Four: Location
The location that you intend to live post doomsday event is very important and should be researched at some depth. We have already considered the importance of shelter and having something appropriate prepared. But now the question arises where should that shelter be located?
Firstly, it needs to be in a rural location. This is essential. It needs to be as far away from the mob as possible. However, it also needs to be easy to get to in a hurry. It should take you no more than an hour to reach via motorised transport. Ideally, it should be closer to fifteen minutes away. Remember in the event of a doomsday event occurring or the possibility of one being reported on the media the roads will become chaos. Your car needs to be ready to go to your location straight away. You need to know at least five different routes that you can take to reach your location as quickly as possible. Remember! Preparation saves lives!
An ideal location will offer your shelter some degree of invisibility. For example, a wood would offer an excellent location to drive a mobile home into. The trees would offer primary cover and then if you spent a little time on basic additional camouflage your shelter would almost be invisible unless someone virtually walked into it.
Your planned shelter may already be there, you either own it or you can purchase it. It might be a countryside cottage, a rundown barn or a hunting shack. However, just because you own it, have access to it or it meets the requirements of having sufficient storage space it doesn’t mean it is in the right location.
After a rural position your next requirement is proximity to water. You need a clean, fresh, natural supply of water. Essentially this means a river, stream or spring. However, never make the mistake of choosing a location on a flood plain, this is just suicide waiting to happen. The ideal water source is a spring. Fresh water gushing out from the earth, what could be better? Take some time to educate yourself about your local springs. Is one close to you? Is this a potential location for you to survive in? The next preferable source of water is a stream, ideally in the hills. The higher up a stream the better, the water tends to be faster flowing which means that any impurities are washed away quicker and there is little chance of the water stagnating. A location in the hills is far better than one on low ground. Think back to medieval times, the castle was always placed next to the water on the hill. Why? It was easier to defend and it gave its inhabitants a fantastic line of sight. If you are high up on a hill, chances are you are going to be left alone, in truth people just won’t be bothered. They will go and find an easier target.
Finally you need to consider the soil type of your location. The time will come when you need to grow food to survive. Those tins will not last forever. Unfortunately the soil in many hills tends to be thin and not that suitable for growing things. This is why hill farmers tend to concentrate on livestock, sheep in the main. So it may be the case that you have to find a secondary location close to your main location where you can in the future grow crops. Valleys below the hills are often far better places to grow and it will certainly increase your fitness by having to walk up and down hills every day.
The best way to find your ideal location to sit it all out is to get an official map, a piece of string and a drawing pin. Stick the pin on your home and then draw three circles, the first one roughly how far you can travel in 15 minutes, the second in half an hour and the third in an hour. You should begin your search for a suitable location within the 15 minute circle. If nothing suitable comes up, move to the thirty minute circle and then finally to the one hour circle. Mark down every possible location and then you need to put the leg work in. You need to go and visit those locations to determine the best one.