homeless

[swkieran]

today i saw a homeless guy in the town,and it got me thinking,in those circumstances would you prefer living in the town or city,or tucked away in the woods,

[Silverback]

I suppose in the city/town you have easier access to the useful things people throw away...but i would think it would be safer to be out in the sticks tucked away from prying eyes and potential trouble. This incident immediately sprung to mind.

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/yobs_set_fire_to_tramp_1_80927

[swkieran]

jeez sapper thats bad,reinforces my personal thoughts aswell,i.e in the woods you would have privacy,shelter,food, fire and a water source if you were really lucky at least you could wash to a certain extent aswell :)

[Metal mug]

Ideally you would want to live in a wood, but be near enough to a town go scavenging for materials and food.

[jus_young]

Ideally you would want to live in a wood, but be near enough to a town go scavenging for materials and food.

Rond the back of a Tescos would be a good place

[Metal mug]

Rond the back of a Tescos would be a good placeOooo, you could get day old doughnuts.

[paul standley]

In the woods... with weekly forays into town.

[bigzee]

Ideally you would want to live in a wood, but be near enough to a town go scavenging for materials and food.
Now that's exactly what I thought. Why people sleep in doorways in big city centres getting beaten-up and p***ed on at night always beats me. There's usually a nice wood on a city edge, like Epping forest - which would be close to the posh charitable folk of Chingford, for example.

[Adam Savage]

Live on a large, overgrown roundabout. As long as you didn't have smoke during the day that people could see, you wouldn't get any bother. May have to be a little sneaky getting on and off of it though.?

[Realbark]

Live on a large, overgrown roundabout. As long as you didn't have spoke during the day that people could see, you wouldn't get any bother. May have to be a little sneaky getting on and off of it though.?

Yep - but remember to give way to the right T^

We have two blokes living under polythene tarps a mile or two from here - never bother anyone. Lost their jobs a while ago. Very sad.

Personally the sticks with visits to towns would be my choice, god forbid.

[Silverback]

I'm reminded of a book i read called ' The park is mine' about a Vietnam Veteran who lives in central park only coming out at night who eventually gets angry and shoots things. I believe it was turned into a film at some point

[Adam Savage]

1986 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091724/)

[Silverback]

1986 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091724/)

Isnt that a book by George Orwell;););)

[Metal mug]

Isnt that a book by George Orwell;););):happy-clapping: I think it's a sequel.

[Bushwhacker]

Living in the woods doesn't lend itself to procuring easy to gather food all year round, you'd be stuffed in the winter.
The coast is where it's all at. Easy to gather shellfish, seaweeds and more substantial foods like kale and also somewhere to set nets and traps for fish.
Having some woods nearby to retreat to at night would be a nice happy medium and also to find things at certain times of year as an extra in your diet (nuts, berries, fungi, mammals and birds) but other than that it's the coast all year long for me.

[Martin]

Totally agree with Bushwhacker. In fact, there's not much food in the woods during the summer months either.

The coast is a good source of food, as are hedgerows but, if we're not talking apocolypse here, field systems would be good sources of food. Let's face it, you could live very well on potatoes, cabbages, peas, carrots etc etc etc. A few wild and cultivated fruits added in for variety and your food supply is sorted. A nice woodland base for shelter would be the coup de grace.

Martin

[LandRoverMatt]

woods near town

[comanighttrain]

River Delta would be idea, fresh water supply, sea food supply

[fish]

ive been homeless on my own and with wife and baby,it isnt easy at all but town seemed a good option,there were soup kitchens ,which was always scary as all sorts would turn up,then there was the shops that would give foodstffs away at the end of the day like bakeries,the dss office is warm and you can spend allday filling out a form for some sheeple to not help,and when you get tossed out there theres the library ,always warm,and the housing office.night shelters operate in mid winter and if yer really unlucky you might get a room in a homeless hostel. if it happened again i would set up a camp in woods near the town as the woods are a bit quieter and walk into town for sorting out stuff with the unhelpful beurocratic civil servants.

[bigzee]

Living in the woods doesn't lend itself to procuring easy to gather food all year round, you'd be stuffed in the winter.
The coast is where it's all at. Easy to gather shellfish, seaweeds and more substantial foods like kale and also somewhere to set nets and traps for fish.
Having some woods nearby to retreat to at night would be a nice happy medium and also to find things at certain times of year as an extra in your diet (nuts, berries, fungi, mammals and birds) but other than that it's the coast all year long for me.
Polite suggestion then: change your name to "Beachwhacker"?

[bigzee]

Totally agree with Bushwhacker. In fact, there's not much food in the woods during the summer months either.

The coast is a good source of food, as are hedgerows but, if we're not talking apocolypse here, field systems would be good sources of food. Let's face it, you could live very well on potatoes, cabbages, peas, carrots etc etc etc. A few wild and cultivated fruits added in for variety and your food supply is sorted. A nice woodland base for shelter would be the coup de grace.

Martin
Ooh Mr. Moderator - are you recommending theft of agricultural produce as a way of life?

But seriously though, on that subject, I was doing a recce last month of some remote woods (with handy right of way through middle). On route to treesville the path took me down the side of a field of wheat, and with total disregard to the legal repercussions, I purloined some ears of wheat to munch on and equalize the calorific balance. Out of curiosity I tried a handful of half-green/half-golden grains, and Wow!!! what a flavour! Not the usual wholemeal floury mush, but a bit like fresh raw peas, and altogether a quite agreeable gobful of tucker. I highly recommend it (next summer obviously!)

[Bushwhacker]

Polite suggestion then: change your name to "Beachwhacker"?

There weren't any WWF wrestlers that went by that name though.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YGIxxbZu8dA/TTZ5YEDkcsI/AAAAAAAAACY/lZiM_3FuClg/s1600/Bushwhackers.jpg

[JonnyP]

Ooh Mr. Moderator - are you recommending theft of agricultural produce as a way of life?


I don't think he was. There cannot be many homeless people who choose to live that way of life, and if you are starving then desperate times call for desperate measures. I should imagine that even helping yourself to "waste" out of a shops bin is theft in the eyes of the law. When you are down, there are always plenty of people who want to kick you..

[Martin]

Don't worry bigzee I know you were joking but, in a theoretical way, I was suggesting just that. I believe that taking food from bins is ok as long as the council haven't collected it yet, otherwise it belongs to the council and then would be theft. However, I would sooner be eating fresh produce straight out of the ground rather than food out of some bin no matter how close to its useby date it is.

Martin

[comanighttrain]

Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6

[Urbancamper]

for me i would set up a camp in the woods and make trips to town to see what i can find...

[Jimmy69]

Was hesitant to reply to this but then I thought why not...

I've been there and worn the grubby t-shirt so thought I would share a little. I must confess that it was self inflicted as I ran away from home when I was 16/17 (I’ll not go into what I was running away from if that’s ok...). First couple of nights I stayed at friends houses but I didn't want to be a bother and so I ended up sleeping on the street. Main problems I found was I couldn’t cook any food, couldn’t wash properly and sleeping was difficult from fear of being beaten up. So I lasted about a week before I thought stuff this and decided to take off to the countryside with some money I had saved up.

I’ve been into bush craft since I was little and was taught by my father and other places – it proved very helpful. My kit list comprised of a Swiss army knife that had a 3 inch folding blade and a similar saw, a woollen blanket, some mess tins and a lighter (which ran out after the first few weeks). I used to love woods as making some shelter and lighting a fire were much easier than on the open plains which consisted of bracken and a wind that would cut through you. Most of it just by trial and error and using what worked best...looking back now I think I made life hard for myself on some things. It was the middle of the summer but as a few people have pointed out, food was fairly scarce. I mainly lived on porridge oats which I could make last quite a while and when I was passing some beaches I had some shellfish. Earthworms are quite nice cooked as long as you squeeze the earth out of the first.

All in all I lasted 3 months in the wilderness of Scotland, only seeing another soul when I passed into a populated area to pick up some more oats, rice or beans. Water was never a problem taking it from burns and springs but I did boil it occasionally. Fire was a bit of a problem – early on I made a juice can stove, however because I looked quite young not many people would sell me meths. Usually just had to make a proper fire which was probably the most frustrating thing – it took a good week of practice to be able to get one going from friction alone.

If I was in that position again I would certainly head off to the mountains again – however this time I’d make sure to take a fire steel, my honey stove and a tarp. Unfortunately, as I began to realise, alone it isn’t possible to sustain yourself indefinitely. But it is certainly much more comfortable and easier than the city/town!

Sorry, I didn’t think that this would be that long...hope I didn’t bore you too much!

[Metal mug]

Was hesitant to reply to this but then I thought why not...

I've been there and worn the grubby t-shirt so thought I would share a little. I must confess that it was self inflicted as I ran away from home when I was 16/17 (I’ll not go into what I was running away from if that’s ok...). First couple of nights I stayed at friends houses but I didn't want to be a bother and so I ended up sleeping on the street. Main problems I found was I couldn’t cook any food, couldn’t wash properly and sleeping was difficult from fear of being beaten up. So I lasted about a week before I thought stuff this and decided to take off to the countryside with some money I had saved up.

I’ve been into bush craft since I was little and was taught by my father and other places – it proved very helpful. My kit list comprised of a Swiss army knife that had a 3 inch folding blade and a similar saw, a woollen blanket, some mess tins and a lighter (which ran out after the first few weeks). I used to love woods as making some shelter and lighting a fire were much easier than on the open plains which consisted of bracken and a wind that would cut through you. Most of it just by trial and error and using what worked best...looking back now I think I made life hard for myself on some things. It was the middle of the summer but as a few people have pointed out, food was fairly scarce. I mainly lived on porridge oats which I could make last quite a while and when I was passing some beaches I had some shellfish. Earthworms are quite nice cooked as long as you squeeze the earth out of the first.

All in all I lasted 3 months in the wilderness of Scotland, only seeing another soul when I passed into a populated area to pick up some more oats, rice or beans. Water was never a problem taking it from burns and springs but I did boil it occasionally. Fire was a bit of a problem – early on I made a juice can stove, however because I looked quite young not many people would sell me meths. Usually just had to make a proper fire which was probably the most frustrating thing – it took a good week of practice to be able to get one going from friction alone.

If I was in that position again I would certainly head off to the mountains again – however this time I’d make sure to take a fire steel, my honey stove and a tarp. Unfortunately, as I began to realise, alone it isn’t possible to sustain yourself indefinitely. But it is certainly much more comfortable and easier than the city/town!

Sorry, I didn’t think that this would be that long...hope I didn’t bore you too much!Thanks for sharing your story Jimmy69. It was very interesting. And credit to you for doing so well. :)

[fish]

Was hesitant to reply to this but then I thought why not...

I've been there and worn the grubby t-shirt so thought I would share a little. I must confess that it was self inflicted as I ran away from home when I was 16/17 (I’ll not go into what I was running away from if that’s ok...). First couple of nights I stayed at friends houses but I didn't want to be a bother and so I ended up sleeping on the street. Main problems I found was I couldn’t cook any food, couldn’t wash properly and sleeping was difficult from fear of being beaten up. So I lasted about a week before I thought stuff this and decided to take off to the countryside with some money I had saved up.

I’ve been into bush craft since I was little and was taught by my father and other places – it proved very helpful. My kit list comprised of a Swiss army knife that had a 3 inch folding blade and a similar saw, a woollen blanket, some mess tins and a lighter (which ran out after the first few weeks). I used to love woods as making some shelter and lighting a fire were much easier than on the open plains which consisted of bracken and a wind that would cut through you. Most of it just by trial and error and using what worked best...looking back now I think I made life hard for myself on some things. It was the middle of the summer but as a few people have pointed out, food was fairly scarce. I mainly lived on porridge oats which I could make last quite a while and when I was passing some beaches I had some shellfish. Earthworms are quite nice cooked as long as you squeeze the earth out of the first.

All in all I lasted 3 months in the wilderness of Scotland, only seeing another soul when I passed into a populated area to pick up some more oats, rice or beans. Water was never a problem taking it from burns and springs but I did boil it occasionally. Fire was a bit of a problem – early on I made a juice can stove, however because I looked quite young not many people would sell me meths. Usually just had to make a proper fire which was probably the most frustrating thing – it took a good week of practice to be able to get one going from friction alone.

If I was in that position again I would certainly head off to the mountains again – however this time I’d make sure to take a fire steel, my honey stove and a tarp. Unfortunately, as I began to realise, alone it isn’t possible to sustain yourself indefinitely. But it is certainly much more comfortable and easier than the city/town!

Sorry, I didn’t think that this would be that long...hope I didn’t bore you too much!

theres a book in there i for one would buy!

[comanighttrain]

theres a book in there i for one would buy!

I agree... if you can remember it vividly, we'd love to hear more.

[bigzee]

Jimmy: I totally agree with the other guys here. This kind of post is far from boring to us, as most of us are into this sort of thing for fun, and to "put a bit of jam" on the bread of life. You've done it for real out of necessity, and done it well - especially considering the harsh Scottish mountain environment. I'm glad that time hasn't put you right off the idea of outdoors survival and into a lounge-lizard!

Any experiences like this shared, are like unearthed golden nuggets to us guys, as I think you've unequivocably answered the question posed in this thread.

[jus_young]

Was hesitant to reply to this but then I thought why not...

I've been there and worn the grubby t-shirt so thought I would share a little. I must confess that it was self inflicted as I ran away from home when I was 16/17 (I’ll not go into what I was running away from if that’s ok...). First couple of nights I stayed at friends houses but I didn't want to be a bother and so I ended up sleeping on the street. Main problems I found was I couldn’t cook any food, couldn’t wash properly and sleeping was difficult from fear of being beaten up. So I lasted about a week before I thought stuff this and decided to take off to the countryside with some money I had saved up.

I’ve been into bush craft since I was little and was taught by my father and other places – it proved very helpful. My kit list comprised of a Swiss army knife that had a 3 inch folding blade and a similar saw, a woollen blanket, some mess tins and a lighter (which ran out after the first few weeks). I used to love woods as making some shelter and lighting a fire were much easier than on the open plains which consisted of bracken and a wind that would cut through you. Most of it just by trial and error and using what worked best...looking back now I think I made life hard for myself on some things. It was the middle of the summer but as a few people have pointed out, food was fairly scarce. I mainly lived on porridge oats which I could make last quite a while and when I was passing some beaches I had some shellfish. Earthworms are quite nice cooked as long as you squeeze the earth out of the first.

All in all I lasted 3 months in the wilderness of Scotland, only seeing another soul when I passed into a populated area to pick up some more oats, rice or beans. Water was never a problem taking it from burns and springs but I did boil it occasionally. Fire was a bit of a problem – early on I made a juice can stove, however because I looked quite young not many people would sell me meths. Usually just had to make a proper fire which was probably the most frustrating thing – it took a good week of practice to be able to get one going from friction alone.

If I was in that position again I would certainly head off to the mountains again – however this time I’d make sure to take a fire steel, my honey stove and a tarp. Unfortunately, as I began to realise, alone it isn’t possible to sustain yourself indefinitely. But it is certainly much more comfortable and easier than the city/town!

Sorry, I didn’t think that this would be that long...hope I didn’t bore you too much!

Envious to a degree but necessity obviously took out some of the enjoyment that these days you would probably relish. Thanks for sharing this one.


Thanks for sharing your story Jimmy69. It was very interesting. And credit to you for doing so well. :)

Shocked at this post. Metal Mug with a serious comment, must have made an impression :tongue:


theres a book in there i for one would buy!



I agree... if you can remember it vividly, we'd love to hear more.

Now theres a challenge for you. I would do the same


Jimmy: I totally agree with the other guys here. This kind of post is far from boring to us, as most of us are into this sort of thing for fun, and to "put a bit of jam" on the bread of life. You've done it for real out of necessity, and done it well - especially considering the harsh Scottish mountain environment. I'm glad that time hasn't put you right off the idea of outdoors survival and into a lounge-lizard!

Any experiences like this shared, are like unearthed golden nuggets to us guys, as I think you've unequivocably answered the question posed in this thread.

Well said that man

[Adam Savage]

I'm away for a few days and I miss all this chatter. lol

[bigzee]

I'm away for a few days and I miss all this chatter. lol
That's 'cos you're off "doin' stuff" and not glued to a screen. which do you prefer?

[Adam Savage]

That's 'cos you're off "doin' stuff" and not glued to a screen. which do you prefer?

True. I would much rather be in the woods, but I do like a good debate.
I tried plugging the laptop into a mountain ash, but it just wouldn't work.

[fish]

you gould always try a 'blackberry' on 'apple' should be a few about...lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI

[Adam Savage]

Classic

[bigzee]

True. I would much rather be in the woods, but I do like a good debate.
I tried plugging the laptop into a mountain ash, but it just wouldn't work.
Try a birch in spring - there might be enough "juice".

[Adam Savage]

Try a birch in spring - there might be enough "juice".

I would, but I'd end up just drinking the stuff instead. :)

[Adam Savage]

That comment, kinda bought us back to topic. Another useful source for the homeless, but only for the first couple weeks in March. Maybe the answer would be to move around during the year. Kind of like a nomadic lifestyle.

[crackonchief]

Yes am thinking live out of town and just do foraging trips to town ...

[Jimmy69]

Thank you for your encouraging words guys - sorry its taken me so long to write on this post again. I've actually started writing some of it down and other bits keep coming back to me. I'll post some when i've done a bit more.

Turns out its actually good therapy getting it all down on paper lol! :)

[tadpole]

I’ve been homeless, spent months sleeping on friends floors before moving on to living in abandoned building or during the summer in a tent and after a while, just trying to get warm and dry was all you thought about. But that was a long time ago.
In most of the major towns and cities, every night there are vans and cars filled with groups of people, admittedly mostly from churches, that hand out hot soup and sandwiches to homeless people. Some like the one I belong to offer bedding tents and first aid treatment and re-dressing of injuries. The homeless people I see, and talk to are not the kind of people you’d expect to see homeless. Ok There is a small number of “tramps" the few habitual drunks who 30 years ago would be kept safe and warm in a mental institute, where they would be protected from society and society protected from them. Mostly now its migrant workers who have been abandoned by the gang bosses who brought them over to work, and when their income failed they were just dumped in the first major town and left to get home however they can. Families who are in shelters but are left with no money for food heating lighting and clothes. And saddest of all, there are the kids and young adults, who have no hope, young girls for whom homelessness is 100 times better than home life, and young boys who are dumped on the street when their mother gets a new boyfriend or can no longer cope.
Town or city, wood or parkland to them it matters not, they are shell-shocked by the brutality of living outside of society, where every day is a struggle just to keep going, and to walk from one handout to another is all that they can do all that can see in their future is cold and wet and pain. Even the people, who are just like them, are their enemy, for there is no honour or hope.
For those homeless there missing the one thing that we all think we have, it’s a small thing, one word that for us sitting here now would think least important, but for them, its lack is what makes their life even more hopeless, they have no choice. There is no freedom to choose. It is their lot and there is nothing they can do about it. To move they have to have help, and it has to come from outside, for with hopelessness come inertia. and that is habit forming.
In the three plus years I’ve been doing the “soup run” I’ve met two people who had the mental wherewithal to have made a choice, and they, like some on this thread, picked living in the wood land and walking every day the three or four miles into town to find food and somewhere warm and dry. The rest are stumbling from one crisis to then next, not knowing or in some cases not caring what happens next.

[cuppa joe]

Homelessness is a flippant thought, or a small wrong step away from hopelessness ..without people who care about you you're in for a hard hard time and anyone considering a homeless existence should forget any romanticism's about life as a Hobo....make no mistake Britain has restocked its compliment of predators..they are feral products of our society's indifference to consequence..... personal safety should be given an equal share when considering provision of Food and water ,shelter ,warmth .

[Ben Casey]

I think if you got a group of like minded people together in the same situatiion you could build a nice place in the woods. There was a programme on TV the other night about homeless in America and a few had built some small sort of villages. In the few times I have been down on my luck I had family to fall back on but now I feel a bit more secure I would probably find some where quiet and set myself up taking things from fields and wherever I could get it.

I think it is one of the good things bushcraft can teach how to use and recycle stuff and sort of make do and mend :)

[cuppa joe]

I’ve been homeless, spent months sleeping on friends floors before moving on to living in abandoned building or during the summer in a tent and after a while, just trying to get warm and dry was all you thought about. But that was a long time ago.
In most of the major towns and cities, every night there are vans and cars filled with groups of people, admittedly mostly from churches, that hand out hot soup and sandwiches to homeless people. Some like the one I belong to offer bedding tents and first aid treatment and re-dressing of injuries. The homeless people I see, and talk to are not the kind of people you’d expect to see homeless. Ok There is a small number of “tramps" the few habitual drunks who 30 years ago would be kept safe and warm in a mental institute, where they would be protected from society and society protected from them. Mostly now its migrant workers who have been abandoned by the gang bosses who brought them over to work, and when their income failed they were just dumped in the first major town and left to get home however they can. Families who are in shelters but are left with no money for food heating lighting and clothes. And saddest of all, there are the kids and young adults, who have no hope, young girls for whom homelessness is 100 times better than home life, and young boys who are dumped on the street when their mother gets a new boyfriend or can no longer cope.
Town or city, wood or parkland to them it matters not, they are shell-shocked by the brutality of living outside of society, where every day is a struggle just to keep going, and to walk from one handout to another is all that they can do all that can see in their future is cold and wet and pain. Even the people, who are just like them, are their enemy, for there is no honour or hope.
For those homeless there missing the one thing that we all think we have, it’s a small thing, one word that for us sitting here now would think least important, but for them, its lack is what makes their life even more hopeless, they have no choice. There is no freedom to choose. It is their lot and there is nothing they can do about it. To move they have to have help, and it has to come from outside, for with hopelessness come inertia. and that is habit forming.
In the three plus years I’ve been doing the “soup run” I’ve met two people who had the mental wherewithal to have made a choice, and they, like some on this thread, picked living in the wood land and walking every day the three or four miles into town to find food and somewhere warm and dry. The rest are stumbling from one crisis to then next, not knowing or in some cases not caring what happens next. Its a sad situation for anyone to find themselves in....I think your point on the word Choice was very accurate ...well said.

[Silverback]

....make no mistake Britain has restocked its compliment of predators..they are feral products of our society's indifference to consequence..... personal safety should be given an equal share when considering provision of Food and water ,shelter ,warmth .

Aint that the truth brother !

[Jimmy69]

I’ve been homeless, spent months sleeping on friends floors before moving on to living in abandoned building or during the summer in a tent and after a while, just trying to get warm and dry was all you thought about. But that was a long time ago.
In most of the major towns and cities, every night there are vans and cars filled with groups of people, admittedly mostly from churches, that hand out hot soup and sandwiches to homeless people. Some like the one I belong to offer bedding tents and first aid treatment and re-dressing of injuries. The homeless people I see, and talk to are not the kind of people you’d expect to see homeless. Ok There is a small number of “tramps" the few habitual drunks who 30 years ago would be kept safe and warm in a mental institute, where they would be protected from society and society protected from them. Mostly now its migrant workers who have been abandoned by the gang bosses who brought them over to work, and when their income failed they were just dumped in the first major town and left to get home however they can. Families who are in shelters but are left with no money for food heating lighting and clothes. And saddest of all, there are the kids and young adults, who have no hope, young girls for whom homelessness is 100 times better than home life, and young boys who are dumped on the street when their mother gets a new boyfriend or can no longer cope.
Town or city, wood or parkland to them it matters not, they are shell-shocked by the brutality of living outside of society, where every day is a struggle just to keep going, and to walk from one handout to another is all that they can do all that can see in their future is cold and wet and pain. Even the people, who are just like them, are their enemy, for there is no honour or hope.
For those homeless there missing the one thing that we all think we have, it’s a small thing, one word that for us sitting here now would think least important, but for them, its lack is what makes their life even more hopeless, they have no choice. There is no freedom to choose. It is their lot and there is nothing they can do about it. To move they have to have help, and it has to come from outside, for with hopelessness come inertia. and that is habit forming.
In the three plus years I’ve been doing the “soup run” I’ve met two people who had the mental wherewithal to have made a choice, and they, like some on this thread, picked living in the wood land and walking every day the three or four miles into town to find food and somewhere warm and dry. The rest are stumbling from one crisis to then next, not knowing or in some cases not caring what happens next.

Very compelling and thank you for sharing.

I have to admit that i find it difficult talking about much of my past - not something i would like to re-live every day. In my situation i choose homelessness as at the time i thought the only other choice was the end of my life. It’s hard to articulate how terrified i was sleeping those first few times literally on the street. Eventually i only got some sleep because my body decided for me. Being woken up by a stranger roughing me up was a horrific experience – i can still remember being able to heart my heartbeat in my head.

I have to confess though that i didn’t feel shocked at living outside society – once i decided to leave the populated areas and head to the country i had feelings of freedom and relief; interspersed with loneliness and guilt at leaving behind a few people i cared about. I left not caring whether i lived or died as the alternative was a definite one way route – perhaps this would end in the same way.

I can understand though why people would want to stay close to civilisation and be trapped , as you say, stumbling from one crisis to the next. I guess in the end i just didn’t want to stay around people – solitude was what i craved. Letting go of it though was much tougher than i could ever have imagined. Walking out of town i had many doubts and knew that there was a good chance i wouldn’t survive; i almost turned back several times. But part of me pushed on.

I don’t regret doing it – although i eventually realised that i couldn’t maintain myself indefinitely, it would always be an option to me to get away from the nightmares in my life. It is not my intention to romanticise it in any way, but out in the mountains i was free, however the price of freedom was cold, wet, hunger and pain – it was worth it!

After a while i also succumbed to the lethargy of wondering what’s the point of going on – but it would come and go...

[cuppa joe]

Very compelling and thank you for sharing.

I have to admit that i find it difficult talking about much of my past - not something i would like to re-live every day. In my situation i choose homelessness as at the time i thought the only other choice was the end of my life. It’s hard to articulate how terrified i was sleeping those first few times literally on the street. Eventually i only got some sleep because my body decided for me. Being woken up by a stranger roughing me up was a horrific experience – I can still remember being able to heart my heartbeat in my head.

I have to confess though that i didn’t feel shocked at living outside society – once i decided to leave the populated areas and head to the country i had feelings of freedom and relief; interspersed with loneliness and guilt at leaving behind a few people i cared about. I left not caring whether i lived or died as the alternative was a definite one way route – perhaps this would end in the same way.

I can understand though why people would want to stay close to civilisation and be trapped , as you say, stumbling from one crisis to the next. I guess in the end i just didn’t want to stay around people – solitude was what i craved. Letting go of it though was much tougher than i could ever have imagined. Walking out of town i had many doubts and knew that there was a good chance i wouldn’t survive; i almost turned back several times. But part of me pushed on.

I don’t regret doing it – although i eventually realised that i couldn’t maintain myself indefinitely, it would always be an option to me to get away from the nightmares in my life. It is not my intention to romanticise it in any way, but out in the mountains i was free, however the price of freedom was cold, wet, hunger and pain – it was worth it!

After a while i also succumbed to the lethargy of wondering what’s the point of going on – but it would come and go...

There is a lot of love on this thread ...I can feel it ....it strengthens my belief that Bushcrafters are in general sensitive beings.
You have a way with words there lad...not a bad thing to have...it can often be a form of release to put pen to paper and expel one's woe's ...I too had a series of situations occur which changed my whole outlook on life..after 19 assaults at work the last an attempt on my life my mind decided enough was enough and waived a white flag .
A year and a half later I am a changed man ...for the better I feel and my interest in all things outdoors has blossomed....onwards and upwards.

[char4chocs]

A mate of mine isnt a tramp he has a caravan, But when i joined him on his nightly scavange you would be suprised how much stuff if chucked out in cities and large towns, We went to the back of Co op where they chuck away meat,day old food, and the fresh stuff, and I have eaten this food theres nothing wrong with it (its all disposed of in polythene bags and most is still in packaging). we then went to the local industrial area and recycling centre collecting scrap metal/bikes and resaleable items, after all this I have a large amount thanks for my life and my situation. I'm lucky along with many others that people support me, help me and give me what I need. for my mate there's no one and nothing for him, to me he out of all of us is the Survivor and the king of living in the bush