Who does not have a BOB?

[Brambles]

Bump


Nope, we don't have traditional BOBs.
We do have a holdall ready packed with clothes, money, insurance details, phone numbers, bank details etc
This is in the event of house fire, or somesuch similar event. It's enough to get us to a hotel or relatives and sustain us for a few days.

Known to us all here as a HOB (Hotel Bag, thank Jansman he named it )

We don't have 'runtothehills' BOBs as we don't envisage any situation which would force us to do that. Besides, I'm more than aware of how difficult that would be. I'm a bit experienced with wild camping and to be frank, without a tent, tarp, sleep matts, 4 season sleeping bags, masses of thermals and extra clothes, I strongly suspect one or two nights in the middle of a bad winter would be enough to finish us off.
We'd need x2 100L BOBs stuffed to the gunnels and TBH the wife couldn't cope.
My camping Bergen is 100L, I keep it all season and ready to go for when the mood strikes me. I know from experience I carry enough and know the missus couldn't carry it
I applaud anyone for prepping for days in the woods, I just don't see how a BOB with a tarp and tiny sleeping bag is going to cut it over frozen winter nights.

^^Like^^

[BlinkingCory]

We have a HOB and didn't even know it
It only took us about a year to decide on it's storage place LOL.

[Deeps]

No BOB for me too although I have the makings of a few in the house if I had to. Like Blinking Cory we have a '2 tier system' when it comes to carrying rucksacks in our house, one for the pack horse and one for the princess. I can't foresee a realistic scenario where I would need to grab a 'run to the hills' bag although I have made a 'get home' bag of sorts for when I'm further than a long walk away from home. A basic bit of shelter, warmth and a bit of scran/water. Hopefully enough to let me stay out for a night if I have to. Its not always practical to take with me and if that's the case I decant some of the contents into pockets.

I'm not having a go but I think some like the idea of the BOB rather than its usefulness. the HOB would be a much more useful bag for the vast majority of us, not as sexy and preppy though. Whatever spins your prop I guess.

[Brambles]

I too have a get me home bag' It's a little girlie backpack that has lots of useful stuff. Which reminds me, I must swap out the sun tan lotion, sun hat and t shirt for woollie beanie, gloves and disposable handwarmers!

[BlinkingCory]

I'm not having a go either, last thing I'd do.
I'd love the opportunity to ask someone like Ray Mears what his BOB contents would be for three nights in the woods in the middle of winter.
"So Ray, it's 3AM, you are wearing the first clothes that came to hand and you're stood in your garden. You have to escape to the woods for 72+ hours. You can take one Bergen. What's in it?"

I suspect he would have a huge Bergen if he had the choice. Even with his experience and skillset.

[Captain Darling]

I'm lucky to be in a position to do both.

For any realtime situation with my wife and daughter it's all about the firemans knock and the Premier Inn or village hall . Holdall with comfortable clothing, paperwork, wash kit etc...

Luckily work provide me with the bits and bobs to go play hide and seek/aggressive camping.

[Deeps]

Thinking about it, I think maybe ONE of the reasons I don't have a BOB is because some of the things I've got only one of I wouldn't want to have stuck away in a bag that was for emergencies. There are some things that you'd want your best one to hand too rather than stuck away too.

To toss the ball on a bit further, I don't have any Bug out locations spied out either. If it was a case of my house being untenable for whatever reason we've got friends, neighbours and family that we could go to. If we ended up in a 'run to the hills' situation then I'd be staying rubber, the country isn't that big and even though I'm not in one of the more densely populated parts there's still a lot of people and if everyone is heading to the country then we'll be falling over each other. I'd suggest that any place that looks good to you will look good to others too.

[grenfell]

I don't have an actual bob either , got all the bits and pieces close by just not actually put together. With a little time we could be up and running just not instantly. We do have a case with documents in it that is easy to hand and an amount of cash we could grab very quickly but clothes , blankets etc would take a few minutes.
Quick question for all those with bobs and kids. A bob isn't something you use every day , in truth it'll hopefully never be used , but should really be close at hand so the question is where do you store it or more specifically where are the kids bobs? I ask that because this morning my daughter has been going round the house trying to find her planner for school ( turned out to be in her bedroom) and other mornings it has been her shoes or something else , things that are used everyday . I know other parents experience the same thing and while to be fair my daughter really isn't that bad the thought of trying to organise a quick evacuation with kids and family isn't something I would relish.

[Arzosah]

I store mine two steps from my bed - as I've said elsewhere, its been in case of a housefire, though now its about leaving the house within half an hour after a phone call about my mum.

But in the house fire scenario, I'm very aware that its stored upstairs ... and yet the likeliest source of a housefire is the kitchen, which is downstairs, so running to fetch my bob would have me putting myself in danger. There are windows I could lower myself from, but ....

And yet, the alternative is bringing it downstairs and taking it upstairs every blessed day thats not good either.

[Brambles]

I store mine two steps from my bed - as I've said elsewhere, its been in case of a housefire, though now its about leaving the house within half an hour after a phone call about my mum.

But in the house fire scenario, I'm very aware that its stored upstairs ... and yet the likeliest source of a housefire is the kitchen, which is downstairs, so running to fetch my bob would have me putting myself in danger. There are windows I could lower myself from, but ....

And yet, the alternative is bringing it downstairs and taking it upstairs every blessed day thats not good either.

Our HOB is stored in my bedroom also, for the same reasons. It's easy to chuck it out of the window and escape without putting myself in harms way and if we do have to leave for any other reason, it's simple enough to trot upstairs and grab it. I was contemplating a soft cat carrier but his princessness is a big boy and his hard cat box doubles as a littler tray once we get to a place of safety.