Unwanted Guests & 2024 plans (PLUS YOUR questions answered)

I've given Gerald the not-so-good— I've just set it off! Oh dear! I've got a mouse in my motorhome, I'm visiting 2 new continents, and I have got lots of your questions to answer. Should we get cracking? Hey guys, I'm Kat from Wandering Bird, and this week we've got a bigger roundup of all of your questions. But before I dive into those, I need to share with you the fact that I think I have a mouse in the motorhome. Now, I found out about this mouse on Christmas Day when I saw that a little piece of my Window blind had been chewed. I spent Christmas down at my parents' in Devon, and on Christmas Day I woke up and there's just this hole. Now, I don't know how long the hole had been there. That's the problem. I don't know how long I've been in the motorhome with said mouse, who I have now called Gerald. But on further investigation, it turns out that Gerald is partial to gravy, so he chewed his way through the top of the gravy, and then he went into a totally different locker and chewed his way through Sealed pack of tea bags. Not the tea bags that I'm using, not the open pack, a proper plastic wrap sealed pack of tea bags. Yorkshire, if you're wondering. Other tea bags are available, um, but I can't find him. So I bought a couple of humane traps. Hang on, let me grab one. I bought a couple of humane traps, and on investigation on Google, I was told that peanut butter or chocolates are good for mice. Now I have to say, I have given Gerald the not so good— I've just set it off, oh dear. Funnily enough, I was driving the other day and it went off, and I thought maybe that he'd come out while I was driving, but maybe it was just the motion of the, uh, of, of the movement of the van has cut it off. But anyway, I have given Gerald the not so good Quality Streets. Now this could start a row, but I'm not partial to the coffee ones and I'm not partial to the fudge ones, um, so he's got half a fudge in here and he's got the other half in another one that's in the cupboard where the gravy was, so I'm going to just push that back down and leave that out in case he makes an appearance. Mice don't particularly bother me, but I don't like the idea of one being in the van while I'm in it. Anyway, so this is an ongoing saga. I do keep winding my mum up because I'm not in Devon anymore, and the fact that I can't find Gerald and I also can't find any further evidence of Gerald makes me think that perhaps I left him in Devon. In her garden. She is underwhelmed by this idea. Sorry, Mum. Happy Christmas. Anyway, I want to share with you some of my plans for 2024. I've got some really quite exciting plans going on, and I know those of you on my email list will already have heard of these, but I want to share a little bit more about where I'm going and what I'm doing. But before I get into that, let me answer some of your questions. For those of you who are new to the channel, hi, welcome. I try and do a monthly roundup of questions because I'm just a girl on my own and trying to answer all your questions on emails and on YouTube and on Instagram, on Facebook, and I'm so grateful for them. Please don't stop leaving questions and comments and everything, but it's physically impossible for me to answer them all, so I collate them all and I answer as many as I possibly can in these monthly videos. Most of them today are focused on Europe travel, so I'm guessing that's what you guys are all excited about at the moment. If you are planning a trip to Europe, or indeed anywhere, let me know where you're planning to go in the comments. I really want to hear what what exciting plans you've got for 2024. But let me dive into your questions so I can get them answered as quickly as possible. So forgive me while I check my notes. So my thoughts on the changes coming this year when traveling to Europe. Um, I can only assume from that that you mean the ETIAS visa and us having to get visas in order to go into Europe. The good news is that it's not coming in in 2024. I believe it was supposed to come in '21, then '22, then '23, then '24, and now it has been pushed back to at least 2025. So fingers crossed it will be pushed back even further. But for now, don't worry about it in 2024, it's not an issue. And as more information comes out, if and when they do decide to go ahead with it, I will of course be sharing that with you and keeping you up to date on all of that. So when empty, my motorhome weighs 3,300 tons, which puts me under the Angle Mort sticker requirement. But when it's fully loaded, I'm over the weight. Do I need an Angle Mort sticker? Now my very first question to you is, what is your max payload. What's the maximum amount you are legally allowed to carry? Because that's really important too. You'll find that either on the door in your van or in your paperwork. You will have a maximum weight that you're allowed to be. If that maximum weight is over 3,500 kilos— I was going to say 3,500 tons then— 3.5 tons or 3,500 kilos, you must have an Anglesey sticker. Now don't forget, you don't need an Anglesey sticker if you're just coming off the ferry Or the tunnel at Calais, driving through that little corner and going into Belgium. Don't even worry about it. You only need the Anglomorphe sticker if you're gonna be properly touring through France and go into what they call built-up areas. Now, they haven't really defined what a built-up area is. My advice is if you're going to small villages and staying off out of the main cities and towns, you probably will be absolutely fine. However, if you are a larger vehicle and you are at all worried about it, then get these Anglomorphe stickers. You can get some that have got like magnetic plates And people have been putting them on with like double-sided pads and sticky pads and sometimes even Blu Tack. So you don't have to actually permanently fix them to your vehicle if you really don't want to. I agree the colour scheme doesn't necessarily blend with most motorhomes, but it's your maximum payload, not how much your vehicle actually weighs at that time. Hope that clears that up. Regarding the CritAir, where do I need to put it on my windscreen? The RAC says put it on the right side of the windscreen. Have they taken into consideration driving on the right in France? Well, the first thing I will say is really good question what you read on the internet. One of the reasons that Wandering Bird started was because I was reading stuff on some fairly big named websites which was out of date and which was just plain wrong and had obviously been written by somebody who hadn't done much traveling in Europe. So absolutely good to question this stuff. However, don't forget that the Angle— not the Angle Mor— the Crit'Air stickers are actually not a thing that's going to be picked up while you're driving. It's going to be picked up by the people in the areas by wardens or by the cameras, and because you're driving on the other side of the road, the right-hand side of the road, they will be on that right-hand side because that's where the pavements are. So that's generally why it is suggested to put it on the right side of your windscreen. However, I will say ignore what the RAC or anybody else said, nothing against them at all, but do what the Crit'Air sticker instructions say, because if they've changed them, perhaps since the RAC have updated their website, make sure you are following the current instructions on the Crit'Air sticker. website. Hope that helps. Would you be able to answer a question please, Kat? Our van is 4,080 kilos. We have a full English license, so I can drive up to a 7.5 tonne. Someone pointed out to us that in most of continental Europe, the 3.5 tonne is the limit to drive a car license. Above that, you need a truck permit or equivalent. Are you aware of this? Are we able to drive abroad? Okay, I am assuming that you have your own motorhome in the UK that obviously is above 3.5 tonnes and you are allowed to drive it. Not that you're going to be going to Europe and hiring a vehicle. If you are planning to go to Europe and hiring a vehicle, you are going to need to check what the requirements are for that. But if you have got a license that allows you to drive that vehicle in the UK, we have still got the reciprocal rights, which means that you can drive that vehicle in Europe as well, or in the EU I should say, as well. The same way that they can drive vehicles when they come over here, they can take— bring their own vehicles over here in the UK and they can drive those. So yes, if you have a vehicle that you own over here in the UK, or that you're legally allowed to drive over here in the UK, you can take that into Europe, not a problem at all. There is a whole, whole grey area there about towing, which I'm just going to skirt around because towing is an absolute nightmare and I don't want to get into that. Um, let's just assume you don't have a towed trailer and an A-frame or anything like that, just a normal bog-standard 4-tonne motorhome. Fine, don't worry about it, you'll be great. Kat, please help, confidence is our issue. We have a couple of questions. Do Aires have a height restriction? Our motorhome Betty— great name for motorhome— is 3 meters high. Most Aires don't have a height restriction at all, and don't forget, Aires are specifically designed for motorhomes and campervans to stay overnight, so you won't find massive height restrictions, or should I say low height restrictions, on those at all. If you're trying to go to a car park that somebody has perhaps put on Park4Night or Search4Sites and said, here's a place that I stayed that isn't an official Aire, you might find that there are height barriers on those, but on the proper Aires, no, you won't find height barriers. Because they're designed for motorhomers, and most motorhomers, if they've got like an overcab bed, they're like 3.3, 3.4, maybe even higher, so you'll be absolutely fine with those. I noticed you talk about height a lot. Is this going to be an issue for us? No, 3 meters is fine. The only issue you'll have is if you are 3.05 meters or higher, you might get caught up in the Category 4 in the tolls. Now most of the time you can press the button if you're registered as a Category 4, you can press the button, you can talk to somebody— good luck in French— And you can actually get back down to a Category 2 because that's what you should be. If you are well above the 3.05-meter height, they might be a bit suspect, but that category is for trucks as opposed to personal private vehicles, so you should be in Category 2, no issue. Mostly we want to wild camp. Is that easy in Norway? Oh my God, yes! Norway is the best place for wild camping, wild parking, staying off-grid, whatever term you want to call it. Absolutely amazing. Norway has the right-to-roam thing. The thing that everyone gets confused about with Scotland that doesn't actually apply to motorized vehicles, it does apply in Norway. It's one of my favorite countries to stay off-grid in. Just make sure you've got really, really good systems for your battery and everything else, and you will have the most incredible time. Norway is epic. If you're traveling through Europe and you know you're going to be there for longer than the 90 days in 180 rule, is it straightforward to extend that via a visa? And if so, would this apply to just one country or multiple? Who do we need to apply to for this visa? Welcome to Brexit! No, no, you can't extend it, and it's certainly not easy. I know a few people who have applied for a visa extension, people who've been writing books or something, and they've wanted to stay in a country for 6 months or so in order to write a book about the place. It took several thousand pounds and many months in order to get the situation and to get them their visa sorted. So no, it's not easy. It's definitely not something you can do while you're on the road, you have to comply with the 90 in 180-day rule. Sorry. And I do have a video if you're confused about that. I do have a video showing you how to do it, how to work it out, and the app to use or the website to use that makes it really straightforward. I'm gonna have to do that this year because I'm in and out all over the place and I'm frantically trying to figure out when I can do it, and I've been using that website a lot and it really helps. So I'll leave the link wherever it comes up in this video and you can find it. We're quite new to motorhoming. We bought our very first motorhome, a Swift Voyager 594. Nice motorhome. We're worried about the limited payload available. We've been told we can replate it from 3,500 kilos to 4,500 kilos. Do you know the pros and cons of doing this? Right, so payload is always a fun topic. If you don't have enough payload in your van which will put you over the maximum weight that your vehicle is actually allowed to have, then yes, you can upplate it. The biggest downside of doing this is, do you have the correct license? But if you don't have the C1 category on your license, the grandfather rights if you like, then you will have to do that in order to drive a vehicle over 3.5 tonnes. I can't do it, so I wouldn't be able to uplight if I wanted to. But if you're lucky enough to already have the grandfather rights on your driving license, then there are very few downsides. One of the biggest problems that comes is when you go to Europe, anything over 3.5 tonnes is considered a commercial vehicle. So when you look at things like toll passes or the actual tolls themselves, if they think you're over 3.5 tonnes, they start looking at charging you commercial rates. However, they are aware that many motorhomes are increasing in size and in weight, and this is becoming a little bit more easy or easier to navigate. So things like the toll pass, I use e-movis, the toll, and on their website it states that they only do tolls up to 3.5 tonnes because that's what it has to be in Europe. They're a European country. However, I've been told if you contact Contact them and say, I've got a private motorhome, but it's 3.8 or whatever. They will actually issue you a Toll Pass for those. So it just means you have to do a little bit more work. And then when you go places like Switzerland where you have a vignette, if your vehicle is over 3.5 tonnes, you need to make sure that you're filling in the correct stuff in order to be a private vehicle, not a commercial vehicle, and paying more on the tolls with the vignette. But otherwise, there's very few downsides, certainly not here in the UK, very few downsides at all to upplating your vehicle, providing you are legally allowed to drive That's the biggest one. Well, looking at routes through the Swiss Alps, Google Maps says the route has restrictions or use of car transporter trains. Can I still use these roads? Yes, you can. One of my favorite things about touring in Switzerland was the car transporter trains. You can get a motorhome on, I believe, most if not all of them. Um, I think there are some height restrictions, so that might affect a few of the transporter trains, but obviously I've not been down those roads because we have the height restriction. But I think the majority of them you can absolutely get a motorhome on, and you pull up, no need to book in advance. It's a little bit like the Road tunnel but without having to book in advance. And you literally— so you pull up, you wait for the next train, you then drive on and you pay your money and you go. Or you might have to pay before you get on, but whichever way around it goes. And it goes through the mountains. It's really fun. It's really fun. I'll try— when we did it, I wasn't doing blogging and Wandering Bird, so I didn't take that much footage, but I will try and see if I can find some footage of it because it's a lot of fun. So yes, you can use those. Now, if the roads are restricted because of height or width, then obviously no, you can't use those. But the car transporter trains, as long as the road itself itself isn't restricted, then yes, you should be able to use that fine, because lorries use them all the time as they go through those routes. Have an amazing time, let me know how it goes. Have you traveled much in Ireland? We want to do a mini convoy trip next August and we're getting mixed feedback about park-ups, height barriers, and high costs. Ireland is amazing. In fact, talking about my plans for 2024, I'm doing a talk at the NEC Show in February every single day. Times will vary, but I will be there every single day Talking about Ireland and doing the Wild Atlantic Way with a motorhome because it is incredible. However, I did my trip in February, March, and April, and it was fantastic. All your dogs were allowed on the beaches, most of the park-ups were open. I wild parked the entire trip. I paid to use campsites facilities every now and then when I couldn't find the remote ones. They've got some remote ones around Ireland and it's brilliant, um, but when I needed to, I paid to use campsites facilities, but I stayed Off-grid or in one of their aires every single night, and it was absolutely fantastic. In the summer, I believe this is not the case. I believe a lot of the car parks get shut, they get overwhelmed, the place is so busy. So my advice would be, if you're going to go to Ireland in August— and go, lovely weather— but either go really early in the morning to the really busy bits, or don't go on the Wild Atlantic Way and come inland slightly and enjoy more of Ireland that way. But I believe the Wild Atlantic Way, certainly that southwest corner, which is stunning and amazing and I highly recommend, I wouldn't want to do it in the summer. Some of those roads are absolutely tiny, and being crowded and lots of people, I think it would be quite difficult. So that would be my advice for you. If you can change it to perhaps May or June or slightly later, if you're able to, then you will find it a much different experience. Hi Kat, I've got a motorhome cover for my van to keep keep the leaves and the larch needles off. The problem I have is that when it rains, I get a large pool of water collecting on the roof. Any ideas? At least once a week, come down with a big stick or a broom and make sure that you put it up and push all that pile of water off so that it doesn't sit there. The weight of it as well could cause some damage on your motorhome roof, so you do want to make sure that you clear that off. You might even want to go up there with a ladder once you put the COVID on and put something under the COVID perhaps that stops the, the puddle forming in the first place, but making sure that you go down and regularly get the water off your roof is going to be a really good idea for you. The trick is to make sure it goes off the opposite side of the van to the one that you are standing on. Right, I've answered lots of those. I'm aware that this video is going on and your time is important, so let me share with you my plans for 2024. First thing, well, apart from the NEC Show, which is in February, which is now next month, I need to start planning my tour I know I'm talking about Ireland, but I haven't quite figured out how and what I'm going to say yet, so I need to start doing that. But my big trip of the year, which I'll be honest has been costing a fortune, is Antarctica. I am going to Antarctica. For those of you who get confused with which one is which, it's the one at the bottom of the world. No polar bears, lots of penguins. So I'm flying down to Buenos Aires. I'm gonna go see Iguazu Falls, which is one of the biggest waterfalls in the world, and then I'm flying all the way down to Ushuaia, which is right down on the very, very Tippity bottom of South America, so that's a whole new continent. I've never done South America at all. I'm so excited about that. Then I'm gonna get on a cruise ship and I've got a 2-day crossing of the Drake Passage, which I am dreading. Miss seasick girl over here, absolutely gonna have so many bands and seasick tablets and everything else on there. I might just sleep through those 2 days, see if I can knock myself out. But once we've crossed that, I think I've got about 10 days on the Antarctic continent. I think we go to South Georgia as well if the weather's good enough. to see some penguins, and then there's like a helicopter flight and I get to land on Antarctica in whatever approved area there is, and yeah, I'm so excited, so excited! No, I'm not going in the motorhome. I don't quite know how you'd get there with a motorhome, but no, that one is all flying, which will just be really fun. When I come back from that, which will be in March, I'm gonna have a few weeks of just Recovering and trying to edit some of those videos, and then I'm going to go do the Hebrides. I don't know exactly when yet, and I'm also going to go and do the northeast of England, which I've not really done yet, and probably a bit more of Scotland either on the way up or the way back depending on what the weather is like. But yeah, my plan is to go and do some of the Outer Hebrides, and then later in the year I'm going to go up to the very tippity top of Norway. A friend wants me to join her Finland, and I also want to do Sweden. So I need to figure out how I'm going to do all of this. I really, really want to go and see the Northern Lights with my motorhome, and I want to go up to the very top of Norway. So I'm hoping if I sort of go September, October time maybe, and I might be able to get some of the Northern Lights over the van, which I think would be epic. I'm looking forward to that. So those I think are going to be my 3 big trips. I've also got, apart from the NEC Show, I'm doing lots of the Warner shows. Not as many as I did last year because I've got some pretty big trips planned in, but I have got quite a few that I'm confirmed to be at, so if you want to know which ones I'm going to be at, I will leave them in the link below. I'm trying not to create any more courses this year because last year I created the Ireland Road Trip Planner and the Iceland Road Trip Planner, and I updated a couple of my other courses. I updated the Europe Toolkit, which is just enormous, so that all got a fresh update last year. As did the Wild Parking Toolkit and the, um, the brand new one for motorhome beginners, Motorhoming Made Simple. So I did lots of toolkits and books and everything last year. So this year I don't know if I'm going to create any new ones. I'm still debating doing one on full-time van life and how I downsized and living in a van and all of that stuff. So if you do want to see that, let me know in the comments because it's always nice to know I'm creating something that people actually want. But what I am going to do, I did a brilliant thing for Black Friday and people who purchased some of my stuff through Black Friday. We all got on a Zoom call and we chatted and we shared ideas, and I was able to help people like plan some road trips and answer their questions, and that was brilliant fun. So I'm thinking of doing a few more of those, like personalized Zoom calls, like with a small group. So whether it's planning road trips or solo van life or going to Europe for the first time, if there's anything that you specifically want that you think, you know, a small group setting would be really good fun for, again, Either send me a DM, send me an email, or drop me a comment in here, and I will do my best to answer it for you. But yeah, those are my biggest things for 2024. I hope you've got your own epic plans and adventures in the pipeline. If you do know where you're going yet, like I say, please do drop me a comment. I'm really excited to see where you are gonna head off this year, and I will see you on the road somewhere. Take care, bye!