Living in a motorhome in retirement

Keith Gooden

Welcome back to the Motorhome Matt podcast with me Keith Gooden and our expert, as usual, Motorhome Matt Sims. In today’s programme, we’re going to be talking about moving into a motorhome for your retirement. That’s coming up. But first of all, Matt, welcome along.

Matt Sims

Thanks, Keith. How are you?

Keith Gooden

I’m fine. All the better, as I always say, for being here with you.

Matt Sims

It’s my pleasure.

Join us at the Motorhome and Caravan Show this October

Keith Gooden

Now, we’ve been doing news at the top of this podcast for the last few episodes. We’re going to continue doing that and also we’re going to be asking you to get in touch, and talking about some of the emails we’ve been receiving from you. That’s later on.

But right now let’s get into the news, shall we? And it’s the NEC show, the big show. Matt, for people who aren’t in the business, who have never been before, just explain what it is and also your involvement.

Matt Sims

Well yes, it’s exciting. So the Motorhome and Caravan show – woohoo! – 2022 is back at the NEC in Birmingham, the National Exhibition Centre in October. It is a huge show. It takes over most of the exhibition centre. It is one of the biggest consumer shows in the UK. All new motorhomes, campervans, caravans, new products, accessories – it’s massive. It runs from Tuesday the 18th of October until Sunday the 23rd of October. So it’s a 6-day show.

And so there’s plenty of time to get there and have a wander around. 2 or 3 days, easily, you could take to wander the whole show. We’ve got a stand at it. We’re going to be taking the podcast up to Birmingham for the show. And the Motorhome Matt podcast has its own stand, which is the very first time a podcast has been featured at the show. So that’s really exciting.

We’ve taken over lots of the atrium, so the outer area as well, with some sponsorship. So you cannot miss the podcast. I am there. It’s huge! It’s ridiculous. We’ve also taken over Birmingham International Station. So if you’re heading to the NEC on the train, you will encounter the podcast. We’ve taken over the entire station at Birmingham International. So it’s very exciting.

We’re just really keen to promote the podcast so we get more people engaging with it. We’ve had lots and lots of positive feedback about how useful it’s been, particularly from people who’ve never had a motorhome or caravan or campervan before.

So yes, if you’re heading to the NEC, do come and say hello. We will be there. We’re building a little studio on the stand, so we’ll be recording lots of episodes hopefully from the show, as well as maybe doing some live stuff as well. So it’s going to be good.

Keith Gooden

It is going to be fantastic. And of course, your chance to get in touch, I’ve already mentioned it once. But stay tuned because we’ve got some emails from you that we’re going to be answering.

Campsite planning refusals

Keith Gooden

Let’s talk about something which happened a little while back. So it’s not hot news, but it still is news. It’s the refusal of planning in the West Country for a couple of really quite established businesses that cater to the motorhoming and caravanning industry.

Matt Sims

Yes. Well, this has been in the news very recently. Dartmoor has been reviewing its wild camping rules. Wild camping is a big topic in the UK. And we did a podcast on this and it’s generated lots of lots of comments and feedback. I talk about it in terms of taking a motorhome off the road and stopping somewhere and setting up an encampment. People often refer to that as wild camping.

Wild camping is actually you with a backpack and a tent camping out at sundown, leaving at sunrise and leaving no trace. That’s the key. It’s this phrase that gets overused and Dartmoor has been reviewing this very, very recently. But one of my favourite places to stop on our way to Cornwall is the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor, North Cornwall. And it’s a brilliant halfway for us leaving from Bristol. And we’ll stop there, have a meal and for £10 we can park in their car park.

And they actually applied to build a campsite next to the pub. And the planning application was refused. And interestingly, it was refused by the council because of the visual impact it would have. So colourful for tents and lots of white caravans and motorhomes, I guess, being visible on the hill from various viewpoints.

And also the risk of traffic accidents on the A30, which I read and thought, ‘Well, the A30 is really busy,’ – actually from stuff blowing into the road. That was their logic. How often does a gazebo blow into a road? Has it ever happened to you? I don’t know. If it gets windy, I put my awning or gazebo away. If that did happen that would be pretty disastrous. How likely is that to happen? But anyway, for the Jamaica Inn, currently their planning application has been refused, which I think is a great shame. But there we are.

Keith Gooden

Okay, we’re talking about retiring and using your motorhome to do it. I mentioned this at the beginning of the podcast. And it’s quite a step, isn’t it, Matt? We’re talking about people who are selling up bricks and mortar and going to live in a motorhome or a caravan. Tell us more about it.

Matt Sims

Well, yes, lots of people do. And lots of people, even more, dream of it and never do it. That’s a big step. You’re close to retirement, aren’t you? You must be.

Keith Gooden

Me? I’m semi-retired. This is why I’m here, Matt.

Matt Sims

Yes, that’s true.

Keith Gooden

This is leisure time activity for me. It’s the leisure industry, isn’t it? Can’t you tell by the way I’m dressed?

Matt Sims

You got kicked out of the BBC.

Keith Gooden

I got kicked out of the BBC. They said, ‘You’re too old. You’re too fat. And you’re too bald.’

Matt Sims

‘On your way, son.’ So for you, would you be prepared to sell the house, sell the cars, sell the furniture, give it all up, all the trappings of conventional life and move into a motorhome and go travelling? Would you do that?

Keith Gooden

I don’t think I would do that. No, I think that’s a big leap. I admire the people who do it greatly. But it’s not for me.

Matt Sims

But there are lots of people who at that stage in life, so let’s say 50 something, are retiring or taking redundancy, perhaps early retirement or early redundancy. And they’ve been given an opportunity, they’ve been given the gift of this opportunity to pursue a dream.

Now, actually taking that step into that dream seems to me like a huge leap, and I’m a keen motorhomer. Would I be prepared to give up all those securities? Well, I caught up with some friends of mine who have done exactly that.

Paul and Michelle’s retirement adventures in their motorhome

Matt Sims

Paul was in the police force for a long time. For his whole working career, he was in the police, and he retired and had a dream of living in a motorhome. And I had a chance to catch up with him over a Zoom call. They’re in France in their motorhome. And I started by saying, ‘Paul, what inspired you to do this?’

Paul Lacey

Travel! We all had a hankering to live in the sunshine, but we could never decide on where we wanted to live. One day it would be France, one day it would be Spain, then we’d move somewhere else. So we discussed various options. And over that period when we were still working, we had motorhomes. We had a caravan, we camped all our lives. And we toured Europe in various aspects.

Now, I was very lucky that I could retire at 55 and get a pension. So I took my pension. But I actually went back to work part-time afterwards during the pandemic, mainly. And I think it got to us when we had done it for a couple of years, this part-time working. And we decided that enough was enough.

So we looked at some properties in Spain, which weren’t suitable. We didn’t really like them. Then we looked at some other properties. And we were in Spain again. And we were driving back towards Malaga. And we discussed having a motorhome anyway and doing things and we put it on the back burner.

Michelle Lacey

I think the pandemic – yes, my father died. My sister-in-law died unexpectedly. And I think it made us realise life’s really short. And you really have to do this if you can. If you’ve got the opportunity, don’t waste it. And I think that was the main thing.

Paul Lacey

And I think it was because we were in a better position financially, which was very lucky because we could retire early. As I said, we were driving back to Malaga. And we were on the motorway or whatever it is in Spain, and there were the snow-capped mountains and the trees were in blossom.

I know it sounds a bit corny, but we got overtaken by a motorhome. And we were driving towards Malaga. And it said, ‘Kider, so many kilometres,’ and we just looked at each other and went, ‘This is what we’ve got to do.’ And it was one of those moments where we were just driving through Spain.

Matt Sims

What did you do for a living, Paul? What was your job?

Paul Lacey

I was in the police for 31 years.

Michelle Lacey

And I worked in administration in the NHS. I can’t claim to have retired officially. I just quit.

Matt Sims

So where are you now? Where in the world are you?

Paul Lacey

So we are currently in Ile de Re, which is just off La Rochelle. And since we left home, this is our ninth campsite. We’ve been in France now for nearly 6 weeks, or just over 6 weeks, I think. We travelled down through Brittany, we came down into Vannes. And then we went to St-Jean-de-Monts, and then we’ve been inland a little bit and then we’ve come back out to the coast and are just learning all the way.

But going back to what we were saying about why we did things as well, both Michelle and I started work, as most people did in those days, at 16. We never went to university, we never had a gap year. We never did anything like that. And so we just felt as we got that bit older and we were in a position to do it, and as Michelle said, with different things that happened in the family, that we wanted to basically have an adventure. And that’s what it was.

We just wanted an adventure. We sat and discussed this for hours, as you can imagine because it’s not an easy thing to decide. And we toyed with the idea of keeping the house or not keeping the house. And one of the things that we talked to other people about was that they have that commitment still back in the UK. So they don’t give it 100% when they go away, if that makes sense, because they’ve still got maybe somebody in their house or trying to look after their house and garden.

And so we made that decision to sell the house and put all our furniture into storage, which was fairly radical. I know when we spoke to family and friends, they were very, very surprised. We lived in a very old cottage and a very nice part of the world. But we literally got rid of the house. Michelle came home one day from somewhere, and I said, ‘The removal people will be here on the 25th of April.’ And I’d literally gone and booked the removals. And so prior to the 25th, we cleared the house.

And we got rid of a lot of our stuff because you accumulate a lot of things over the years. So we gave a lot of stuff away to people who perhaps couldn’t afford it, a lot of our white goods and things that weren’t really of value. So we thought we’d rather help somebody else out. And so we gave a lot of stuff away, didn’t we? And then we put all the rest of the stuff in storage.

It was quite spooky and quite scary on the 25th of April when we finally had a friend turn up to take us to the van because that was it. We’d committed ourselves and away we went. So that was 2 months ago. We obviously made that decision and left our house. We sold our cars and literally sold everything.

Michelle Lacey

It just feels really natural, though, doesn’t it? I don’t know. I don’t really feel like I’m really doing it. It’s a bit bizarre, really.

Paul Lacey

I think it’s a good test that in 2 months, I’ve never missed our house. I’ve never missed anything like that. I’ve not thought, ‘Oh, we haven’t made the right decision.’

Michelle Lacey

You can FaceTime people in England. You can still see people. How often did we see people anyway? I don’t think you miss that. People come over and see us. My brother’s coming over. So it doesn’t feel like-,

Paul Lacey

No. We met friends who were on holiday over here. We met them. So we’ve caught up with those. We’ve got some more friends coming over in August, so we’re going to catch up with them. We’ve got some other friends who live in France, and we’re going to go and see them for a few days later in the month.

Like Michelle said, it’s not like we’ve cut ourselves off. And with the technology that’s available these days, we stay in touch. One of the funniest things and I know it sounds awful, but my parents have now bought an iPad. And so every Sunday at 6pm GMT we speak to my mum and dad who are in their 80s.

Michelle Lacey

I wouldn’t say we speak to them.

Paul Lacey

I get to see their lounge ceiling, their heads, the top of my dad’s head. He hasn’t quite sussed out what the iPad is. I get to chat to my mum and dad every week.

Michelle Lacey

Yes, we’ve still got contact.

Paul Lacey

Yes, and we’ve got a son who’s 24 and is in the army. We probably speak to George every day, every other day, which we always did anyway. Bless him, he’s got a very busy career. We only ever saw him a couple of times a year with his job.

And so he’ll come over and see us at some point. Like Michelle said, her brother’s coming to see us here. Next Thursday, he’s flying into Bordeaux, and then he’s coming to stay here for 5 days. We get to see everybody and speak to everybody.

Matt Sims

So what’s fascinating is just listening to you talk in there. All that stuff you owned, I’ve taken from this is where you value, what’s important to you. All that stuff you’ve sold, you haven’t missed any of it. But what you’re holding on to is family, and you can speak to family.

Paul Lacey

That’s the most important thing. When we were clearing that house out, we suddenly realised, ‘Why are we storing all this stuff that we’ve probably not seen for I don’t know how long? We’ve never used it.’ And we’ve kept things like obviously family photographs, and all our important things.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got quite a lot of stuff stored. But it was things that were not important to us. And your family is more important, and your friends, but I think the bottom line is it’s just-,

Michelle Lacey

You can live a really simple life. And I don’t think you realise you can until you actually do it but you can. And I didn’t think I could ever live out of a really tiny little wardrobe and a few little drawers but you can.

Paul Lacey

Can I just say Michelle getting rid of all her clothes and shoes was hilarious. We’d have to have a trailer on the back of this thing just for all her clothes and shoes.

Matt Sims

I have to say, you are in a lovely motorhome. So tell us, what is the motorhome? Just tell our listeners what you’re in.

Paul Lacey

So we did a lot of research. I’m talking a lot of research. And the layout that suited Michelle and I perfectly is an Autotrail Comanche. So we have got a tag axle. It’s 8.7 metres long. It has a fixed island bed which is perfect, which gives us loads of and loads of storage. We’ve got storage under the bed and obviously wardrobes. It then gives us the ability to live in the van.

So we have a shower, obviously toilets, that type of thing. And I know some people are very loath to use the shower and toilets in the motorhome. But we thought, ‘Well, it’s our van. We will do what we want with it.’ So we tend to use – certainly, Michelle uses the shower and whatever all the time. Depending on what site we’re on, we will. You’ve got a proper lounge in here now.

Michelle Lacey

I think for me, it was important to have big sofas so that we could both have a sofa each for the evenings if you wanted to, if the weather was rubbish and you want to watch the telly. That was really important.

So some people would rather have a different layout and have a table and chairs in here. But for us, because we’re living in it permanently, it’s not just a weekend or a week, it was important to be comfortable like you are at home.

Paul Lacey

We even have the plants in here. So we make it very homely. We’ve got photographs up on the wall of our son and us. And we’ve made it ours. At the end of the day, some people say ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have put things on the walls,’ or whatever, but it’s our home. We made it as homely as we possibly could.

We were very fortunate that we bought the van second-hand, but it had all the extras we wanted as well. So we’ve got full satellite television, so we can watch all the UK channels and whatever. We’ve also got a fire stick so we can watch all the catch up channels, Netflix, that sort of thing. It’s got full habitation air conditioning, which you think, ‘Okay, is that really necessary?’ We’ve actually used it on a few occasions already because it’s been so hot at night.

So we’ve used the air conditioning. We’ve also got a 150 watt solar panel on the roof, which does the leisure batteries and does the van battery, which I thought was quite important if we’re parked up for quite some time. But one of the biggest things for us – well, for me, I’ve got the refillable gas system. So we’ve got the gas flow system. That was an interesting one.

We’ve had to fill it up for the first time in France on the way here. I think the French have their gas on the other side. So we had to go into this supermarket garage. It was 9 metres with the bikes on the back. And then we had to reverse all the way through the petrol station to try and get to the gas pump. And then we had to get the right adapter because they have different adapters.

So really, we chose the van because of the layout and because of the storage, and it suits us perfectly for what we want.

Matt Sims

Are you mostly on campsites? Where are you staying?

Paul Lacey

Well, initially, before we came away, we thought we’d do a combination of campsites, aires, we had France Passion as well. We’ve now got – I’m sure people have heard of it – it’s a thing called an ACSI card, which we were unaware of, unfortunately, before we came away. We’ve now got an ACSI card.

And I’ll be honest with you, it’s not worth it financially, we don’t think, to stay anywhere else other than a campsite. We’re in Ile de Re, we’re a 4 star site. We’ve got a swimming pool, there’s a restaurant and bar and really good showers and toilets, and we’re paying €18 a night. So what’s that? £15 a night? And that’s with hook up. It’s enough electricity that we can run our aircon.

Michelle Lacey

The ACSI card thing is an out-of-season card you use. But their season is very short. So you’re basically using it all the time apart from July and August.

Paul Lacey

Well, high season doesn’t even start over here until the 9th of July. And it finishes on the 28th of August. So apart from that period, we can use the ACSI card all the time.

Michelle Lacey

Yes, I definitely recommend you to get your ACSI card.

Paul Lacey

Some of the sites here are really good sites and they’re as low as €12 a night with hook up.

Michelle Lacey

It just didn’t make sense, did it, to go into – because the aires, some of them are quite close to the campsite. And you see them in there and it’s just a car park. And you think, ‘Gosh, they could have paid just a couple of euros extra and got a pool and nicer facilities.’

Paul Lacey

Last time we were in the aires it was €10 a night and literally, like Michelle said, it was a car park with nothing. No hookup or anything. We were paying €18 euros a night. We had hook up, showers, toilets and a swimming pool. Well, for us, it’s a no brainer.

I’d rather stay somewhere like that. Ah, it is horrible. You wouldn’t enjoy it. Honestly, it’s just horrible. A heated swimming pool as well. Yes, we made the decision that our budget will run to quite easily stay on sites. So we have decided that that’s what we’re going to do. We feel more comfortable doing that as well.

So when we leave here, we’re actually booked in because it gets a bit more expensive, obviously. We’ve allowed for July and August to use a bit more money because we can’t use our ACSI card, but the next site we’re on in Dordogne is adults only. So we’ve got 10 nights on an adult-only site.

Michelle Lacey

You can mix it up, can’t you?

Paul Lacey

Yes.

Matt Sims

I was going to say, you can be flexible, can’t you? And you can see where you end up and you’ve got that freedom. That’s the whole thing, isn’t it, the freedom?

Paul Lacey

Absolutely. We realise now you don’t need to pre-book your sites. If it’s out of season, you don’t need to pre-book.

Michelle Lacey

We didn’t realise.

Paul Lacey

We didn’t realise, but the only the only caveat and the only thing I’d say to anybody is make a note of all the public holidays in France.

Michelle Lacey

Yes, there’s a lot in May.

Paul Lacey

Yes, there’s 11 bank holidays in France. So those weekends –

Michelle Lacey

What we did was we just altered our plan slightly. We didn’t travel on the days when they would be travelling and coming home. Things like that.

Paul Lacey

And the other great thing is over here you can book in, but you don’t pay for your campsite until the end. The site before here, we were initially booked in for 6 nights. And it was lovely. We had some friends call over. So we stayed a bit longer.

Michelle Lacey

That was Cologne.

Paul Lacey

Yes, in Cologne. And we ended up staying for 18 nights because it was just lovely. But we hit the two bank holidays. So we kept extending it cover to the bank holidays so we weren’t travelling.

Michelle Lacey

And we watched the site just fill up, didn’t we, fill up with all the French people coming on holiday and then going again. And we thought ‘Yes, we did the right thing.’ But then equally, if you don’t like somewhere, you’ve got the flexibility to leave. So that’s what’s nice about not having to book up.

Paul Lacey

It’s not like in the UK where you have to book for your week and you’re committed to the week or weekend or whatever. You are very flexible, very flexible.

Matt Sims

So you’ve got some long term plans as well. This is not just this summer, is it? You sold the house. You’re committed.

Paul Lacey

Absolutely not. We’re very lucky in the fact that Michelle has an Irish passport. So I have a UK passport and Michelle has an Irish passport. And so before we came away, one of the decisions that influenced us really – we did a lot of research, because Michelle has got an EU passport. And I have to just read this because I can never remember it.

But under Article 6 of the Directive 2004, because we’re married, I have the right to remain in the EU with Michelle. We’re exempt from the 90 days because obviously Michelle has the passport. I have a right to remain with her because we’re married. And so therefore we’re not stuck with the 90 days. So hence the reason of doing the trip as well.

Michelle Lacey

The only thing is, I would say you think, ‘Oh, great.’ But actually we do have to come back in February next year. You have to come back to MOT the van.

Paul Lacey

We’re going to have to come back to MOT the van.

Michelle Lacey

You’ve got a year, which is great. But if your fan is registered in the UK, you have to go back and get it MOTed, which is a downer.

Paul Lacey

It’s not the end of the world because we’ve incorporated what we want to do. So the idea is that when we leave here now, because obviously we’re in the south west of France, we’re going to go down to Dordogne, which is an area we particularly wanted to explore. So we’re down there for 2 months in Dordogne. We’ve got various places plotted out already, so that we can explore Dordogne in some style.

And I think we’re looking because we’re meeting some friends down there towards the end of August. And I think they go on the 6th of September. So we’re booked up until the 6th of September. That’s quite nice to know. Then the plan is – you’re going to hate this bit. We’re going down to Provence. And we’re going to spend a couple of months maybe down in Provence by the Mediterranean.

And that will take us up to about, say, the end of October maybe. And then the plan from there is to go straight across into Spain. So we’ve got some friends just as you go across the border. So we’re going to go and see them. Somebody I used to work with now lives down there so we’re going to pop in and see them and then we are literally going to wander all the way down the coast in Spain with a view to going towards Malaga for Christmas.

And the idea is then we will rent a house for a week or 10 days. And then all the family will come to Spain. Before, we were in England and it was one of those Christmases. So our son will come over and Michelle’s brother and whatever. And so we’re going to celebrate Christmas and New Year in Spain with the family. And then we’ll stay around for a little bit and then, like Michelle said, we’ve got to come back towards the end of February. We’re going to nip back home again only to get the van MOTed, which is a real pain.

Matt Sims

It’s going to be cold. You know that, don’t you?

Paul Lacey

We’ve just got to find some storage for the van. We don’t know anywhere that we can do that. But we’re working on that one.

Matt Sims

Oh, come and have a chat.

Paul Lacey

And then the plan is, literally, we will only stay in the UK for a while. We won’t be very long because next year we would like to do Italy. We thought if we come back into France rather than turning right we will turn left. And for 2023 we want to do the whole of Italy down to Sicily and then back up the other coast. And then we’ll go into Croatia then once we get back up.

Matt Sims

Do Slovenia as well, Lake Bled. It’s just beautiful down there.

Paul Lacey

Yes, we’ve heard about this. But again, the trouble is, we’ve got to come back to MOT the van. But we’ll just nip back in.

Matt Sims

You’ve got a year!

Paul Lacey

You’ve got to cram these things in! So that’s our longer term.

Michelle Lacey

We’d like to do Portugal.

Paul Lacey

Yes, we want to. There’s so many places. Loads of places, and it’s just having the time. And it’s all fairly new at the moment, still. I know we’ve been away for 2 months. We’re still on the learning curve with how the van works, how other things work. We come across things that we need for the first time, little silly things like I said, filling the gas up.

Now, that was a real issue for me, because I was panicking thinking, ‘I don’t know how to do this,’ and whatever. And it was fine. That was all fine.

Michelle Lacey

It’s just knowing. You needed the adapters, though, to do it. So that’s something people should make sure of. You’ve got to have the right adapters for your van.

Matt Sims

Sorry we didn’t talk about that before you went.

Paul Lacey

I never even thought about it to be honest with you, Matt. And I didn’t realise. But it’s like other things that I was unaware of, obviously, things like reverse polarity for your hookup over here. I didn’t even think about that. We got to one site and it was reverse polarity for the electric.

And so that was causing us a bit of an issue. Being an ex-Boy Scout, I had a small lead in one of my boxes, which was a three pin adapter plug for if you’re at home. And I literally cut the end off and bought a new adapter and made one.

Matt Sims

So reverse polarity is live and neutral round the wrong way for those at home, which in France is very common, isn’t it?

Paul Lacey

Well, you say that though. We’ve been on 5 sites here. We’ve only had it on 1.

Matt Sims

Oh, right, okay.

Paul Lacey

Only 1 site.

Matt Sims

Are they all the blue ceeform plug, the blue ones?

Paul Lacey

All standard, yes. We’ve not used our European one which we bought. We haven’t used it once yet.

Matt Sims

You’ll find some of the older sites still have that Schuko 2 pin plug.

Paul Lacey

Yes. And the other thing we’ve noticed as well, and even on this site, a majority of sites now are service pitches. We’re finding that more and more as well. So that’s been quite good, having a service pitch all the time.

Michelle Lacey

Yes, I think again, maybe it’s just with age, but it’s quite nice to go somewhere and have everything just there for you. It makes it easier with your van.

Paul Lacey

I don’t want to be too stressed and busy, Matt. I don’t want to be too busy.

Michelle Lacey

It just makes it so much easier, I think anyway. It’s just nice to have a bit of comfort.

Paul Lacey

Yes, there’s all those, but it’s just little things that you pick up along the way, like I said, like the reverse polarity and other things. And there’s nothing that we didn’t buy that we wish we had, is there?

I know we came into your place and you very kindly helped us out with all the stuff, which was invaluable because there’s things that we wouldn’t have necessarily bought that we did buy that now are paying dividends because we’ve got them with us.

Michelle Lacey

The only thing we didn’t get, and you said at the beginning, is an ACSI card. Get that before you go.

Paul Lacey

The ACSI card is the only thing I didn’t get. If anybody’s thinking about doing any trips abroad –

Michelle Lacey

We were a little bit inundated with everybody going, ‘Oh, buy this, buy this. You’ll need this,’ and we were a bit sceptical. ‘Do we really need to buy all these things?’ And the ACSI card was one of those things that I said, ‘Oh, I don’t think we need to buy it.’ But actually, it’s worth it. What does it cost?

Paul Lacey

€20.

Michelle Lacey

For a year. You save that after the first site.

Paul Lacey

Well, I think staying here, we’re here for 28 nights. Michelle’s brother came to us while we’re here longer. Perhaps it’s a little bit too long, really, in hindsight, but I think it’s costing us just over about £400 for the month.

Michelle Lacey

With the cost of living in England now, I just think, ‘Gosh.’

Paul Lacey

Well, I think our total outgoings now, apart from obviously campsite fees and anything to do with the van and food, our total monthly outgoings are £40 a month. So that’s for two mobile phones. We have Spotify for music, and we have our Netflix and that’s it. That’s all we have for outgoings. It’s a no brainer, really.

Matt Sims

Living the dream. I love it. I mean, I look at the hashtag vanlife on Instagram. We were talking about this just now, weren’t we. You see these youngsters that are doing what you’re doing in a van they’ve converted, and there they are, slim, blonde, long hair diving into a crystal pool in the middle of nowhere. And he’s svelte and ripped and very athletic. I look at that thinking, ‘This is not my life.’

Obviously, you guys are both all those things, plus 30 years, but it’s just remarkable. I think the inspiration that you are to people that are considering this is immense. There you are. Paul, I know that you’re 57. Michelle, you’re quite a lot younger than that. Well, a bit younger than that. You look a lot younger than that, obviously. It’s the tan.

But what would you say to people that are looking at this hashtag van life and seeing all these youngsters who are really postgrads that have had their first job and they’ve done a year of work, and then they’ve gone, ‘Right. That’s it, we’re opting out.’ And there you are at the other end of that work spectrum. You’ve retired. You’re at an age with a 5 at the beginning. What would you say to people thinking, ‘Oh, I’d love to do it.’ But what would you say to them to change that dream to a reality?

Paul Lacey

I think the thing for us is, and we’ve all been saying this before we went away, it’s easier to find a reason not to do something like this than it is to do it. It’s just taking that plunge at the end of the day.

Michelle Lacey

And it’s not a massive plunge. You think it is, because you think, ‘Oh, it’s a bit scary.’ And yes, I get that, because I think we probably did feel a little bit like that. But equally, I felt like this is just a new adventure. Let’s do it. Because we’ve been in lockdown. And I think it’s made us all reevaluate our lives. And we just thought, ‘What’s important?’ If we’re together, and we’re enjoying the outside, we love the outdoor lifestyle, what’s not to love? It’s a cheaper way of living. It’s an easy way of living.

Paul Lacey

It’s just so relaxing. I think in my 57 years, I had quite a stressful job. And I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relaxed and literally so chilled. And we look at each other occasionally over a small glass of wine, which we allow ourselves once a day, obviously. And we’re sat outside, we’re looking at each other, and I say to Michelle, ‘What are you thinking about?’ Or something. And she’ll say, ‘Nothing.’

Michelle Lacey

Because what do you have to worry about?

Paul Lacey

There’s nothing to worry about. The hardest thing that we have to worry about now is, ‘What are we going to eat?’

Michelle Lacey

‘What’s for tea?’

Paul Lacey

That’s it. And so anybody that’s considering it, you have to think what is of value to you in your life. And like we said earlier on, your family is important, and your friends. And if you look at all your possessions in your house, if you actually look at it hard and think, ‘Really, am I that attached to that fridge freezer or that sofa?’ Or whatever it may be.

It’s just a piece of furniture at the end of the day. And you keep your photographs, you keep your important things that you really want to keep. And the rest of it is just possessions. It doesn’t make any difference whether you’ve got it or not. And I think that the bottom line is your memories are the most important thing in your life.

And we can always look back later in life when we’re in some care home and go, ‘You know what, that was the best thing we’ve ever done.’ I could have retired and gone and got another job. I was offered another job when I retired. And it was a really well paid job. And I could have stayed living where we were and Michelle could have done whatever. But what have we achieved? All I’m doing is going to work every day, when I’ve got the ability or we have the ability to have an adventure.

Michelle Lacey

A change of scenery every few weeks. Change where you are. We don’t have a garden to look after. Someone else looks after it for us and we sit in our little garden outside. And we change that scenery every few weeks. And you get to see life and we meet so many campers. And we’ve talked to so many people who’ve said, ‘Gosh, I’m really jealous.’

Paul Lacey

Our age.

Michelle Lacey

And we say, ‘Well, why aren’t you doing it?’ But a lot of people have got grandchildren and they don’t want to leave them and come and do this. So what I would say is, don’t leave it too late. In some respects, do it now at our age before you have grandchildren so that you can go and enjoy it and not have any of those guilty feelings. But equally, if you have got grandchildren, you could do it.

Matt Sims

Of course. I guess there’s never a right time to go, really is there, now? I suppose there is a wrong time. And you guys have timed it brilliantly, haven’t you? So you’ve got parents in the mix who are still able. They don’t need you there. Your son is independent. He hasn’t got any of his own kids yet. So you’ve got this window, haven’t you?

Michelle Lacey

That’s what pushed us, I think. After lockdown, and then also with what’s going on in England now with all the price hikes and stuff. You just say ‘Yes. Come on, let’s just do it. Let’s just go.’

Paul Lacey

My parents summed it up quite well, I thought, when I went and spoke to them. They’re in their 80s. And they’ve always travelled and done things. And I explained what we would like to do. And I said, ‘Look, how do you feel about this and are you okay with it?’ And both my mum and dad looked up and they said, ‘If you don’t do this we will be really disappointed in you.’ They used the ‘disappointed’ word, which I haven’t had for a long time.

And I just thought it was interesting. My mum and dad were so keen for us to do it in their 80s. And when we speak to them once a week, they’re so keen to find out what we’ve been doing and they plot it on the map. My dad’s got a map and he plots where we’re going. And so it’s really nice that we have that to chat about as well. And I think it’s just like Michelle said, it’s the timing. But don’t put it off. Don’t think, ‘I’ll do it next year or do it the year after.’

Michelle Lacey

We don’t know how long we’ve all got. Let’s just make the most of things.

Matt Sims

Yes, seize the day.

Paul Lacey

Absolutely. You don’t know what’s around the corner.

Michelle Lacey

And don’t be mistaken that material things are important. I used to think that how much money you had and the car you had and things like that are important, and they’re not.

Matt Sims

I think it’s easy to say that. And I think it’s easy to think it, but to actually do something about it, which is to sell them all off and get rid of them, like you guys did – you sold the house!

Paul Lacey

We did. We sold the cars.

Matt Sims

I take my hat off to you.

Michelle Lacey

I don’t think we’re ever going to regret this.

Paul Lacey

No, not at all.

Michelle Lacey

There’s nothing we miss. And that’s what I’d say to people.

Paul Lacey

Do it.

Michelle Lacey

Do it, because you’re not going to miss anything.

Paul Lacey

I think you’ve got to get the right motorhome, because it’s got to be comfortable, because it doesn’t become a chore. Living in our motorhome is not a chore because we’ve got the right layout for us. Do your research.

Michelle Lacey

Do your research so you get the right one for you.

Paul Lacey

We haven’t planned a fixed route of, ‘This is where we’re going to be and so and so,’ We’re very flexible in what we do in our journey because like we said earlier, sometimes we may go somewhere, we like it, and we’ll stay a bit longer. And sometimes we go somewhere and we think, ‘Oh, we’ve seen it now. Let’s go somewhere else.’ So we haven’t got a fixed route, have we?

Michelle Lacey

Don’t worry, because you can do that.

Paul Lacey

You don’t need to pre-book. And just go for it, and have fun. And it’s all about having fun at the end of the day. You’re never too old to have fun. We celebrated our silver wedding anniversary the week before last over here. But we were sat here and we went to a lovely little restaurant in the local town and had an amazing meal. We look at each other still after all this time and go, ‘Are we really doing this?’

Michelle Lacey

It just feels like a holiday but I keep thinking, ‘It’s not a holiday. This is the lifestyle.’

Matt Sims

This is your life, yes.

Paul Lacey

This is it. We don’t wake up to an alarm clock anymore.

Michelle Lacey

You eat when you feel hungry, you go off on your bikes, you explore. There’s nothing to bring you home.

Matt Sims

Lying by a pool and sending me pics of your toes and a pool in the foreground.

Paul Lacey

There’ll be more of those, Matt, don’t worry. The only thing we did buy was 2 e-bikes, which we’ve got on the back of the van. Anybody thinking about doing anything, I would strongly recommend e-bikes. I know you’ve got e-bikes in the shop. But they are the best thing.

I haven’t ridden a bike for 40 years and it came as a bit of a shock. I think that’s an understatement. Michelle’s brother’s bringing with him some padded pants, cycling pants.

Michelle Lacey

You do feel it.

Paul Lacey

You know about it. We’ve had to change the saddles already from the tiny ones, the gel seats. We’ve done that. But we’ve done 230 miles on our bikes already.

Michelle Lacey

It just gives you the freedom. It doesn’t make it a chore. You enjoy it more

Paul Lacey

We’ve got panniers on the back of the bikes. So we actually go and do our weekly food shop on our bikes. We can get our all our food in the panniers and a rucksack and whatever and so we’ve got those.

The other thing we’ve got in the garage, we bought 2 stand up paddle boards. So the paddle boards are in the back as well. So we’ve used them already. So if on a site or close by we’ve got a lake or river or whatever – we’re not quite confident enough in the sea yet.

Michelle Lacey

No.

Paul Lacey

I don’t think we would get that far.

Michelle Lacey

Especially not here in the Atlantic.

Paul Lacey

So we bought paddle boards as well. But the e-bikes – I cannot stress enough, buy e-bikes if you’re going to get anywhere.

Matt Sims

Yes, they’re great. On your way down to Dordogne, there’s lots of inland lakes.

Michelle Lacey

That’s what I’m hoping.

Matt Sims

Yes, beautiful. They are all freshwater, of course, but they’re very placid so you’ll make good use of the paddle boards.

Paul Lacey

Well, we’re both novices. Although Michelle has actually stood up on her board. I haven’t got that far yet.

Matt Sims

You’re treating it as a lilo?

Paul Lacey

Yes! But that’s the other thing with life. You wake up in the morning and you just go ‘Okay, what should we do today?What do you fancy doing?’ So later on today, we’ve got a cycle route which we want to go on to explore a bit more of the island.

So a bit later on, after we’ve spoken to you, we’re going to go off for the rest of the day on our bikes. We’ll probably stop somewhere for a little bit of lunch. We have to have the obligatory ice cream. I don’t know, I think it’s law in France. It’s the rules. And then we come back and we’ve found this very, very nice rose wine over here, which would you believe is €2 a bottle. You think it is going to be horrible, but it is very nice, isn’t it?

Michelle Lacey

I think they hike up the prices when they export them.

Paul Lacey

€2 for a bottle of wine, which is very nice. So yes, so that’s today’s plan. We don’t even think too far ahead. We might just stay here and go to the pool one day or the afternoon or go for a walk. We do more exercise now.

Michelle Lacey

Oh, we never did anywhere near the amount that we did at home, that’s the other thing. You go home after work and you sit and you probably put the telly on, and you might just pop out in the garden and come back in. Well, we do exercise every day, because you have to because you’ve got a van that’s parked up. So you have to go on your bike or you go for a walk. You say, ‘Oh, the weather’s lovely. Why would you ever sit in the van?’

Paul Lacey

We’re about 100 metres from the sea here. But we tend to eat in the evenings around 7 o’clock, whatever. And then we go for a walk and we walk down by the sea and it is just bliss. Or we take the bikes out. And there’s a few social things happening locally this week. So we’ll go to those, like Michelle said.

Michelle Lacey

We are much healthier.

Paul Lacey

We have a much healthier lifestyle. By far a healthier lifestyle.

Matt Sims

Yes, I’m there. My days, I’ve got accounts this afternoon and a team meeting later on. Totally different day to yours. Well, look. Thank you both.

Paul Lacey

I’ll send you a picture of the cycle path.

Matt Sims

I’m sure you will, yes. But look, both of you. Thank you so much for taking time out of your hectic, relaxed schedule.

Paul Lacey

It’s fine. We need a lie down now.

Matt Sims

You’re both looking really well and looking like you’re loving it. So stay safe, won’t you, and we’ll keep in touch. We’ll revisit you in your next country.

Matt Sims

Well, what an amazing experience those guys are in for and having. I think they’re really brave. I take my hat off to them. Hopefully for you, if you’ve got that dream to give up conventional life and head off in a motorhome, I hope they’ve inspired you. I really do. Any of us can do it. It’s just taking that step, isn’t it?

Keith Gooden

Absolutely, it is. And having listened to them, I must admit, I am coming around to the idea, whereas before I heard the interview or saw them, I wasn’t so sure. But it does seem like the freedom of the open road does beckon, doesn’t it? There’s something in all of us.

Matt Sims

Once you get that bug, as Paul said, driving through Spain, he just had that moment where it’s like, ‘We have to do this.’ What I love is that he just sold the house and didn’t tell his wife.

Keith Gooden

That’s the amazing thing. How he’s still breathing I’ll never know. It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast.

Audience Q&A

Keith Gooden

I’m Keith Gooden with Motorhome Matt Sims, the expert that gives you all the answers. And talking about answers, we’ve been asking you to get in touch. And you have been! And thank you very much for doing that. This week, we have some emails from you. Matt?

Matt Sims

We do, yes Thanks to Toby Craig. Toby’s emailed in. ‘Good morning. I’m not brave enough to recite a voice message, so I’m going to go old school.’ Good for you. ‘I have a van with a 6 kilo Calor bottle in it. I’m interested in adding a single bottle LPG system and would like your thoughts. Love the podcast, keep up the great work.’

Ah, bless you, Toby, thank you for listening and thanks for your support. Well, so what Toby is talking about here is binning off his Calor gas bottle, the one you take back to the shop and you get a refill. You have to have an empty.

Keith Gooden

The one you use for your barbecue.

Matt Sims

The ones that are really hard to get hold of. We’ve got loads in stock, so we’re okay in our shop. But across the country, this is a problem. Maybe that’s what’s motivated this question. And what Toby is looking at is putting a refillable bottle in that he can refill himself.

So there are lots of brands of bottles that you can buy that do this. I’d say that it’s a great idea, especially if you’re going out of the UK onto the continent. So if you’re going out, Calor is only a UK product. You can’t buy a Calor gas bottle anywhere else on the continent.

In fact, if you buy a refillable bottle in Germany or in France, you’re going to have to change the hose that goes on to it. So you’re going to have to impact the system of the motorhome.

Keith Gooden

It’s strange that you say that actually because ‘calor’ is Spanish for heat from a fire. If it’s a nice sunny day, you’d say, ‘mucho calor,’ rather than, ‘caliente,’ for hot food. So it’s strange, isn’t it? You can’t use it on the continent, but it’s actually a Spanish word.

Matt Sims

You’re not just a pretty face, are you?

Keith Gooden

I am not a pretty face.

Matt Sims

I didn’t know that. That is interesting. Well, anyway, so you have to change your regulator, the connector, to get on to the German bottles. So people that are travelling the continent have a refillable bottle. People in the UK use them as well. The purpose of these bottles is you go to a fuel station where there is an auto gas, and you can refill the bottle yourself. It’s much cheaper than buying Calor bottles, I have to say. And the bottle just stays in the motorhome.

On the continent, though, you have to have an external refill point. The rules vary in different countries, from country to country. So you have to refill the bottle from an external point. You’re not allowed to get the bottle out and refill it on the forecourt like you would a canister for petrol. It has to be a bottle that you can use at an external refill point.

In this country, you can refill a bottle, as far as I’m aware. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you can take it out of the motorhome and refill it on the forecourt. And there are brands like SafeFill that will allow you to do that.

There are refillable bottles that are permanently in the van. One of the one of the best known is Gaslow. They’re yellow bottles, and they come in varying sizes. And you can have 1 or 2 bottles permanently in your gas cupboard if they fit, and the refill point’s on the outside. They are quite expensive to buy. You are looking at between probably £500 to £1,000 to have a system installed. But you will recoup that cost quite quickly the longer you’re using the gas system.

So I’ve not done the maths on this. But if you are going travelling on the continent for a year, definitely get a Gaslow system or a refillable bottle system, SafeFill, AluGas, Gaslow. There are a number. BP have a bottle as well. But make sure you check what you’re allowed to do in the country you’re visiting. So for example, in Belgium, you definitely cannot take the bottle out of the motorhome to refill it. It has to be an external fixed point that you refill the motorhome with.

The consideration in this country is, if you’re staying in this country, the gas pumps, the auto gas ones, are slowly disappearing because the days of buying a 5 litre petrol car and converting it to gas are gone. Nobody’s bothering to do that anymore. That’s an industry that’s just dying away. So they are disappearing. So if you’re considering buying the system, and you are going to spend most of your time in the UK, I’d challenge it.

Is there a gas refill point close to you? Here where we are in Weston-super-Mare today there isn’t one very close by. So it’s not really a very convenient system for us. A blend of 2 could be an option – you have 1 refillable bottle, and that will cover you when you’re on the continent, and a backup Calor bottle for when you’re in the UK. And for me, that’s what I would do if I was doing this. If I was spending all my time on the continent, refillable bottles absolutely.

Keith Gooden

So thanks very much for that Toby, for sending us the email. I will give you the details for how you can get in touch right at the end of the podcast. Now, something which comes up all the time in these podcasts, and I suppose it’s important if you’re out there on the road, what to do with your poo. And Elspeth contacts from Scotland, I hear.

Matt Sims

She does. Elspeth, thanks for your email, I’ll read it out. ‘I’ve read the script to the above podcast,’ – this is the wild camping episode that we did – ‘and found it very sensible and down to earth.’ Thank you, Elspeth, that’s very kind of you.

‘However, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in many remote rural areas, especially in the highlands, and islands of Scotland, homes are not connected to a main sewer, but have their own septic tank, which has to be emptied at their expense.’

‘This is also true of public toilets in these areas. So it’s very important for visitors to understand why they cannot put the contents of their chemical toilet into these toilets. They must do their homework and check where their disposal points are and be prepared to pay. Nothing is free.’

Keith Gooden

Especially in Scotland. Sorry! We’ve talked about this before. And if you’re using the blue chemical, you said that it must not go into a septic tank or a self-contained system. But if you’re using the green biochemical, that is okay for septic tanks

Matt Sims

But how do you know if that toilet’s connected to a main sewer or septic tank?

Keith Gooden

Well, you don’t.

Matt Sims

Well, you wouldn’t. So you’d have to ask. So if you’re not sure don’t put blue into the loo. That rhymed!

Keith Gooden

It did! You’re a poet and you didn’t even know it.

Matt Sims

You’re rubbing off on me. Ergh. So the key is to check with the toilet owner if it’s a campsite. Or if it’s a public loo, you’d have no idea. But I think it’s safe to say, and Elspeth is making this point, a public loo in the middle of the Highlands or on the Isle of Skye is likely to be connected to a septic tank.

So if you’re doing that kind of trip to very, very remote areas, just take the green toilet chemical and just use green. It’s friendlier for the environment, certainly. And it is an essential must have if you’re using toilets that might be connected to or are connected to a septic tank.

Keith Gooden

Thanks Elspeth. We always come back to the subject of poo and wastewater and that’s fine. It’s a big deal in motorhoming and caravanning.

Ask Motorhome Matt your questions

Keith Gooden

So don’t stop asking those questions or sending those emails. So just finally in the podcast, then Matt, how do people get in touch?

Matt Sims

You can do that really easily. Just head to www.motorhomematt.co.uk/askmatt and you can record your question and submit it or you can fill out the form if you’re not brave enough to record your voice. That’s fine. You just email us from that page. There is a form to get in touch with us.

You’ll find us on Instagram as well – @motorhomematt.co.uk. And don’t forget YouTube! You can find us there at Motorhome Matt, and click the bell and subscribe button and then the gods of YouTube will tell you when a new episode is released.