So we have given you in a little plastic or rubberised holder, a SIM card fitting and removal tool in a branded little holder doesn’t poke you in the skin and cut your leg.
[00:07:08] Keith Gooden: And if you lose that, by the way, an old style metal paperclip works well as well.
[00:07:11] Matt Sims: It is like a paperclip, but it’s in a little rubberised holder, so you can put it on a keyring. And if you put the keys in your pocket, it won’t stab you and a set of tweezers so you can poke the SIM card. It will pop out and then grab hold of it and pull it out. And this is in every Pathway 4G. I don’t know if we’re getting spare ones of these, but this is a really handy device for getting the SIM card out if you’re swapping it.
[00:07:33] Keith Gooden: And removing splinters.
[00:07:35] Matt Sims: As well. So always handy to have a pair of tweezers, but all in response to customer feedback. So I’m happy to tell you the price.
[00:07:41] Keith Gooden: Are as they say in France combien de prix.
[00:07:46] Matt Sims: So it is retail 249.99. It has gone up very slightly, but I think you can appreciate. That’s fair enough. At shows, there will be a show deal as we launch this of £220 and there’s limited stock at shows, so we are taking a fair amount with us. The first batch have arrived. We have more coming, so we will have thousands in stock very soon and hopefully we will start seeing it cropping up in other shops other than That Leisure Shop, but you can buy it online thatleisureshop.com and you’ll see Pathway 4G on the home page. Click there and order yours. And remember, if you’re a podcast listener, use the code MOTORHOMEMATT and get 10% off your first order or come and see us at a show and it’s £220.
[00:08:30] Keith Gooden: Yes, Matt’s involved with it. It’s partly his invention. He’s pulled it all together and all that, but it really has been a revolutionary product. And like Matt says, you don’t have to have a caravan or motorhome to use it. You know, when you go to a hotel, you get those terrible Wi-Fi in hotels, even the expensive ones, something like this. You stick it to the window and away you go.
[00:08:51] Matt Sims: And that’s the big thing with this. There’s no drilling. You just plug it in whatever power source you want and lick and stick it to the window, the wall of the motorhome or the mirror in the hotel room. Easy. It’s time for our regular Warner Shows feature here on the Motorhome Matt podcast. And this month we are heading to Retro Festival. It’s happening at Newbury Showground from the 7th to the 9th of August 2026, and I’m joined by Michael from the Warners team. Michael, tell us what’s going on at Retro Festival. I’ve never been.
[00:09:21] Michael Douglass: It’s great. It’s a new festival for us. It’s been running for 35 years itself. We ran it for the first time last year, as it says, a celebration of years gone by. So everything retro music is huge on it. There’s three stages of music. So in the barn that we’re in now, it’s got rock and roll. And then there’s the Ricky Tick stage, which is northern soul and ska. And then there’s the Spitfire marquee, which is 1940s 50s swing.
[00:09:46] Matt Sims: But it’s not just about live music, is it? There’s so much going on through the day.
[00:09:50] Michael Douglass: Yeah, there’s a lot to see. So there’s thousands of classic cars. It’s a big classic car show. A lot of American cars, which are sponsored by Project Heaven Restoration, and they come and do awards. So you can see all of that. There’s old military displays, big tanks and big lorries. And then these groups come and set up like in the old sort of [UNCLEAR], the Spitfires and stuff like that. Then you’ve got the vintage fairground and then there’s the retro shopping area.
[00:10:15] Matt Sims: Memorabilia.
[00:10:15] Michael Douglass: And then there’s some big attractions, like there’s the big wall of Death, which is great. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of those with motorbikes.
[00:10:21] Matt Sims: Yeah, it sounds fabulous. So coming in period costume is welcome, though not compulsory. Is that fair?
[00:10:27] Michael Douglass: Yeah, yeah, but I’d say the majority do. It’s great. You walk around. You could be back in the 1940s.
[00:10:32] Matt Sims: It sounds amazing. So you can come just as a day visitor for the whole weekend for 70 odd pounds. And then you can camp as well.
[00:10:39] Michael Douglass: Yeah, it’s done a little bit differently to our normal Warner shows. So here you buy a camping pitch and then a weekend pass separately.
[00:10:46] Matt Sims: And it’s 230 something.
[00:10:48] Michael Douglass: Pound.
[00:10:49] Matt Sims: All weekend and to camp throughout.
[00:10:51] Michael Douglass: Yes, and it’s welcomed motorhomes, campervans, caravans, tents a lot.
[00:10:54] Matt Sims: Fantastic. So tell us again, when is it and where is it?
[00:10:57] Michael Douglass: It’s the 7th to the 9th of August here in Newbury Showground.
[00:11:00] Matt Sims: We look forward to seeing you at Retro Festival. You can find out more at retrofestival.co.uk.
[00:11:07] Keith Gooden: Let’s dive into the main topic of this week’s podcast, Matt. It’s about giving it all up, leaving it all behind, and living in your motorhome.
[00:11:16] Matt Sims: Living the dream. Yeah, absolutely. Loads of people want to do this and this is an aspiration for many, it seems. It can be very challenging. And I think we put a lot of obstacles in the way to, to giving up bricks and mortar and living in the van for an extended period.
[00:11:30] Keith Gooden: It’s frightening.
[00:11:31] Matt Sims: Well, no it’s not, but it feels frightening. Yeah, it feels a bit scary, but living in the van for a long period or even full time can be a challenge for sure. It can seem a challenge. So I was joined by three very special guests who have all done this to some degree, and they travel on their own and with a partner. We recorded this live at the recent Stoneleigh show back in April, and I asked these three special guests what life is really like on the road, and what is it like to give up bricks and mortar to live in a motorhome? But the interview started with Kat, aka Wandering Bird as always moaning at me.
[00:12:11] Kat Bird: You can’t stand next to me because all you’ll do the whole time is tell me to shut up or talk quieter.
[00:12:16] Matt Sims: Listen, we’re married, so we’re not.
[00:12:18] Kat Bird: Yeah, we’re not engaged there. No ring on this.
[00:12:21] Matt Sims: Did you see the April Fool? Yeah.
[00:12:24] Kat Bird: Anybody still think we’re engaged? Even I fell for it. Did you? Well, until I clicked, there was a [UNCLEAR]. Hello, gorgeous.
[00:12:31] Matt Sims: I’ve had several people congratulate me over the course of the last couple of days here, and I said, did you not see the date we posted it? It was me proposing to Kat. But there we are. I’ll be honest, I probably struggle to spend a whole day with you, let alone the rest of my life.
[00:12:43] Kat Bird: When we spent the last two hours together. I think that’s quite enough. Thank you very much.
[00:12:46] Matt Sims: Yeah. Let’s get.
[00:12:46] Kat Bird: This. If you could stand on that side, I’d appreciate it.
[00:12:49] Matt Sims: We’re talking about today giving up bricks and mortar to go and live in a motorhome, and I am delighted to be joined by the lovely Jackie from Early Retirement Wanderlust, the lovely Tash from Life Beyond Bricks and Kat from Wandering Bird, the lovely Kat. Hello welcome gang. Now I’m taking over the mic because I’m anticipating any moment not getting a word in edgeways.
[00:13:12] Kat Bird: That’s our.
[00:13:12] Matt Sims: Plan. So you three all live in a motorhome or spend time extended periods of time in a motorhome. Jackie, let’s start with you just very quickly in 30 seconds. Tell us your story.
[00:13:23] Jackie Pickles: So I do a YouTube channel with Richard from early retirement wanderlust. We don’t live in our motorhome, but we do spend. Last year we spent 26 weeks of the year travelling in our campervan, and we downsized just by a tiny little house so that we do have a little base to return to.
[00:13:38] Matt Sims: Okay, brilliant. So you’ve sort of given up bricks and mortar for a long period of time? Yes. Okay. We’ll come back to that in a minute. Tash, yours is slightly different. Tell us.
[00:13:46] Kat Bird: Yes.
[00:13:47] Tash Gooch: So I’ve been full time in a motorhome with my husband and rescue cats for just over seven years. So we decided to sell up and go travelling for what was meant to be a gap year. But then we decided we loved it too much. And also Covid actually came at the end of that, so we couldn’t get another house anyway. And then we’ve been making it up ever since. As we go along.
[00:14:05] Matt Sims: The plan is there is no plan.
[00:14:07] Tash Gooch: 100% well.
[00:14:08] Matt Sims: Remembered. That is your positioning statement. Now, Kat, you are known as Wandering Bird. Do. Does everybody call you Kat Bird?
[00:14:15] Kat Bird: Yeah. So I quit my job in 2018. Used to be an air traffic controller. Got tired of sending people off on these amazing trips and decided I wanted to go off on some of my own. So I quit my job and went travelling around the UK in Europe in my motorhome. Again. It was supposed to be for a year or two. I didn’t ever think I’d be still doing it. Eight years later, I was full time in my van for about four and a half years. I have now got a little house, but I spend about half the year travelling in my motorhome.
[00:14:39] Matt Sims: And all of you have got loads of content online, YouTube channels, Life Beyond Bricks, Wandering Bird and Early Retirement Wanderlust. And you’ve got a book.
[00:14:50] Jackie Pickles: We have got a book that got released last Sunday, and it’s one of Robbie Roams’ No Fuss books. And it is lovely.
[00:14:55] Tash Gooch: Yes, I bought a copy yesterday. Oh I did.
[00:14:58] Matt Sims: I still need to get mine. I’m going to get it.
[00:15:00] Tash Gooch: And I want it signed.
[00:15:01] Jackie Pickles: It does feel really surreal that there is a book, but it’s not just about us. It’s about the early retirement and the story and emotional side of if you’re thinking about early retiring or retiring in general.
[00:15:13] Matt Sims: Yeah, brilliant. You’ve got loads of books and.
[00:15:16] Kat Bird: None of them about my story, funnily enough. I probably need to do that at some point.
[00:15:19] Matt Sims: Yeah, you should. You should. But your books are about travelling to Europe, and you’ve been pretty much extensively all over Europe.
[00:15:24] Kat Bird: I have done about 90,000 miles.
[00:15:27] Matt Sims: Oh my goodness.
[00:15:27] Kat Bird: 40,000 of them are solo.
[00:15:29] Matt Sims: Don’t buy Kat’s motorhome. It’s very high mileage. It’s knackered.
[00:15:33] Kat Bird: That has been over three. But still it’s really.
[00:15:35] Matt Sims: And Tash, where’s your book?
[00:15:37] Tash Gooch: Well, I do have a book out actually about travelling with cats.
[00:15:39] Jackie Pickles: We thought.
[00:15:39] Tash Gooch: That. Yeah, the first time.
[00:15:41] Jackie Pickles: We ever met.
[00:15:41] Tash Gooch: You. I love this. See, I do have that book out, and I have got some other things in the pipeline?
[00:15:46] Matt Sims: Oh, excited. So I want to talk about the fact that you’ve managed to do this. Lots of us consider giving up bricks and mortar, that security of bricks and mortar. But we put obstacles in the way. Some are realistic, some are important, and some really don’t matter. Can we talk about what some of those obstacles might be? And not only giving up bricks and mortar, but giving up work? You know, you guys have all you. You’re fortunate. Jackie. You’re retired.
[00:16:12] Jackie Pickles: We are retired.
[00:16:13] Matt Sims: I’m half retired. I’m tired. You laughed at it this time.
[00:16:17] Kat Bird: Jealousy here.
[00:16:18] Tash Gooch: I’m absolutely raging, by the way.
[00:16:21] Matt Sims: And so all of you have been through this experience. Jackie, can we start with you? Because yours was your catalyst for this and your ability to do it was sparked by retirement and a house move. Tell us.
[00:16:33] Jackie Pickles: Yeah. When we retired, we retired earlier than we anticipated. So we had to downsize our house so that we could afford to put our plans into action. We retired at 51 and we needed to get to 55 before we would get any cash at all or any. And getting our pension. So we, we sold our house and we downsized and bought a little house in the Yorkshire Dales. Yeah. And just travel.
[00:16:55] Matt Sims: Tell us a bit about the T six. I mean you, you decided to live in a Volkswagen van.
[00:17:00] Jackie Pickles: I’m not sure whether it was decided or it was kind of forced upon us in order for our house to complete. And we wanted the chain to, to not fall down, we said we would complete and then we would move into our house when it was ready. Originally, that was going to be within two weeks, and then it went to four weeks, and it was all to do with an issue with septic tanks. Who knew that septic tanks could keep us going for 14 weeks? And the only place that we had to live was our little VW T6 campervan in August, when we were first we say houseless, not homeless, but we thought that was really fun. We went out travelling in Europe, but by November when it was coming into winter and we still didn’t have a house to move into, living in the T6 was maybe a little bit cramped.
[00:17:44] Tash Gooch: And cold.
[00:17:44] Jackie Pickles: And cold. Yes. So luckily we got the keys to the house in mid November.
[00:17:49] Matt Sims: Okay, so you do still have a house? You’ve downsized significantly, though.
[00:17:53] Jackie Pickles: We’ve got a one down. Two up.
[00:17:54] Matt Sims: Okay. Now decluttering then. This is, you know, can be an obstacle where people don’t want to give up all the stuff. I mean, you used to see my garage. It’s nuts. It’s ridiculous.
[00:18:04] Jackie Pickles: Living in a T six did teach us that we could live with very little. So we literally had all us to start with a few bits of summer clothes, our laptops. So we could do the YouTube channel and a few bits that we needed to travel. And that’s literally all we had for 7 or 8 weeks. Then we picked a few bits of winter gear up because it was getting a bit colder, and we did realise we just didn’t need a huge amount, and that reaffirmed the fact that we downsized and moved into such a small house was a good thing. We just didn’t need all that clutter that we had.
[00:18:32] Matt Sims: Yeah, so it was kind of forced on you initially. But Tash, yours was a conscious choice.
[00:18:36] Tash Gooch: Not to give up the house.
[00:18:37] Matt Sims: Yeah. Well, you took a year out.
[00:18:39] Tash Gooch: Yeah, absolutely. But I think for us as well it was there were financial motivations because even though we had a house and a mortgage, if we wanted to go off and travel for a year, we had to fund it. So we had to sell the house, take the equity out to buy the motorhome in the first place. And a lot of people said to us, oh, you’re silly, you shouldn’t sell your house. You’re giving up security. But in our minds, it was actually the complete opposite because we didn’t want the tie. But also, if we rented it out, it would only cover the mortgage, so we wouldn’t actually benefit from it. And it wasn’t a rented house. It was our home that we’d renovated. So we had to just pull the plaster and say, that chapter has ended. We’re leaving that behind and we want to go off and and do this.
[00:19:18] Matt Sims: And was it a difficult plaster to pull, as you put it?
[00:19:20] Tash Gooch: Do you know what? I’ll be honest with you, it wasn’t. Which really surprised me because I lived in that house my entire life. So I grew up with my mum and then when she moved out, I bought it off the council. And then it was mine. And then obviously mine and John’s. So I thought it would be a lot harder. That’s how I knew that giving it all up to go travelling was the right decision, because it was the one time I wasn’t actually scared. Yeah. And I think as well, one of the final decisions for us to go travelling long term was we had had a few bereavements and the last one was John’s mum and it was at her funeral. I remember we were stood there and we said, right, if we want to do this, we’ve got to go for it. And then 12 months later, the house had completed decluttering. Actually, you say that became my full time job. I gave up work before John, and then I would be up the same hours as him decluttering every room and keep, sell, donate, keep, sell, donate. And then you just keep doing that until you end up with yeah, yeah.
[00:20:11] Matt Sims: You like Stacey Solomon.
[00:20:13] Tash Gooch: I was before it was.
[00:20:14] Matt Sims: Cool in that big warehouse.
[00:20:15] Tash Gooch: Yeah, that was me. I love.
[00:20:17] Matt Sims: That.
[00:20:17] Tash Gooch: Program. And yeah, and I think I’m not really a hoarder anyway, you know, it’s no disrespect, but John’s mum was so helping clear her bungalow down actually was a big lesson in. Wow. When, when you’re not here, someone’s got to deal with this. So just get rid of it because you don’t need it. So and we’ve actually downsized the stuff that we had in storage since then as well, because we’ve realised that we need even less. So we don’t have a lot in storage, just a few really useful boxes.
[00:20:41] Matt Sims: So I love your phrase. We were houseless, not homeless. That’s great, isn’t it? Yeah. Because your van is your home. It’s your absolute pride and joy.
[00:20:48] Tash Gooch: We say we’re houseless, not homeless. Yeah, because it is our home.
[00:20:51] Matt Sims: It’s our home. That’s a really good phrase. I’m going to use that. Now, Kat, your circumstance slightly different. You’re an air traffic controller, as you told us earlier, to do this in a motorhome?
[00:21:01] Kat Bird: Yes.
[00:21:01] Matt Sims: What was your catalyst to get to that point? Why did you want to do that?
[00:21:05] Kat Bird: We had this incredible night in Europe when we were. It was our very first trip over to Europe with a motorhome, and we were parked up in the Swiss Alps. We were wild parking and it was the first night I’d ever seen the Milky Way. Like not in a photo, but just literally there in the sky. It was incredible. And I remember just turning to my husband at the time, who was just in awe, and I was like, how many more things are there in the world that we haven’t seen yet that we haven’t had the time to experience? And it was very much my work that was keeping us in one place. They tend to like air traffic controllers in the ops room, not parked up a mountain in Switzerland. And so we played that game that I know a lot of couples play like, oh, let’s give up work and travel. And it’s just a game that starts off with. And somehow along the ride from Switzerland back to the UK, it stopped being a game and became a plan. And that’s what we did.
[00:21:59] Matt Sims: Someone asked the question, how do you define the difference between travelling and being on holiday?
[00:22:04] Jackie Pickles: Travelling for 26 weeks a year? You can’t live as if you’re on a holiday all of the time. One my liver wouldn’t take it at all and our budget wouldn’t take it. So most of the time when we’re away and we’re in our van, we say that we are travelling and we live as we would at home. We cook in the van. We very rarely go out and eat. We might have the odd coffee out, but we really like the fact that then if our children want to come away, we’re definitely on holiday. So we still feel like we’re on holiday and we we live like we’re on holiday. And we definitely at the beginning of each trip that we do say, are we travelling or are we on holiday? And it’s a very different attitude how we approach that trip then.
[00:22:39] Matt Sims: So it’s a very conscious decision. And how do you define the two?
[00:22:43] Jackie Pickles: We take more money with us so we can go out and have a few beers.
[00:22:46] Matt Sims: When you’re on holiday.
[00:22:47] Jackie Pickles: I see.
[00:22:48] Matt Sims: Yeah. And presumably when you’re travelling you are filming for your ever growing YouTube channel.
[00:22:53] Jackie Pickles: Yes. So we’re travelling with film and we’re sightseeing. We do it on a budget. We’ll, we’ll definitely take the budget version of everything that we can do, as long as we can go and see that place. We’re, we’re happy just being there rather than paying to go into all of the different experiences that you could do. Yeah. And yeah, whereas when we’re on holiday and we’re with the kids, we go, yeah, we’ll go and do that experience. It sounds really good.
[00:23:12] Matt Sims: Natasha, you nodded fervently when I asked the question, how do you define the two?
[00:23:18] Tash Gooch: I’ll be honest with you. We’re probably still figuring that part out.
[00:23:20] Matt Sims: So already. How long have you been doing this?
[00:23:22] Tash Gooch: Just over seven years. But if we’re referring to the difference between holidaying and travelling, I 100% agree. I think it did come for us in our first year, which was the gap year. So even we had a budget and I think we blew three times the budget of what we’d originally said and quite early on. And it was things like Brit Stops. That was our downfall because you forget when you first start doing it. Oh yeah, you can go and stay at a pub and have a meal, but then suddenly you’re spending 50, £60.
[00:23:49] Matt Sims: Well, that’s the problem with Brit Stops. You’re doing a free stopover at £100 night out.
[00:23:54] Tash Gooch: So that was the example where we thought, actually this is, you know, it’s things like that. So we probably don’t have the same sort of thing where we necessarily will decide what we’re doing when we go somewhere. I think it would be a case of because obviously we’re still working. So it’ll be a case of what, how much have we earned? How much budget have we got for this period of time? And if you really want to do something, I mean, sometimes if there’s an experience that I really want to do that John doesn’t, then I’ll just go and do it by myself. So that’s already halved the cost. Yeah. And it’s almost a case of if we’ve got it, we’ll do it. If we haven’t, we’ll save it for another time. Yeah. Because we’re quite easily amused as well. You know like when we go somewhere we’re big history lovers. So for us parking up somewhere and wandering around a town and just looking for the different sites that will occupy us, you know, so it doesn’t have to be extravagant, you know. Sure. But yeah, ours is very flexible. It depends where we are, what budget we’ve got for that period and what we fancy doing.
[00:24:44] Matt Sims: Now, you mentioned that you’re working. You and John have reinvented what you do for a living. Many times you worked together before, didn’t you, in the motor trade?
[00:24:52] Tash Gooch: Yes, we did for a little bit. Yeah we did.
[00:24:54] Matt Sims: But now what are you doing?
[00:24:56] Tash Gooch: Oh, gosh. What aren’t we doing? So the latest version of what we’re doing for work is John actually does electrical system, leisure system installs on motorhomes and campervans. He was obviously an electric auto electrician and a technician before, so he’s managed to transfer that across and I am now a virtual assistant. So a digital nomad I suppose helping other bloggers and vloggers with admin. But I’m also a magazine columnist for Campervan magazine and also do a little bit of ad hoc work. Like I’ve worked for yourself on the stand you have.
[00:25:30] Matt Sims: Yeah. You work with us here, not here, but with That Leisure Shop at the shows. Absolutely. Kat. You’re working all the time. It seems to me, either on your own or taking groups of people off on motorhome trips. Do you ever have to define travel and holiday?
[00:25:44] Kat Bird: I’m awful at it.
[00:25:46] Matt Sims: It doesn’t.
[00:25:47] Kat Bird: Surprise me. Yeah, it’s one of the things that I sort of built a gilded cage for myself, so I. I never planned to do this. I literally, I left work and I was travelling and we downsized to live on my husband’s wage. So we were living, he was able to travel to work while we were travelling. And that was our plan. And two months in. It sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? You know, quit work, go travelling. I was bored. I’d gone from air traffic where your brain is going to basically. Where are we going to go today? And so I started a little website like today, we went here and we had a coffee and we did this and we stayed at this campsite and that was Wandering Bird. That was it starting. And it just went boom. And now it has become this sort of. Which is fantastic. And I love being able to help other people go and do travelling and fulfil their dreams and all the parts of it. But I am really bad at just taking time out and having a trip where I’m not filming content or I’m not trying to put things on social media, or I’m not doing all that stuff. And yeah, I need someone to just take my phone off.
[00:26:45] Matt Sims: But is that because you love doing it or you feel guilty for not doing?
[00:26:48] Kat Bird: No, I really enjoy what I do, right? It’s a problem. It was a hobby and I really enjoyed it as a hobby. I didn’t even know you could make money doing that when I started. And then that turned into a business. And now I still enjoy doing it and I get to make money off of it, which is great.
[00:27:02] Matt Sims: Yeah, which is great. Now all of you have a YouTube channel. Is having YouTube part of your life a necessity for doing this? Is it or is it just a mechanism or is it just irrelevant?
[00:27:12] Kat Bird: How much money do you make from your YouTube channel?
[00:27:16] Jackie Pickles: It pays for our ferries and yeah, it pays for our ferries and it pays for the bits of travel. So it gives us the luxuries in our early retirement. But yeah, it’s not it’s not what people think.
[00:27:26] Kat Bird: Eight years I’ve got nearly 50,000 followers. If I get £500 a month from it, I’m doing well. It’s not going to survive. No.
[00:27:32] Matt Sims: But the monetisation bit of YouTube. That’s a challenge, and it is very difficult to make money out of YouTube in this niche because our audience isn’t big enough. You’ve got YouTubers like MrBeast. You know, they’ve got millions of subscribers and he is making a lot of money. Youtube. Love him.
[00:27:49] Kat Bird: Tash can be MrBeast.
[00:27:50] Matt Sims: What are you calling Tash?
[00:27:52] Kat Bird: She’s lovely, but she could be as big as MrBeast.
[00:27:54] Matt Sims: She. She could be huge as MrBeast. Yeah, let’s stop that thread. But when I ask you about YouTube, I don’t necessarily mean the money, but I mean, there’s something to do, a purpose. Is it important?
[00:28:07] Kat Bird: Don’t do it.
[00:28:08] Matt Sims: Don’t do it. Why not?
[00:28:10] Kat Bird: It’s exactly the same reason we said you are always filming and you feel guilt. I certainly feel guilty when you’re not filming and not creating the content, and it’s really hard to know where that line is, right?
[00:28:20] Tash Gooch: I think for me personally. So yeah, we we have a YouTube channel that we started off quite early, but we fell into it same as all the social media because seven years ago, it wasn’t actually quite the beast that it is now. Yeah. It’s almost like you buy a motorhome now you get a free GoPro, You know what I mean? But but you’re absolutely right. It’s I’m not going to lie. The social media presence has given us the platform to actually do what we’re doing now. You know, like we get to come to the shows and talk. And obviously, John’s electrical business has built off the back of people knowing us. And, you know, we enjoy being part of that community. So whilst we changed our priorities and it’s no longer necessarily YouTube or anything like that, it is still part of the driving force of keeping our faces in, keeping our, you know, keeping our toe, dipping our toe in the water. So if you like. And it is what has enabled us as a platform to do these other things. We’re doing so, but we’ve consciously chosen to try and steer away from it. So we’ve got other avenues, multiple income streams.
[00:29:10] Kat Bird: Really a really fair point. And the other thing is, I think looking back on on your trips and your travels, certainly when I was travelling with my daughter, I love those videos that we did because they’re such good memories.
[00:29:21] Tash Gooch: But and it is true, most people you speak to certainly because obviously we’ve been around for quite a long time and met so many people in the community and it always starts out as, oh, it’s just for the family, it’s just for the family. And that’s how it grows. Yeah, but it’s lovely because technically that is still true, you know? So no one can take away that early, you know, those early memories from you. So it does have a nice connotation to it.
[00:29:41] Kat Bird: Yeah. Do it for fun. Just don’t expect to make a fortune from it.
[00:29:43] Tash Gooch: But if it’s not your passion, which it wasn’t mine. And I realised that. And it’s a bit like gambling when the fun stops, stop. So that was my sort of, you know, my motivator to have the courage to try other things and not worry about not being a YouTuber anymore.
[00:29:57] Matt Sims: But Jackie, your YouTube’s getting big. I mean, it’s grown so fast in a short space of time.
[00:30:01] Jackie Pickles: I think it’s very different for us. We really enjoy doing the YouTube and for us, it gives us a structure to our week still because we’re retired. We don’t feel like we’re working. We never feel like we’re working. When we are doing our travel videos, we’re literally walking around. Richard’s got his little camera in his hand now.
[00:30:16] Matt Sims: I think his gaffer tape to his thumb.
[00:30:18] Jackie Pickles: It is actually. Yeah. And it doesn’t particularly interfere with what we’re doing. If we’re on a hike, we’ll just take lots of little videos and then we’re in a routine that on a Thursday, all our videos are to do with early retirement. And we literally sit down for an hour. But it gives us that routine. We know on a Thursday we’ve got a video to get out and on a Sunday we never miss them because Richard is very, very organised and he doesn’t like missing them. But yeah, we’re still doing it.
[00:30:41] Kat Bird: I think it helps as well when you’re when you’re both doing it, it’s something you can do together because I know you were doing it on your own. I was doing it on my own. Yeah. And that I think adds an extra level of friction. So yeah, if you’re doing it together, amazing. Yeah.
[00:30:50] Tash Gooch: But the main thing I always say is it’s whatever works for you. We don’t all have to do the same thing. The beauty is we all have one common interest, but we all have different ways of going about it. So I think it’s brilliant.
[00:31:01] Matt Sims: And your common denominator is the van. Yeah. You’re very different ages and you’re doing this. So therefore you come at this from a different perspective. What barriers have you discovered people put in place?
[00:31:11] Tash Gooch: One that we get commonly, which doesn’t actually apply to us, is I wish I could do what you’re doing, but I’ve got grandkids. I’ve got kids. Right. Okay. You know, that’s what we hear a lot.
[00:31:21] Kat Bird: I hear about finances and pension a lot like, well, what are you going to do when you hit pension age? What are you going to do when? How are you going to earn the money to get through and do all that kind of stuff? And that’s, I think, a big one for, for my audience.
[00:31:34] Matt Sims: But I guess kids, you can’t I mean, you can’t turn them off or get rid of them. Well, I suppose you could try. And we have that situation where, you know, Jude’s looking after grandkids 2 or 3 days a week makes it very difficult. The parents of those kids would be quite upset if we disappeared for three months. It’s hard enough coming to a show for a week, but finances, you can kind of justify that and you can do things that you know. I know you took a lot of financial advice in terms of going into retirement. We did so to enable you to do this. And I guess that’s a very real one. But what obstacles do you encounter?
[00:32:09] Jackie Pickles: Obviously, finance was a big one for us, and we found a way around it by downsizing for us, a big barrier for doing it more permanently. Because if we if we sold our house and went to travel, we would want to travel extensively is our family. We’ve got two children. Luke’s getting married this summer, so he is planning. They’re wanting to have a family. My mum’s 82 and I can see she’s getting a little less mobile, so it’s probably the family tie that’s keeping us. And just knowing that we’ve got a base to go back to if we needed to.
[00:32:40] Matt Sims: Yeah. I want to talk to you about where you travel in the van. How do you make a decision about where to go? Tash for you, it’s driven by John’s work at the moment.
[00:32:48] Tash Gooch: Yeah, currently it is. Yeah.
[00:32:50] Matt Sims: So where you’ve just come here from somewhere.
[00:32:52] Tash Gooch: Where I’ve come from. Oh, Grantham. Not that far away, but yeah. Already this year we’ve been to sort of Bristol, Cornwall, Ross on Wye, Grantham. Now we’re here then we’re off to. I can’t even remember where we’re off to next. So yeah, at the moment for us that is driven by by his work. And I guess for us because we’re having to earn what to try and travel. We’re trying to find that balance of being able to work and still move around, especially because John’s skill set is hands on. So obviously I can work from anywhere, but that is part of the balance. But it’s really great because it means we get to, you know, we’re quite happy touring the UK. We have been abroad in the van, but we’re quite happy. There’s so much to see in the UK and the way we’re travelling now is a lot slower. I think we’re still, still kind of in the aftermath of when John had cancer the year before last. So we’ve made that decision to slow down in our travels and not rush around everywhere because we prefer it, but it means we get to go to an area, spend a few weeks there, really get involved in the area before we move on. So it’s almost like we’re rediscovering places all over again because we’re not just passing through.
[00:33:54] Matt Sims: I’m glad you said slow travel because, Jackie, I know this was important for you when you started. It was like, go, go, go.
[00:34:00] Jackie Pickles: The first trip that we took, when we had our campervan, we went into Europe and we did 12 countries and we loved it. We came back and yeah, we enjoyed all of those things. But when we reflected on it and people said, well, what did you like about Croatia? Well, we went to one campsite. We drove three hours through Croatia to get there, and three hours back saw that one place and we didn’t really see anywhere. So in our last trip, we went to one corner of France. We still felt that we maybe rushed it a little bit. We did the southwest of France, but we’ve come to the realisation one you save a lot of money because you’re not using as much petrol and diesel, but two, it’s nice to become part of the the community and part of the environment that you’re in and just exploring it.
[00:34:37] Tash Gooch: Yeah, I’m glad you said that because that’s how we feel. You kind of become a little part of that place you’re in and it’s just really nice. You have really nice memories to go with it.
[00:34:45] Matt Sims: And Kat, for you, this is all work, work, work.
[00:34:48] Kat Bird: It didn’t start out that way though. No it didn’t. And I had exactly the same issue when we first started travelling full time is you treat it like a holiday and we only ever had a week or two weeks off, certainly around our daughter and school, and then we’re around my job. So we were so used to trying to cram everything in that when we went full time, we immediately sort of travelled the same and you burn out. You burn out so quickly because moving every day is tiring, and having to think about where to go is quite tiring. So yeah, that’s something I had to learn. Not help with having ADHD because you’re like, yes, let’s plan all this in.
[00:35:24] Matt Sims: Have you got ADHD?
[00:35:25] Kat Bird: I do.
[00:35:25] Matt Sims: I didn’t know.
[00:35:26] Kat Bird: That. Do not you? Said I, almost with a straight face. But yes, that’s something I very much had to had to learn. Stop laughing or.
[00:35:35] Tash Gooch: No. Because don’t forget I’m the same now. I know you are. I’m newly.
[00:35:38] Matt Sims: We’ve all got ADHD.
[00:35:39] Kat Bird: The whole world’s got ADHD now.
[00:35:40] Tash Gooch: It’s fine, but it makes sense and you realise the people you’ve gravitated towards without realising.
[00:35:44] Kat Bird: But I also think that’s exactly. That’s the type of personality who does this kind of crazy thing because we’re like, yeah, let’s do that. We’ll figure it out. Whereas people who perhaps aren’t quite so neurodivergent, like that’s an insane idea.
[00:35:55] Matt Sims: Yeah.
[00:35:56] Tash Gooch: But I’m really glad you said about the burnout because that is that is really real. Yeah. And I think that’s something people who’ve probably known us for a while is like, where are you travelling to next? And if we say, oh, nowhere. They say, oh, and it’s like, no, because it’s actually it takes a lot of energy. It’s quite tiring. And some people go, oh, poor you. And it’s like, no, but seriously, because we’re still having to live a normal life and work and do things whilst trying to travel. And the burnout is real. Sometimes you just want to sit on a campsite for a week and not have to think about where you’re going next, where your next emptying point is going to be. Where am I going to do my washing?
[00:36:26] Kat Bird: So that is that’s the biggest reason I went from being full time to having a little house again, because a to unpack the storage unit and get all my little knickknacks out that had been in storage for ages, but also just to have a base to be able to come back because after four and a half years and four and a half winters, it was quite nice to be able to come back and just have a spot to just stop. And I still travel about half the year, but it is nice having that.
[00:36:47] Tash Gooch: And I do agree because people say, oh, do you not want to get a base? Do you not miss having a base? And I said no, because again, naturally it’s evolved in such a way that we have I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but your place included, we have a little network of places that we do go to sometimes. Yeah. Just, just going to throw it out there.
[00:37:04] Matt Sims: You’re welcome. Anytime.
[00:37:05] Tash Gooch: Thank you. But yeah, no, in all seriousness though, and because of the nature of John’s work, that does kind of tie in. So we do have a tiny little network of maybe 4 or 5 places we know that we can go to. And it does involve us being able to stop a little bit as well. So again, we’ve approached it slightly differently.
[00:37:19] Matt Sims: So is it important, would you say that you’ve got that? Can I call it a safety net that places where you can go back to either your own bricks and mortar or other people’s. If you’re a blagger like Tash.
[00:37:30] Kat Bird: Necessarily at the beginning, I think. I think you can go a year or two quite happily exploring, but I think you’ll find you naturally try and slow down or find places where you can stop and relax a little bit more the more you do it.
[00:37:42] Tash Gooch: Yeah, I’d say after a few years, it probably naturally comes in. In my experience and probably my experience.
[00:37:47] Matt Sims: How do you feel about your house when you get home?
[00:37:49] Jackie Pickles: Yeah, we do like we like going away for 4 or 5 weeks at a time, but we do like just returning to the Dales. And like you said, just having that time to decompress, get all of the washing done, just chill out for a bit because it is quite tiring travelling all the time and thinking about where you’re going. But we just like the security of having a base.
[00:38:05] Kat Bird: How do you deal with things like the insurance when you’ve left your house for so long? Because I know that can be quite tricky for a lot of people when you go travelling.
[00:38:12] Jackie Pickles: It is. And for us, we don’t go away for more than 60 days and our insurance company insures us for 60 days. And actually we live in the Yorkshire Dales and as soon as we leave, someone moves in, whether it’s my sister who doesn’t work, and they’ll come for two weeks or our children because they, they can all work remotely. So we actually find our house is very rarely empty, which is nice. It’s lovely that they want to go and do that.
[00:38:33] Matt Sims: Yeah.
[00:38:33] Jackie Pickles: Really, we have to kick them out when we want to come home. It’s like we are coming back on that date. So you do need to move out.
[00:38:38] Matt Sims: And it is about from an insurance perspective, yes, the house being empty for a period of time, isn’t it?
[00:38:43] Kat Bird: The other thing I was going to say is something that I struggled well, we lived on a boat for 15 years before we went into the van. So but from living on the boat and the van and I know Tash had the same thing, one of the biggest challenges is where do you send your mail? Where do you register a doctor? Where do you do all of this stuff? And if you’ve got a home base, you’ve obviously got all that ticked. Whereas we had to figure out how to do all that, didn’t we?
[00:39:04] Tash Gooch: It’s difficult. It’s difficult. Yeah.
[00:39:06] Matt Sims: What do you do, Tash? With no fixed abode, as it were.
[00:39:09] Tash Gooch: So we have a care of address with a relative, but the reality is that we might not have that for much longer. So we probably have to look into another solution for that and that’s how we get around it.
[00:39:18] Matt Sims: So I’m getting your post.
[00:39:21] Tash Gooch: Is that all right?
[00:39:25] Matt Sims: Just turn up whenever you want. Come and pick it up.
[00:39:27] Tash Gooch: This is how. And it’s actually my father in law. It’s how he knows if we’re due to be near the area. Because all of a sudden he’ll get like an influx of, like, parcel.
[00:39:34] Matt Sims: Amazon.
[00:39:35] Tash Gooch: Amazon and different things. But yeah, I mean, the good thing is that when we’re on the road is because there’s so many more click and collect points now you know, in post Amazon, things like that, it’s not as difficult as it, as it felt before. It’s just those kind of things where you have to have a care of address or a fixed address.
[00:39:51] Matt Sims: Yeah.
[00:39:51] Kat Bird: NHS, COVID it was a lot harder wasn’t it? That that has changed massively in the last eight years.
[00:39:57] Matt Sims: Let’s have a tip from each of you. Jackie, we’ll start with you. But to someone who is considering maybe giving up bricks and mortar for a period to go on a long term trip, but there is all these barriers in the way that some are real and some they’ve making their making up. What would your advice be to them?
[00:40:15] Jackie Pickles: Oh gosh, just go for it. There’s a, there’s a way around it. Like when we decided we were going to early retire, we could have just mulled over it for months and months. But we just want. Once you’ve made your decision, it’s actually then easy. You just put the pieces in place. It’s actually just saying, I’m going to do it. That’s the biggest bit. Once you’ve done it and in your mind done it, once we’ve handed in our notice, that was it.
[00:40:37] Matt Sims: It becomes real.
[00:40:38] Jackie Pickles: It was real. Yeah.
[00:40:39] Matt Sims: And I guess it’s like taking the first step of a journey, isn’t it?
[00:40:41] Jackie Pickles: Things work out if you’re determined.
[00:40:44] Matt Sims: And Tash for you, what would your tip be?
[00:40:46] Tash Gooch: Well, it used to be. Just go for it. But I think the biggest thing, certainly from my experience and my opinion, is that no decision is irreversible. If you’re just a little bit clever about how you do things, and in the back of your mind you think, okay, what would my plan B be? But yeah, you’ve just got it. You’ve just got to go for it because nothing you do is irreversible. People always say to me, oh, but what if, what if, what if? And I think that’s another obstacle actually thinking about it, that people just worry about scenarios that haven’t happened yet. And the only thing I can say is we’ve been up against many scenarios in the last seven years that we never would have predicted.
[00:41:16] Matt Sims: Oh, how true is that?
[00:41:17] Tash Gooch: Well, yeah, you were there. You had first hand experience. You know, we’re still very grateful for your help, and it’s just, it’s one of those things where we never could have predicted what would happen or how we would have dealt with it. Therefore, that is proof that actually when you are faced with things, you just find a way to deal with it. Yeah. So you’ve just got to go for it.
[00:41:33] Matt Sims: And actually your circumstance with John was taken ill with cancer, had leukaemia all of a sudden, and we were away at a show. We were at the Royal Cornwall Show and we had no staff. And I had to go back to Cornwall because these two, you had vertigo.
[00:41:46] Tash Gooch: I had vertigo the day before. I think he thought we were lying, but I come down with vertigo the day before, and then John fell ill through the night and it turned out he had sepsis and then obviously later on found out he had leukaemia. And yeah, you thought we were just mugging you off saying, oh yeah, we didn’t fancy going.
[00:42:00] Matt Sims: We don’t feel well. What do you want us to do, get dressed and go to work? That’d be a good start.
[00:42:04] Tash Gooch: I was crawling around on all like I couldn’t even lift my head.
[00:42:07] Matt Sims: So that all panned out and has actually worked out fine, hasn’t it?
[00:42:10] Tash Gooch: It has. Yeah. How would you ever predict for something like that? You can’t. So you’ve just got to go for it.
[00:42:15] Matt Sims: Go with it. And for you. What would your advice be to someone kind of playing with the idea, passionate about trying.
[00:42:21] Kat Bird: To have a little soapbox, which actually builds on what Tash just said. But you have to have an emergency fund. Do not just quit your job and go. You work a few extra months or start saving whatever it needs, but ideally you want at least six months worth of living expenses, not necessarily holidaying expenses, but basic expenses to pay your insurance and campsites and whatever you need so that you have got a little bit of money in case something goes wrong with the vehicle or something goes wrong with yourself, or something goes wrong with a family member I was stuck in, well, I was in Europe with my dog and my ex-husband got taken into hospital. So I needed to very quickly pay for a dog sitter that I could sit the dog in with an emergency flight home, and then accommodation for me when I was over in the UK. And without that emergency fund, it would have been a nightmare. So yeah, I’m you shouldn’t go off and do this crazy thing unless you’ve got a bit of a backup.
[00:43:15] Matt Sims: Very practical advice. Haven’t they been great? Really good guys. Thank you so much. Can we have a big round of applause, please for Jackie, Tash and Kat.
[00:43:24] Keith Gooden: Some great friends of the Motorhome Matt podcast. We really appreciate their time. Jackie from early retirement, wanderlust, Tash from Life Beyond Bricks and Kat the Wandering Bird. Lots of really helpful insights there. Yeah, hopefully. Yeah. You all feel inspired to perhaps give up your own bricks and mortar to travel full time. But like I said before we started this, it is frightening. It’s a big leap, isn’t it? But more and more people are doing it.
[00:43:47] Matt Sims: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s a very cost effective way of living and a, and a wonderful lifestyle. And I think what they’ve demonstrated is you don’t need loads of money and security around you to do it. There’s some preparation that you should do before you embark on it. My advice is if you’re dreaming of doing it, get planning and just do it. You’ll figure it out. You will want to find out more about Kat and particularly Jackie and Richard. We have their books at thatleisureshop.com, and you’ll find all of Kat’s Amazing guides to go into Europe. Travel log books. Jackie and Richard’s new book, Early Retirement Wanderlust. It’s Amazing, published by No Fuss Travel Guides. So Robbie Roams and the team and it’s all available at thatleisureshop.com. So please do support them and buy their books.
[00:44:33] Keith Gooden: A quick word about Kat as well. She’s she’s doing some tours around and about, isn’t she, where she heads them up and people join her.
[00:44:39] Matt Sims: Yeah, she’s very passionate about this. She takes solo women with her solo women travellers and groups, and they go off to France and maybe a group that’s never done it before. And it’s not just about going off and living in the van, but it’s actually about going to Europe for the first time. And she’s giving people confidence and inspiring them to do it. So yeah, if you’re not following Wandering Bird, please do so.
[00:45:01] Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden.
[00:45:03] Matt Sims: And me Motorhome Matt.
[00:45:04] Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you thatleisureshop.com and sponsored by Ripe.
[00:45:07] Matt Sims: Remember, you can get 15% off your insurance premium with Ripe. Just click the link in the episode description and the discount will be applied Automatically.
[00:45:16] Keith Gooden: It’s the Q and A, the questions and answers where you ask the questions and Motorhome Matt will give you the answers. If he doesn’t know, as I say, every week, he’ll ask somebody who jolly well does. First question today, Simon Sparrow in Helston. I’m going to be looking to buy a motorhome soonish, something like the Bailey Adamo. My question is, are the owners club worth joining? My only concern is the location of the rallies as I’m over a hundred miles down the M5. Thanks, Matt. And not forgetting your faithful companion, Cato.
[00:45:46] Matt Sims: That’s you Keith. You are a Cato.
[00:45:48] Keith Gooden: Should be Cato.
[00:45:50] Matt Sims: I’m Batman, you’re Robin.
[00:45:52] Keith Gooden: Yeah.
[00:45:53] Matt Sims: Bill and Ben. I saw someone comment the other day. Thanks for your question, Simon. I’m unable to comment on the Bailey Owners Club because I’ve never been a member. I have owned a Bailey caravan, but it was a very long time ago. I would say clubs are brilliant. I can vouch for the Adria Owners Club. I’m a member. I’ve been involved with them for a very long time and they are a brilliant bunch of people. So friendly, and I would imagine that Bailey owners are very similar too. They are always a great place to get hints, tips, and advice on your specific product. And maybe you’ve got a problem or a question about the van, and another owner is probably going to have the answer. They’ve probably experienced the same issue as you, so they are a really great resource. Facebook groups as well for specific models are a really great idea. And I also recommend, as well as owners clubs, looking at other clubs that you can join that do rallies, van club who are Motorhome Matt Approved are just going gangbusters. They’re going through massive growth. They are putting on more and more rallies. The Warner shows, if you go to one, they do this famous 2 p.m. club on a Saturday. Just turn up at 2:00. Free barbecue, free alcohol, free snacks. It’s brilliant. And a big bunch of people. I try and go along if I can. It’s great community. So yes, I would encourage you to get involved with some of these clubs. They don’t have a huge cost, great way of giving you a sense of belonging and a sense of community and making you feel part of something.
[00:47:22] Keith Gooden: And Simon does mention he’s from Helston. I presume Helston in Cornwall. Yeah. He lives on the peninsula, but that’s the price you pay, to be honest with you, Simon, for living in Paradise.
[00:47:31] Matt Sims: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve lived there. Definitely. It’s a beautiful part of the world. But look at other clubs and talk to them about maybe doing a rally in your area. Maybe you could help organise it. You know, you know, a campsite or a club or a farmer that would be happy to host something. And I’m sure the club would welcome that enthusiasm. So yeah, get involved.
[00:47:50] Keith Gooden: Paul Hartley’s in Clayton le Moors. Hi, Matt. We’ve just finished our first year and a half using our motorhome. When looking to having your motorhome serviced, as in the drivetrain, what do you do? Is it a case of taking it to a garage that service vans? What do you recommend? Says Paul.
[00:48:05] Matt Sims: Yeah. Thanks, Paul. Definitely get it serviced. There is a misconception that it has to go to a main dealer. So let’s say your vehicle is built on the Ford Transit, that it has to go to a Ford dealership. That is not the case. You can take it to any garage, provided they are using what’s called OEM parts. So manufacturer approved parts. We don’t take any of our motorhome hire fleet. I don’t take my own van to a main dealer unless there’s some kind of warranty issue, and they will want to know that it’s been serviced using the correct oil and the correct oil filter and so on. That’s really important. But you don’t have to go to a main dealer. I commend you to change the oil every year. I know the service interval is often 20 odd thousand miles in two years. Most motorhomes don’t do 20 odd thousand miles in two years. I do my oil every year at least. It’s the lifeblood of the engine.
[00:48:58] Keith Gooden: You’ve said this before, haven’t you? You’ve said a lot of motorhomes spend a lot of time parked on driveways, even if you use it a lot. It’s not as much as using a car. And the consumable things like the oil are the things that degenerate.
[00:49:10] Matt Sims: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So my advice would be change it every year. There is no harm. It’s a few hundred pounds is all it should cost. Even if you only do the oil and filter and then every few years consider doing the air filter, maybe the fuel filter and the pollen filter if it has one, but get the chassis checked as well. So get them to check down the chassis. The brake lines are still secure. Get them to check discs and pads. I actually took my rear wheels off on the weekend to fit some mudflaps, and I checked my rear discs and pads, and I can see that the next service they’re going to need doing.
[00:49:42] Keith Gooden: But I suppose this point is can you take it to his local friendly garage that does his car.
[00:49:47] Matt Sims: So he could. Yes. If they are not using OEM parts that you and you have and it’s in warranty, you could be in for a problem. I would personally, if I was buying the motorhome, I’d want to see that it had been serviced regularly, that it had had the right oil. I’d want to see receipts for the oil so I could see that it had the correct oil. And I want to see how the frequency of servicing. And it just shows that the motorhome has been looked after.
[00:50:09] Keith Gooden: Chris Howards in Addlestone. Hi, Matt and Keith. He’s loving the podcast. Thanks very much. Much appreciated. And all the advice you provide. I recently had to replace my leisure battery, a simple lead acid type as it would no longer charge. I parked my camper van on my driveway. Should I be leaving it permanently attached to the electric hook-up? Or will this likely do more harm than good?
[00:50:33] Matt Sims: Well, hooking up came up last week.
[00:50:35] Keith Gooden: In a big way.
[00:50:37] Matt Sims: In a massive way. So there’s a fundamental here. Should you hook up at all at home? I do, and you can listen to the episode last week and you’ll find out what that’s all about. Should you leave? Hooked up all the time though, is a nuance to that. I tend to unplug my motorhome. I leave it plugged in for a few days, then unplug it. And I just think this is good practice. My worry is that I’m causing an issue to the charger, that there’s a risk that if the charger failed, I’d be worried that there would be an overcharge on the battery. Now all the auto electricians listening to this will jump in. And please do. This is a great question for our chat with Motorhome Matt group, because there are experts in that group that will know exactly the nuance of this. So I would suggest Chris post it in the in the chat group. If you’re not in it, go and join it. It’s on Facebook and we’ll see if we can get some experts to answer it. But I don’t think there’s probably any harm. It does depend on the charging system.
[00:51:30] Keith Gooden: If electrons are flowing through the circuits, then the circuits are are going to slowly wear. So that’s something you need to keep in mind. Yeah, yeah. I remember years ago, I used to work for Decca Records in their studios, and there was always a big argument about should we use the studios powered up all the time because you get a better sound. And there was a lot to say about that. But all the studios did have a master switch fitted, and when we come in in the mornings, the line the machines up, you know, we’d hit the big red button and they would come on. And the reason the engineers gave us for that is we’re just shortening the life of all the components.
[00:51:59] Matt Sims: Well, by leaving them on. Yeah, yeah. But then don’t you shorten the life when you turn them on and turn them off? Aren’t they under more duress.
[00:52:05] Keith Gooden: For a millisecond?
[00:52:07] Matt Sims: Yes. Yeah. I don’t know.
[00:52:08] Keith Gooden: I’m just telling you what the engineers told me that was audio. This isn’t charging batteries, so I’d take some advice. Like Matt says, the internet is your friend on this one, but Matt is your best friend. How do people get in touch?
[00:52:20] Matt Sims: We would love it if you did. You can record your question. Please tell us where you are if you do that, or you can fill in the form and we’ll read it for you as we’ve done today. Just ask it at mhmp.info/askmatt.
[00:52:32] 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.
[00:52:42] Matt Sims: And would you help us by following on your favourite podcast app or clicking subscribe and that little bell on YouTube. Thank you.
[00:52:52] 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 thatleisureshop.com.
