Autumn is a rich time of year to travel the UK. There are still plenty of warm sunny days to look forward to and in recent years weather has been mild right through into December. The major bonus of surfsk8 exploration in the British Isles during the months of September to November is that surf is good, the days are still reasonably long and most of all there is a stack of free food to be found in the countryside. So if you’re up for it and have some time on your hands, now’s the time to plan some fun. Do it in a van, take your time and take it easy!
Here’s some tips for the Autumn Season…
TIP ONE…PARK-UPS
The tourist season runs to the end of September and until then car parks and council charged parking by the sea continues.
- Outside the main tourist areas wardens and police check less frequently after August bank holiday and after schools have gone back.
- On the western seaboard of southern UK, Wales is the best place for free park-ups – you’ll be very lucky to get moved on and in our book fines are unheard of.
- In the western country the seaside car parks owned by the biggest national landowner (doesn’t take much to work it out!?) are good overnight parking spots. Also the police won’t hassle you parking in the laybys of A-roads along with the lorries.
- All minor roads are maintained by District Councils who own the verges. Park-up after 5pm (better still later) and leave by 9am the next day or earlier – ok provided you keep moving.
- Overnight parking on ‘common land’ is in theory illegal but requires official intervention to move people on. That takes time but the result goes on record. Usual rule is late in, early outto avoid problems. If you’re asked to move in the night, good advice is to take the least path of resistance and move.
- For a change of scene and a bit of flatland sk8ing plus the chance of sudden friendship, the towns offer loads of opportunity. Overnight parking is rarely challenged – slip into any larger car parks, whether coucil owned or supermarket (or park on quiet roadside. The police are generally involved with more important things than moving on the odd camper.
RULES OF THUMB FOR FREE PARK-UPS
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Keep A Low Profile
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Don’t Make A Noise
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Don’t Leave Anything Behind To Show You Were There
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Get In Late And Leave Early
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Never Stay In The Same Place For More Than Two Nights
(There are exceptions for longer stays but local tolerance can change.)
A FEW SPOTS FOR SURFERS WHERE LONGER PARKING IS CURRENTLY TOLERATED
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TIP TWO…KEEPING WARM
The best and most economical method of producing heat in a camper van is to use a woodburner stove. These can be made from a variety of methods, but the quickest and simplest is a 4.5kg (or there- abouts) gas bottle as fitted in Old Red.
All camper vans have gas cookers and a lot of reliance is placed on the cooker for warmth. This is not a good idea because of the condenstion caused. A lot of older vans have a gas line and tap for a radiant free standing floor heater. These are ok but you’ll need storage capacity for larger gas bottles.
THE WOODBURNER STOVE
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Once you’ve got your stove you can get warm after a surf by burning newspaper, which will also boil a measured mug of water for hot drinks. You’ll get heat and a lot of cooking for free by collecting driftwood (carry saw and chopper in van for larger stuff). Stews and soups will taste far better cooked on the woodburner. Your van will be very warm!!
TIP THREE….WATER COLLECTION
A little basic ingenuity is required for the van life water system, just to make things more comfortable. Drinking water is, in my opinion, best kept separate from washing water and best rationed if on a park-up for some time.
If your van hasn’t got one then a Carver gas water heater or something similar is probably a good investment – good advice would be to buy a van with a gas water heater fitted because it won’t do much to the purchase proce of an old van. Having said that I heat all my hot water on the stove or woodburner but if you want the occassional hot shower you’ll need a gas heater and switch operated water pump.
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Keep drinking water in clean plastic water bottles
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Collect spring water only from locally used springs and boil to avoid any stomach problems, cool and bottle
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Don’t boil rainwater. It might kill bacteria but it can also concentrate some chemicals and the air in some places can be full of these
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Rainwater collected from Atlantic storms falling on the western Irish seaboard should be saved for drinkin, but best to boil first
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Keep a store of water (filled from mains tap) for cooking and hot drinks in a 5 gallon container
WATER COLLECTION SYSTEM
If your van has a water filling cap located on the outside than a simple tank top up system (what with the British climate an’ all) is the simple water collection system.
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You’ll be surprised how quickly this method catches water and fills your tank.
THE SHOWER
If you’ve got a landliner you’ll probably have a fully lined shower cubicle. If you’ve got a more basic camper with a cupboard you might have a small plastic basin and mixer tap head.
Attach a shower head and hose to tap outlet and pass through window. Then fix to outside. This makes an excellent basic warm/hot shower from your gas heated rain water collection
TIP FOUR….ELECTRICITY
The principal test of ingenuity is how to retain charge in your leisure battery. There are various ways of making reasonably cheap wind generators to keep the charge up so that you can run lights, sound system, TV, water pump etc.
The Alternative Technology Centre at Machynlleth, Mid Wales, is the best place to source literature and plans. Or you can install a kit under the bonnet, to best utilise engine power by charging up a rank of batteries – but it costs more than a really cheap old van!! Try Driftgate Engineering (advertised in Motorhome magazines).
I use the simplest of methods – leisure battery charged with hook-up from mains before going on a trip with a relay from the alternator to help keep power up. Then I only use the leisure battery for music, occassional lighting and the odd shower.
If you use a fridge DON’T run it on the battery when parked up
Instead DO use gas
Another Idea Is To Use An Invertor…
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An invertor will cost around £150 to convert to 240V. This allows use of TV and radio, re-charging of camcorder batteries, lampstand etc
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If using an inverter have two really good high powered batteries so that if you drain the engine battery you can put the standby on.
CANDLE MAKING
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Collect all waste wax
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Buy good quality braided wick (Guernsey Candles, Channel Islands)
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Use metal mould such as small diameter tins
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TIP FIVE….FOOD
This is a real autumn fun part ‘cos its really what Still Stoked van life is all about, doing as musch as possible for a minimum cost. A fruit and nut diet in autumn combined with pasta, rice and flour is great fun and makes the days more interesting.
I would go as far as saying that sun in late September/early October combined with small/medium clean surf – up early to give plenty of time for surf/sunbathing/food collection/cooking – is about as close to perfection as it gets. Add in some good company and you’ll be still stoked from dawn till sleep – Excellent!!
NATURE’S BOUNTY
Blackberries, Elderberries and Sloeberries
Apples (Cookers and Eaters), Crabapples
Pears, Plums and Damsons
Fish – Mackerel, Bass and Mullet
Cockles, Mussels and Seaweed
Mushrooms and Fungi
Chestnuts, Beechnuts and Hazelnuts
When collecting wild fruit which includes blackberries, sloe, crabapples, fungi, some pears and damsons, remember that picking from roadside hedges can be carried out without permission and overhanging branches from apple and plum trees can be cropped if reachable. A good source for plums in August and early September will be roadside verges. Virtually all other locations will be owned by someone.
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Collecting from hedgerows adjacent to public paths is generally accepted
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The market for certain fruits has virtually collapsed due to EU regulations, so some rural areas have vast quantities of apples which just fall off and rot
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There are lots of mushrooms and fungi to eat, a lot taste poor, but some are superb – the definitive guide is Mushrooms by Roger Phillips
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Wales is the land for magic mushrooms but you won’t find any tips on brews here
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Fungi are all addictive if strong and will affect your nervous system and state of well being and fitness
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Cockles, mussels and shellfish in general store pollutants – only collect from the purest water
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For catching inshore fish use small spinning rod and silver lure or fly rod and go out on longboard to get amongst the shoals
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For catching mackerel attach line of feathers to leash plug and paddle long board (both fishing tips for glassy conditions ONLY)
Well I hope you have found these tips useful, and if you have other travel ideas you would like to share, feel free to use our message baoard on the site at
www.stillstoked.co.uk
All words and images courtesy Donny Wright, © Still Stoked 2001