New to UK Prepping - Have some experience elsewhere

[SentinelDK]

Good afternoon all,

I moved to the UK near two years back to get away from the issues in Southern Africa. I had prepped down there to a fair extent, including stores, physical fitness, joining prepper / security communities and had extensive bug out survival strategies, including locations, stores, repeated practice in the wild and routine travel and route navigation to briefly outline my previous plans back there.

I had not given it much thought since moving to the UK, till a few weeks back after the mention that the UK defense budget has been increased to put the military industrial sector on a pre war footing. That coupled with the incident and the weapons manufacturing company in Wales were two red flags, too close to one another. Not to mention the sabre ratting throughout the northern hemisphere currently.

I have now started prepping food and water stores and planning bug out options should that be on the cards. My thoughts currently are that the UK is highly populated and there are no true wild locations where you can feasibly support yourself and your family through hunting and foraging in the short to medium term without bringing attention to yourself or coming across people regularly.

This has forced me to think that "bugging in" is likely the best option as the environment here is different. The challenges with that are that you are then required to interact with people in a disaster situation. This poses its own set of considerations, ranging from security (personally focused and community focused) as well as resource sharing and understanding emergency structures in the event of something severe like a long term grid down or war time like scenario.

My largest concern is very clear, civil unrest and managing that considering population density.

Why I joined this forum is related to understanding the UK better and using that knowledge to better prepare for my family and community now that I am invested in staying here.

I thankfully do not stay in a large city and am somewhat rural by UK standards in East Anglia, but I do wish to work on establishing and / or engaging with a community of like minded individuals in the event of something severe happening that would lead to civil unrest.

I'll be reading through the forums and engaging with queries, suggestions and my own experiences of prepping, although in a very different climate, environment, political sphere and for other sorts of challenges.

I look forward to chatting to you all!

[Yorkshire Andy]

Welcome

Just so your aware the first 10 posts outside new members are moderated before posting it helps keeps the crazies and spammers out

How you enjoying the British weather we have a jo berg chap at work he's always cold

[SentinelDK]

Haha! I'm from Joburg myself, the cold is definitely something to get used to

Noted on the 10 post reviews, I totally get that. Thanks for the heads up

[Frnc]

Greetings from Manchester. Most people on this forum seem to be adamant that they would never bug out. Personally I have a bugout bag that includes a bit of lightweight camping gear. There are several reasons you might need to bug out.
1. Authorities order evacuation of your area due to radiological or chemical incident. They might tell you where to go, evacuation centre. It might just be a field. It might be too far for me to get to in one day, I don't have a car.
2. Tornado rips your roof off, fire, flood etc. You might get a hotel and insurance. There were no hotels open during Covid. Insurance are denying some parts of America now.
3. Societal breakdown, armed gangs of looters are coming. In this instance I might bug out for a couple of days until they'd gone.
4. Something very unlikely, but who knows? Expect the unexpected. War? Massive meteorite. Some sort of civil war. Terrorist incident. Dirty bomb.

[SentinelDK]

Greetings from Manchester. Most people on this forum seem to be adamant that they would never bug out. Personally I have a bugout bag that includes a bit of lightweight camping gear. There are several reasons you might need to bug out.
1. Authorities order evacuation of your area due to radiological or chemical incident. They might tell you where to go, evacuation centre. It might just be a field. It might be too far for me to get to in one day, I don't have a car.
2. Tornado rips your roof off, fire, flood etc. You might get a hotel and insurance. There were no hotels open during Covid. Insurance are denying some parts of America now.
3. Societal breakdown, armed gangs of looters are coming. In this instance I might bug out for a couple of days until they'd gone.
4. Something very unlikely, but who knows? Expect the unexpected. War? Massive meteorite. Some sort of civil war. Terrorist incident. Dirty bomb.

You do make some very good points! There's always a scenario where bugging out needs to happen. Thanks for that info too on what happened here during COVID.


I'm in the process of building a bug out bag here now with some basic essentials as well as weather related protection etc. I've begun sorting out things like important documents into one location, handy food and water etc that can also be grabbed and packed quickly if needed.

I'm really far behind on my preps as I've not started here till the last few days but it's in the works.

[Arzosah]

Welcome to the forum! That's a great first post. You're absolutely right that prepping in South Africa is really different from the crowded UK. So living in East Anglia is a good start you've made

I'd be really wary of calling what you're doing "prepping" - I'd advise you to investigate what already happens in your area. Neighbourhood Watch? Farm Watch? Bushcrafting? Angling clubs? Shooting clubs? RNLI? Volunteering at your kids' schools? RAYNET (volunteer radio for regular and emergency events)? (I won't be naughty and suggest Mountain Rescue ). "Prepping" as a word is infected with the US programmes like Doomsday Preppers.

I agree with Frnc that sometimes you have to bug out - flooding, gas leak, whatever. You might be bugging out to a hotel, and that's okay too.

The first prepping step I often recommend to people is to get their property up to spec - the best locks, fire precautions, light security of an evening, that sort of thing. And getting some planting going, presuming you have a garden - but if you don't, a windowsill container can grow herbs or whatever. Food security seems to be a coming thing, with UK crops of staples down 20% this year.

You'll do great, you sound very energetic!

[SentinelDK]

Welcome to the forum! That's a great first post. You're absolutely right that prepping in South Africa is really different from the crowded UK. So living in East Anglia is a good start you've made

I'd be really wary of calling what you're doing "prepping" - I'd advise you to investigate what already happens in your area. Neighbourhood Watch? Farm Watch? Bushcrafting? Angling clubs? Shooting clubs? RNLI? Volunteering at your kids' schools? RAYNET (volunteer radio for regular and emergency events)? (I won't be naughty and suggest Mountain Rescue ). "Prepping" as a word is infected with the US programmes like Doomsday Preppers.

I agree with Frnc that sometimes you have to bug out - flooding, gas leak, whatever. You might be bugging out to a hotel, and that's okay too.

The first prepping step I often recommend to people is to get their property up to spec - the best locks, fire precautions, light security of an evening, that sort of thing. And getting some planting going, presuming you have a garden - but if you don't, a windowsill container can grow herbs or whatever. Food security seems to be a coming thing, with UK crops of staples down 20% this year.

You'll do great, you sound very energetic!

Energetic indeed! Haha.

I'm working on covering all my bases, both for myself and for those around me too. Not in the sense that I'll be keeping prep for everyone else but to ensure that I can accommodate for communication, mutual security and general knowledge sharing when a problem arises.

It is reassuring to stay in a country where you can rely on the government and local officials when disaster strikes, where I come from, you're effectively alone so community building for preppers is a very big deal there. I mean the idea of bugging out to a hotel? Yes please

I do like the idea of fostering that sort of community here too, there's something empowering about many like minded people getting together to work towards mutual, long term safety and prosperity.

I agree with you regarding household security like locks, cameras etc. That is a standard where I'm from due to the constant risk of break ins due to the high general unemployment rate and widespread poverty.

Thanks for the note on the 20% reduction on crop yield, that's valuable info

[Frnc]

Greetings from Manchester. Most people on this forum seem to be adamant that they would never bug out. Personally I have a bugout bag that includes a bit of lightweight camping gear. There are several reasons you might need to bug out.
1. Authorities order evacuation of your area due to radiological or chemical incident. They might tell you where to go, evacuation centre. It might just be a field. It might be too far for me to get to in one day, I don't have a car.
2. Tornado rips your roof off, fire, flood etc. You might get a hotel and insurance. There were no hotels open during Covid. Insurance are denying some parts of America now.
3. Societal breakdown, armed gangs of looters are coming. In this instance I might bug out for a couple of days until they'd gone.
4. Something very unlikely, but who knows? Expect the unexpected. War? Massive meteorite. Some sort of civil war. Terrorist incident. Dirty bomb.

You do make some very good points! There's always a scenario where bugging out needs to happen. Thanks for that info too on what happened here during COVID.


I'm in the process of building a bug out bag here now with some basic essentials as well as weather related protection etc. I've begun sorting out things like important documents into one location, handy food and water etc that can also be grabbed and packed quickly if needed.

I'm really far behind on my preps as I've not started here till the last few days but it's in the works.

I managed to get my bugout bag, aka emergency grab bag, down to about 12.5 kg. This include rucksack but not bike panniers. It includes camping gear, stove, food for 3 days and 1 litre of water. Also some extra winter clothing, but not what I'd be wearing. Obviously it includes water filters. It takes a lot of work to get it this light. I was doing bacpacking when I was younger, so this is second nature. I use a spreadsheet to add up all the weights. Also I use travel scales to weigh full bags. My gear is spread over a rucksack and three bike panniers but I could do it walking if I had to. One bike pannier is for extended duration, hopefully it would never be needed. I rotate some of the gear in the summer, which I will do in the next few days.

As Arzosah says, getting your property up to scratch is priority. Also having savings and cash available.

[jennyjj01]

Hi and welcome from the suburban North West.
You make good points about the viability of going off grid in the Uk. Surely different from SA.
See this video... https://uk-preppers.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... 67#p204667

Societal breakdown is a recurring theme. And so is disruption in food and energy supplies. And water.... Water's an odd one. Incredibly reliable here and taken for granted. Anyhow. I look forward to reading your contributions
Don't be shy

[bobble]

Welcome from Merseyside!