Bugging out in the UK

[grenfell]

I suppose have stockpiles to move to from others makes logical sense in this sort of scenario . If you've gone to the trouble of planning to bug out there surely must be a degree of that planning that envisages a location being compromised and further movement is needed. I would imagine trying to bury a stockpile is fraught with problems. Stockpiles could be compromised or found by people , destroyed by building or farming work or damaged by weather , tree roots and so on. It also supposes that bugging out can follow a designated route. I sometimes wonder if the term bugging out were replaced with something more like running away how it would affect the view of it.

[Frnc]

I suppose have stockpiles to move to from others makes logical sense in this sort of scenario . If you've gone to the trouble of planning to bug out there surely must be a degree of that planning that envisages a location being compromised and further movement is needed. I would imagine trying to bury a stockpile is fraught with problems. Stockpiles could be compromised or found by people , destroyed by building or farming work or damaged by weather , tree roots and so on. It also supposes that bugging out can follow a designated route. I sometimes wonder if the term bugging out were replaced with something more like running away how it would affect the view of it.

For me there are 3 main scenarios.

1. Evacuating to a point designated by the government. Might take more than a day on foot or bike. Might get there and it's really bad. So I'd have enough to survive outside for at least a few days.
2. "Running away" for a couple of days as a gang of armed looters began to ransack my street and we don't have a realistic chance of fighting them off. In this scenario I would try to lay low in the local woods.
3. Evacuating for several days or longer with nothing designated by the government. Presumably my house is uninhabitable, as is the local area. In this scenario I head for the green belt about a mile away and then I am out into farm land. From here I can go to areas that are wooded, have water, are not privately owned. This is all a bit far-fetched but I enjoyed planning routes and gear anyway. Who knows. But I have a couple in mind, in opposite directions. The main problem would be running out of food. If I thought I might be bugged out for more than a few days I'd take fishing gear and hope to find crops, edible wild plants, or abandoned houses with some food left.

[grenfell]

Hmm interesting. In the first scenerio where the government orders a full scale evacuation then you might have very little choice of how things go. There could be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people being sent to a particular location or locations which could probably be camps or ports.
Second one and to a degree the third would at least give the option of somewhere other than a field , friends , relatives or maybe even a hotel.
All depends on what drives one out of home and how widespread and what sort of event has happened. Then add in having old , infirm or young family members and a lot of this will be almost made up on the spot...

[Frnc]

Hmm interesting. In the first scenerio where the government orders a full scale evacuation then you might have very little choice of how things go. There could be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people being sent to a particular location or locations which could probably be camps or ports.
Second one and to a degree the third would at least give the option of somewhere other than a field , friends , relatives or maybe even a hotel.
All depends on what drives one out of home and how widespread and what sort of event has happened. Then add in having old , infirm or young family members and a lot of this will be almost made up on the spot...

Going in a group changes everything. I mainly plan for solo as I live on my own apart from lodgers.
In addition to what's already been said, I think the two main scenarios apart from looters are:
1. Your house is destroyed, eg fire. You would probably go to a hotel. But if there are no hotels (like in the pademic) and you don't have any relatives nearby or friends that can put you up, you might have to pitch a tent. In the extreme, if society has broken down, you might not be able to claim insurance, so it becomes long term. You become a homeless person.
2. The area you live in is uninhabitable, eg radiation, flooding, chemical leak. This is where hopefully the government would tell everyone to head west to a camp with facilities. But if it's 30 miles and there's no public transport I might have to camp at least one night depending on if I was walking or going by bike, and what time of the day I set off. Hopefully this would be short term.

Either way, I want important documents, spare socks, food for a few days, waterproofs, cold weather clothing in winter, water and filtration, first aid, maps and compass, powerbank, maybe a radio, and personally I want stove, fuel and a tent.

My gear is mostly ultralight, compact, minimalist. Eg my sleeping bag weighs about the same as a t-shirt and takes up about the same amount of space. My tent weighs 1 kg.

I have a 1.1 litre titanium pot. Inside that is a small canister and stove. On top of the lid is a titanium hanging chain with a plate with 3 holes for a tripod. The pot has a hanging looop as well as handle. So I can boil water for freeze-dried meals, and I can still cook even if I run out of gas. I have a few plastic bags that can stand up with boiled water, so the meals can be split. Also I have ration bars that can be eaten raw.

[grenfell]

I'd be travelling with the family although luckily we are all still fit and active , there no old folks or infants in our household . Our 8 year old neice lives nearby and her guardians are not as active as us so I could see us taking her with us if it ever came to it. We have all the relevant documents ready and waiting just to pick up , camping gear is there too just not sat ready in a bag by the front door.
Frankly there are so many variables with this that I feel anything more than an outline plan is next to impossible. Take transport for instance. My first choice would be motor transport. It's faster and if you leave early enough you could miss the jams. If I use my van I could take the bikes should we find we couldn't continue in the van. Either way whether it's a car , bike or on foot a road is going to be first choice. Cross country would be the last resort as it will be considerably slower especially if the weather isn't good.
All highly unlikely in my view , I mean I did ask if anyone had bugged out during the last "we're all going to die " pandemic and no body did but a decent thought exercise if nothing else.

[Arzosah]

Isn't the elephant in the room something about what would happen if Putin made good on his threats, at least with conventional weapons, and targetted the UK? Of all the unlikely things, its the *most* unlikely, but as grenfell just wrote, its a thought experiment. The last time we were in danger at that level by another state was in WWII, and there were evacuations of hundreds of thousands of children. Only a year ago, we were seeing an even bigger wave of evacuations from Ukraine, firstly to the west of the country and then flooding out all over the world.

What implications for this thread? You'd probably be able to take one bag with you, so your clothes, and what you can wear and sew into your clothes, would be crucial. I don't have a list I can write up right now, this really *is* a thought experiment, but between my ordinary hotel bag and the work I've done in organising preps and ordinary belongings, I could throw something together pretty quickly.

[Frnc]

I'd be travelling with the family although luckily we are all still fit and active , there no old folks or infants in our household . Our 8 year old neice lives nearby and her guardians are not as active as us so I could see us taking her with us if it ever came to it. We have all the relevant documents ready and waiting just to pick up , camping gear is there too just not sat ready in a bag by the front door.
Frankly there are so many variables with this that I feel anything more than an outline plan is next to impossible. Take transport for instance. My first choice would be motor transport. It's faster and if you leave early enough you could miss the jams. If I use my van I could take the bikes should we find we couldn't continue in the van. Either way whether it's a car , bike or on foot a road is going to be first choice. Cross country would be the last resort as it will be considerably slower especially if the weather isn't good.
All highly unlikely in my view , I mean I did ask if anyone had bugged out during the last "we're all going to die " pandemic and no body did but a decent thought exercise if nothing else.

If the roads are gridlocked it might be quicker on foot. There are public footpaths in many places, including across a lot of farmland. I go on some in my bike rides.
OS 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 maps show all the public footpaths etc. I did a thread on it. viewtopic.php?t=18637

[Frnc]

Isn't the elephant in the room something about what would happen if Putin made good on his threats, at least with conventional weapons, and targetted the UK? Of all the unlikely things, its the *most* unlikely, but as grenfell just wrote, its a thought experiment. The last time we were in danger at that level by another state was in WWII, and there were evacuations of hundreds of thousands of children. Only a year ago, we were seeing an even bigger wave of evacuations from Ukraine, firstly to the west of the country and then flooding out all over the world.

What implications for this thread? You'd probably be able to take one bag with you, so your clothes, and what you can wear and sew into your clothes, would be crucial. I don't have a list I can write up right now, this really *is* a thought experiment, but between my ordinary hotel bag and the work I've done in organising preps and ordinary belongings, I could throw something together pretty quickly.

I have an emergency grab bag aka bugout bag with everything I need to survive outside for about a week. Actually some of it is in bike panniers, but it will all (except the bike gear) fit in the rucksack (55 lite), which is only half full. I also have two other panniers, one with bike gear, and one with long term survival gear. I can go by bike or on foot. I can quickly ditch whatever I don't need. Eg if no need to camp, that's one pannier I don't need. If not going by bike, another pannier I don't need. It's unlikely I'd ever need the pannier with long term gear.

We should compare lists. Mine is on spreadsheets so it's tricky, I can only do screenshots.

On the spreadsheet I can sort by weight, grouped in Location (eg front left pannier) or Category (eg fire).

[Arzosah]

We should compare lists. Mine is on spreadsheets so it's tricky, I can only do screenshots.

On the spreadsheet I can sort by weight, grouped in Location (eg front left pannier) or Category (eg fire).

I have no lists for this particular issue nor spreadsheets

I'm willing to think about it though! So, what would I take, if I had a couple of hours notice of such an evacuation?
- the gold that I have. Not very much - some family wedding rings, a 21st birthday present that was a bracelet. I have much more silver and I'd wear all the wearable stuff too. I have some PMs in coin form, and I *might* try to take that, but it's about survival, isn't it. I might place their container into the back garden, inconspicuously, in case I made it home.
- water, as many half litre bottles as I could manage. I'm imagining a train stuck on sidings for 24 hours ... you couldn't manage to keep your water for yourself, you'd be forced to share, I think. Lifestraw and purification tabs.
- food. It would be a juggling act between energy and protein, plus you know your own body, eg fatty foods give me an upset stomach.
- I *would* take my external hard disc drive, because I'd be hoping that life would go back to normal. I'd want my kindle and my phone, and their chargers - the use of a phone has been really noticeable for Ukrainians, civilian and military. Financial information on a flash drive, and another flash drive of all the genealogical work I've done. Personal choice, nobody shoot me, and its only a flash drive!
- papers and ID - passport, driving licence, bus pass (has a picture), blood donation card - that might prove handy
- a couple of my single AA battery torches, with spare batteries and a charger. Ukrainian camps have a single room where its possible to charge phones, I've read.
- hygiene equipment. Toilet paper, hand gel, wipes, a few masks.
- I have a little over the shoulder bag, like a rip-off molle, which contains a first aid kit. Pick up and go.
- whatever money I've got in the house, including loose change, best not to start with the notes if possible.
- no matter what season it is, warm clothes. And cool clothes. And sunglasses. Nobody dreamt the Ukrainians would still be battling on a year later.
- I don't have particularly hi-tech clothes, frankly its an area I've skimped on. I'd take the most useable I've got.

[grenfell]

I'd be travelling with the family although luckily we are all still fit and active , there no old folks or infants in our household . Our 8 year old neice lives nearby and her guardians are not as active as us so I could see us taking her with us if it ever came to it. We have all the relevant documents ready and waiting just to pick up , camping gear is there too just not sat ready in a bag by the front door.
Frankly there are so many variables with this that I feel anything more than an outline plan is next to impossible. Take transport for instance. My first choice would be motor transport. It's faster and if you leave early enough you could miss the jams. If I use my van I could take the bikes should we find we couldn't continue in the van. Either way whether it's a car , bike or on foot a road is going to be first choice. Cross country would be the last resort as it will be considerably slower especially if the weather isn't good.
All highly unlikely in my view , I mean I did ask if anyone had bugged out during the last "we're all going to die " pandemic and no body did but a decent thought exercise if nothing else.

If the roads are gridlocked it might be quicker on foot. There are public footpaths in many places, including across a lot of farmland. I go on some in my bike rides.
OS 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 maps show all the public footpaths etc. I did a thread on it. viewtopic.php?t=18637

Might be , might not be . Walking on a tarmaced surface is certainly going to be easier even if it's chucking it down than a muddy footpath. Speed could be an important factor in escaping , it's not called running away rather than strolling away for nothing. Also one can't take it for granted the footpaths aren't going to be as crowded as the roads if huge numbers of people are fleeing. Just sort of highlights the variables we'd face in such an event.