Words From The Wild

The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything

By Lauren Eaton

It’s no secret that I’m a die-hard Douglas Adams fangirl, I even named my workshop after Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, or in this case Landiways, the workshop at the end of the garden.

I’m a self-confessed nerd, I own one or more copies of everything Adams ever wrote. The same goes for Tolkien and Pratchett. Fantasy is great fun, but I also own shelves full of very real adventures, and Mike Tomkies (a fellow Landy owner during his life) and Mike Cawthorne are two of my real-life wilderness heroes, and both share/d my passion for the Highlands.

42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything, at least according to Deep Thought, a super-computer dreamt up by Adams.

It was the age Mike Tomkies was when he first set eyes on Eilean Shona, a moment that led him to move to one of the most remote locations of the British Isles, and live there miles from the nearest people or road. It is also my 42nd birthday on 2nd October this year.

Maybe it is coincidence, or something about this age/number that my heroes also felt, but over the next 12 months I will be making considerable effort to lead a life far closer to that of Mike and, hopefully, discover some of the answers Douglas was seeking.

Having sold a property I barely visited, let alone lived in for many years, and having set up a base elsewhere with a fully kitted out workshop to ready the trucks (more on that later) that I can return to should I ever need or wish it, I am almost free to drive off into the proverbial sunset to live a remote, simple, semi-nomadic life.

This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done this of course, just like Mike’s move to the Highlands wasn’t his, but I am now in a position to make it as temporary or permanent as I wish, and I am also in a position to make it a job too.

Living out of the back of a Landy, foraging, bushcraft, solitude, and living both with and using the natural resources all around us is something I grew up doing. Those were far simpler times, there were no forums to head for advice, overlanding kit suppliers manufacturing cool stuff, or gadgets to lead the way.

We travelled as a family in a stock Series or early 90 with gear that we would scoff at today, yet we travelled both successfully and very happily for many years.

Sometimes we planned, other times we hit the road with a vague destination in mind and took the rest as it came. The latter has tugged at my heart strings ever since, which is why I do a disappearing act as often as I can. Just as Scotland has tugged at them since I first worked on Islay at the location the Land Rover name was born; a life-long love affair began that day.

Most people seek answers in crowded forums and groups but, to quote another hero of mine

“The world is not in your books and maps [or your devices, to bring the quote into this century], it’s out there.”

- Tolkien, The Hobbit.

This is very true, research is essential, as is the ability to navigate, but the most important lessons lie out there to be experienced, and this can only be done first hand. I had thought about sharing a bushcraft/ foraging tip each month, but then I realised how much stuff I couldn’t share safely via the written word and photos.

Anything edible, for example, could be mistakenly identified which could be dangerous, but, most importantly, what cannot possibly be taught at all, is the physiological and psychological benefits of 'feral' life. That simply must be experienced and felt, and it is the most important and life changing aspect of all of this.

Spend long enough away from civilisation and it is guaranteed that you will not return as the same person; you will return a better version of yourself than when you left.

Most people don’t have the ability or resources to spend months or even longer in the middle of nowhere, but many do want to experience something more than a week at a bustling campsite during the free time that they do have, which is why I will be offering this experience to small groups or individuals in future.

While we can’t be 100% self-sufficient in a 4x4, we need fuel at the very least of course, we can rely on ourselves, and the environments we travel and camp in, far more than many do. We can also use these remote experiences to better understand ourselves and the world around us, as well as improve ourselves in body, mind, and soul.

The more we learn to do ourselves, and to be with no one but ourselves (because that is something surprisingly few can do comfortably for very long), rather than rely on others, the more opportunities we give ourselves; teach a man to fish and all that.

It's rare for an overlander to not have basic mechanical skills, the same goes for recovery, navigation, and use of various gadgets and gear, but lost arts like foraging for food and other useful items are not so well known.

We all know taking some form of firepit is handy to cook on, and wood is readily available (whether it is dry or not is a different matter!), but what if you’re running short on ingredients to cook? Soap to wash your pots/ clothes/yourself? Where can you pick firelighters or a strop for your knife off a tree?

Even more importantly, how can you cool down warm beer without a fridge?

All these things are possible using common European plants, fungi, or geological features, without resorting to packing up to find a shop.

We might not be able to realistically rely on foraging and bushcraft for survival on a road trip of course, but we can use it to lengthen our stay in remote locations. We can also use it to prepare and to save money.

I take a foraged fire lighting kit with me, half my knife sharpening kit is also foraged, and my first aid kit is supplemented with a huge array of foraged and homemade salves, balms, and potions. My camp cooking kit is bursting at the seams with preserved items that can be found abundantly across the UK and Europe.

As well as obvious stuff like eating, we also need to consider the three S’s - Shitting, Showering, and Shaving. Although the latter is optional on a trip, the two former considerations often come up on groups, and there are numerous answers to these essential bodily functions that are both eco-friendly and possible in any remote location.

There is even a source of soap growing all around us, just as there is yeast to make bread on our campfires. We just need to know how to find it, and what to do with it when we have some, and that is what I will be teaching in various locations next year. Scotland will be my base, but also Wales, and even some much further flung and considerably more exotic locations too.

In the meantime, I’m cracking on with further additions to the workshop, and a lot of work on the trucks and plenty of friends have come over to visit or help. The 110 has been the focus because it will be the vehicle, I will take on an Autumn/ Winter trip.

The most recent work has been to install a Wolf roll cage and radiation hazard insulation kit. I’m not expecting WW3 while pootling around the Highlands, but the cage will reinforce the fibreglass Wolf roof and allow me to use the sides of the truck to mount gear. The RADHAZ kit will provide some much-needed insulation too. It’s going to get cold, but thankfully one of the skills I never stop working on is resilience to the cold. This is another huge benefit to wild camping and something else that I will be teaching.

I picked up the roll cage from a wellknown Landy spares seller in generally good condition. I stripped it down and resprayed it before fitting with new stainless steel bolts and nyloc nuts. I think it looks the business!

The cage fitting process is reasonably simple, but in this case, it turned out to be quite comical! A friend helped me out one evening, and we managed to do it without removing the roof. Now, it probably would have been easier to have taken the roof off, but they’re a big, heavy thing that needed at least another set of hands to lift, so we worked around this absence of help.

With the cage installed and the roof still loose, I was able to slide in the RADHAZ kit in the following day with the help of my mum. She’s the reason for my Landy obsession!

Mum fed the panels up between the sides and the tub, after I lifted the roof at one end and chocked it in place. It’s quite a simple thing to fit and makes a huge difference to the noise inside the cab and to the temperature.

Next up is to line the tub with rubber matting and install my bed. I’ve bought some old metal bed frames and will put my new plasma cutter to work to create a hinged fold out single to double that can be used as a sofa too. This will be topped off with a waterproof mattress that I made out of two very posh dog beds.

Originally bought for Celyn, who was scared of it (I wish I was joking!), I tried to coax her to lie on it with me. After trying and failing I noticed how huge and comfortable it was, so I bought another and repurposed the memory foam from my last Landy bed inside the cover, and ta-da! I had a new hard wearing, very comfortable and quite swish looking, waterproof mattress.

I need to head back to the Landy spares seller for some Wolf racking which will house my gear in the back. I want the Tithonus to remain as original as possible, but still be a functional Landy camper, so I want to use as many original features as possible, albeit in a slightly different way to their original function. I’ve picked up ammo and Peli cases to house my kit, I think they’ll look great on the racking.

Along with more fun stuff like roll cages, there has been plenty more general maintenance going on. I treated the 110 to some posh gearbox oil, the 101 to some new fuel hoses, and the Freelander to a very thorough service. I also have a new rear door, and lots of military accessories to fit on the 110. The only big jobs left now are some welding on the 110, although getting that done is proving difficult! If anyone is available, please let me know!

The workshop has moved on since its creation. It now houses another compressor, plasma cutter, more spanners (I have an obsession!), more power tools (ditto on the obsession!), and all sorts of other items I’ve picked up. I’m also going to learn to weld myself, it is the final frontier when it comes to my Landy fixing skills!

That’s all for this month folks!

Hopefully by the next issue I’ll have the 110 camper finished.

Drive safe! Lauren & Celyn x