Urban survival...

[hedgerowpete]

everyone thinks bush is easy but to me its the worst place to be, in that situation, even the time i was beated up when asleep was better than being in a hedge.

your right tho most people in one way or another are forced into the streets, where as i went willingly, and belive me i did not know i was going to meet anyone else who had done so, how long were you out for and where were you, i was south birmingham to reading and across from the M1 to bristol and into welsh borders, were you in one specific area or did you shift every so often.

also did you go to three meals a day still or two and did you become an early bird or a night walker

 

[jamesdee]

I was Birmingham based, mostly central with a fair amount of time up in the Lickey Hills towards the North of the region. I had 4 months over winter, could have gone back into 'normality' at any point, but it was not until spring came that I felt i had completed the challenge and knew that I had proved to my self that I could do it. Within a week I was re-enlisted into the Army.

Still managed to get three meals a day, you just need to be resourceful and know where to look for meals. The major thing I found was that if you looked like a tramp, you were treated like so, but if you kept on top of your appearance and acted in a nearly upper class manner, you could get away with anything. The old "My wallet has been stolen" trick worked most days, and people would lend you £10 or £20 for train fare etc with the proviso that you send it back to them . . . If you look respectable, they trust you - if you look like a tramp they won't even give you the time of day! For this purpose, I stored a suit I acquired from a charity shop in a locker at the central library. .. put it on at the start of the day, and changed back into warm old kit last thing at night.

 

[hedgerowpete]

quality trickstering, the old suit trick wonderfull.

four months is not bad going at all, its easy when you have a cop out lol.

i was in brum a few times but left to go south, must admit i enjoyed the travel as much as the standing still.

 

[tytek]

I bet both of you could tell some great stories of your time on the streets. A book on urban survival could be an idea for you both maybe?

 

[hedgerowpete]

if i was to write down even some of things i did the police would use the book as evidence lol.

your right tho some great stories, the favorite has to be sat by the fire one night having a brew when these two lads came hurtling through my camp at 90 mile an hour hotly followed by two police dogs and there handlers, who promptly stopped dead ate my dinner off the fire and ran off, so imagine two criminals, two police dogs and there handlers running across a waste land all being chased by a six foot two caveman weilding his biggest stick at the lot of them, all of which is being filmed by the over head police helicopter.

the funnest part has to be when it was all over and done with this one dog handler tried to make me back off because i wanted some dollars for the meat they pinched. i laughed and told him his dog was a waste of time against someone like me, any way to prove the point he tried the dog on a long lead at me to which the dog and me meet and the dog lost, i ended up tickling the tum of the dog he was trying to get to bite me, quality,

i was given my money and went to the chippy for tea that night

 

[Fingle]

I was homeless when I was 16, survived on a lot of mate's floors and sofas (as you do). Eventually ended up on the streets. Late summer to spring I was on my own, being the age I was I soon saw that a lot of people want to victimise and exploit you. Headed to the countryside to avoid the urban parasites & perverts, got driven back to the city as a scruffy homeless kid sticks out in tight communities. People who had let me camp on their land 9 months before, ran me off as scum and the police only wanted me to move on.

Living in the city I learned that you can get almost a decent nights sleep under laurel and holly bushes, that your bed roll is your most important possession and that you can run out of a McDonald's with a bag full of food before anyone can stop you. I eat a lot of elderberries, damsons and brambles. I would gather around £8 in lost change in a 7 day week. The wholesale market was a decent place for a few quid cash in hand work and skip diving. Another trick was to watch for the type of people who never finish their meals and swip their leftovers.


Motorway services have truck driver showers that are heaven when your really minging. Train yards are a better place to sleep than shop doors. I also found that the working girls in many cities will often stand you a cuppa and are a font of usefull violence avoiding tips, such places to totally avoid and who the local psychos are. I used to find places that seemed like they had a lot of security to overnight. Relying on my ninja skills to avoid detection while relying on the security to stay safe. However I was occasionally caught and had to leg it.


I would sleep early and rise before dawn to forage and do my admin. Then walk until the town or city came to life, cover 15 - 20 miles always looking for food and drink, money, equipment and likely hides holes. I avoided homeless people as a rule, not being on the game, ****** or on drugs meant I had little common ground.


I did get pretty good at spotting nutters, pervs and cops.


Fingle