Unwanted Guests & 2024 plans (PLUS YOUR questions answered)

Unwanted Guests & 2024 plans (PLUS YOUR questions answered)

Given Gerald the not so good just said off oh dear I’ve got a mouse in my mode to home I’m visiting two new continents and I have got lots of your questions to answer should we get cracking hey guys I’m cat from wanding 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 motor home 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 this 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

Murder home 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 a sealed pack

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 just said up off oh dear F 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 uh leave that out in case he makes an appearance M 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 sag I do keep

Winding my mom 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 Mom 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 inag stagram 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 Cate 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 comment I really want to hear what exciting plans you’ve got for 2024 but let me dive into your questions so I can get them answered as 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 ETS 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 least 2025 so fingers crossed it will be pushed back even further but for now don’t worry about it in 20 24 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 motor home weighs 3,300 tons which puts me under the angle malt sticker requirements but when it’s fully loaded I’m over the weight do I need an angle M

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 cuz 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 and a half th000 kilos I was going to say three and half thousand tons then 3.5 tons or 3 and a half thousand kilos you must have an angle more sticker now don’t forget you don’t need an angle more sticker If

You’re just coming off the ferry or the tunnel at Cala driving through that little corner and going into Belgium don’t even worry about it you only need the angle more sticker If you’re going to be properly touring through France and go into what they call builtup areas

Now they haven’t really defined what a builtup 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 a all worried about it then get these

Angle more stickers you can get some that have got like magnetic plates and people have been putting the moment like double-sided pads and sticky pads and sometimes even blue tack um so you don’t have to actually permanently fix them to your vehicle if you really don’t want to

I agree the color scheme doesn’t necessarily blend with most motor homes but if it’s your maximum payload not how much your vehicle actually weighs at that time hope that clears that up regarding the crit a where do I need to put it on my wind screen the RSC says

Put it on the right side of the wind screen have they taken into consideration driving on the right in France well the first thing I will say it’s really good question what you read on the internet one of the reasons that wandering Birds 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 more 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 wind screen however I will say ignore what the RAC or anybody else said nothing against them at all but do what

The crit a 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 website hope that helps would you be able to answer a question please Kat our van is 4,80 kilos we have a full English

License so I can drive up to a 7.5 ton someone pointed out to us that that in most of Continental Europe the 3.5 ton 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 motor home in the UK that obviously is above three and a half tons 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 um the reciprocal rights which means that you can drive that

Vehicle in Europe as well or in the EU I should say as well um 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 your not a problem at all there is a whole whole gray 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 but let’s just assume you don’t have a toe trailer and an A-frame or anything like that just a normal box standard 4ton motor home fine don’t worry about it you’ll be great cat please help confidence is our issue we

Have a couple of questions do airs have a height restriction Areo to home Betty great name from mot home is 3 m High most airs don’t have a height restriction at all and don’t forget airs are specific specifically designed for motor homes and camper vans to stay overnight so you won’t find massive

Height restriction 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 park for night or search for sites and said here’s a place that I stay that isn’t an official air you might find that there

Are height barriers on those but on the proper airs no you won’t find height barriers because they’re designed for motor homas and most mot homas if they’ve got like an overcab bed they’re like 3.3 3.4 maybe even higher so you’ll be abs absolutely fine with those I

Noticed you talk about height a lot is this going to be an issue for us no 3 m is fine the only issue you’ll have is if you are 3.05 M 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 cuz that’s what you should be if you are well above

The 3.05 meter height you 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 uh 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 cause it um it’s 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 and 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 applying to just one country or most multiple who do we need to apply to for this Visa welcome to brexit uh no no you can’t extend it and it’s certainly not easy I

Know a few people who have applied for visa extension um people have been writing books or something and they’ve wanted to stay in a country for six months or so uh in order to write a book about the place it took several thousand pounds and many months in order to get

The situation uh 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 so sorry and I do have a video if you’re

Confused about that um I do have a video showing you how to do it how to work it out and the app to you or the website to use that makes it really straightforward I’m going to 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 uh find it we’re quite new to motor homing we bought our very first

Motor home a swift Voyager 594 nice motor home we’re we’re worried about the limited payload available we’ve been told we can replate it um from 32,000 kilos to 4 and a half th000 kilos do you know the pros and cons of doing this um right so payload is 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 up plate 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 three and a half tons I can’t do it so I wouldn’t be able to uplate if I wanted to but if you’re

Lucky enough to already have the grandfather right 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 and a half tons 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 and a half tons they start looking at charging you commercial rates however they are aware that many motor homes are increasing in size and in weight and this is becoming a little bit more easy or easy uh to navigate so

Things like the toll pass I use um emovis the toll and on their website it’s states that they only do tolls up to three and a half tons because that’s what it has to be in Europe they’re a European country however I’ve been told if you contact them and say I’ve got a

Private motor home but it’s 3.8 or whatever they will actually issue you a tollon pass for those so it just means you have to do a little bit more work and know when you go places like Switzerland where you have a vignette if your vehicle is over 3 and A2 tons um

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 up

Plating your vehicle providing you are legally allowed to drive it that’s the biggest one while looking at roots with 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 motor home 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 um transporter trains obviously I’ve not been down those roads because we had the height restriction but I

Think the majority of them you can absolutely get a motor home on and you pull up no need to book in advance it’s a little bit like the Euro tunnel but without having to book in advance and you literally so you pull up you wait

For the next train um 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 um so yes you can use those now if the roads are restricted because of

Height or width and obviously no you can’t use those but the car transporter trains as long as the road itself isn’t restricted then yes you should be able to use that fine because Lor use them all the time as they go through those routs have an amazing time let me know

How it goes one from Julia have you traveled much in Island we want to do a mini Convoy trip next August and we’re getting mixed feedbacks about Park UPS height barriers and high costs island 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 Island and doing the wild Atlantic way with a motor home because it is incredible however I did my trip in February March and April and it was fantastic or your dogs were

Allowed on the beaches most of the park ups were open I wild parked the entire trip I PID to use campsites facilities every now and then when I couldn’t find the remote ones they’ve got some remote ones around your Island 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 airs 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 irland 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 um being crowded and lots of people I think it would be quite difficult so that would be my advice for you um if

You can change it to perhaps May or June or slightly later if you’re able to then you will find it much different experience hi cat I’ve got a motor home cover for my van to keep the leaves and the large noodles 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 um 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 motor home 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 cover on and put something under the cover perhaps that

Stops the the puddle forming in the first place um but making sure that you go down and regularly get the water off your roof is going to be 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 N show which is in

February which is now next month I need to start planning my talk I know I’m talking about Island 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 um 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 buenz

Aries I’m going to go see IG guazu fools which is one of the biggest waterfalls in the world and then I’m flying all the way down to ASU 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 going to get on a cruise ship and I’ve got a two-day crossing of the Drake Passage which I am dreading Miss seasick girl over here absolutely going to have so many bad bands and seasick tablets and

Everything else on there um I might just sleep through those two days 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 um 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 motor home I don’t quite know how you’d get there with a motor home but no that one is all flying which

Will just be really fun when I come back from that which will be in March um I’m going to 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 um 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 um but yeah my plan is to go and

Do some of the outer Hees 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 in 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 motor home 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 um 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 and so those I think are going to be my three 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 um a couple of my other courses I updated the Europe tool kit which is just enormous um so that all got a fresh update last year as did the Wild parking

Tool kit and the um the brand new one for uh motor home beginners motor homing Made Simple so I did lots of tool kits and books and everything last year so this year I don’t know if I’m going to create any new ones um 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 and people who had 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 um 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 going to head up this year and I will see you on the road somewhere take care bye

On Christmas Day, I found a mouse in my motorhome. Yes, I was a little surprised too! I share what happened and what I’ve done to (hopefully!) fix the situation.
I’m also answering your questions about motorhoming, touring in Europe and vanlife, plus sharing my plans and adventures for 2024!

2024 MOTORHOME SHOWS: https://www.wandering-bird.com/motorhome-shows/

#motorhomes #vanlifeuk #campervans

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ABOUT WANDERING BIRD

In 2018, I quit my job as an air traffic controller to travel in a van. That’s adulting, right?
Since then, I’ve spent most of my time living in a motorhome, touring the UK and Europe and enjoying solo female vanlife (well, with my dog, Mac!)

Wandering Bird was created to help motorhomers and campervanners make the most of their time on the road.
We share weekly tips, tricks and reviews to encourage and inspire your next adventure, whether you’re a complete motorhoming beginner, or a more experienced owner looking for new ideas or places to visit.

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