Van Life UK: Storm Survival, Ironbridge History, and Local Encounters | Travel Vlog

[00:00:00]welcome back to the channel if you're new around here we are nick and sarah and with our two little dogs we live and travel full-time in our van when the world permits it over the last few years we've visited over 25 countries and this winter we're traveling from southern spain all the way north to the uk and beyond in last week's vlog we got some exciting upgrades done on the van and we are almost ready to head back to mainland europe but things didn't quite go as planned join us in this week's vlog as we head out on one last uk adventure and experience some horrendous weather some nightmare locals see that lady over there she's very very rude and then we're talking about smearing dog and get to our one last taste of britain all right where's the camera where's the camera hello everyone and welcome back to the channel and welcome to iron bridge just outside telford telford and today is predicted to be a very very bad storm storm eunice is about to hit the worst in decades to hit the uk apparently yeah and there's not much been going on this morning apart from lots of heavy rain but it was quite funny because last night we're a little bit worried we're parked next to the river seven which travels across large parts of the uk and it is prone to flood we got all paranoid at one o'clock in the morning you shouldn't start looking at weather forecasts and things like that at one o'clock in the morning we're just about to go to sleep are we going to wake up being blown not blown that's weird full of water nick even went out and took the torch and had a look at the river so yeah we're both back in the van for the first time in over a week or something back to full health so yeah if you've been following along you'll know that nick actually got covered right before we were supposed to be leaving the uk hence the reason we're still here and i didn't get it superheroes this one's a superhero i'm immune obviously very nice to be back on the road not so nice to know that there's a big storm forecast but it's hard to believe there is because right now it's actually sunny it's in between showers rain's really heavy then the sun comes out so we'll see how we go we're just moving the van very slightly so we're sort of parked closer to the big old furnace and the structure that's above it protecting it we're hoping that it's going to protect us as well in the storm we did have another van parked up with us last night um a big ish motorhome they've left now so we're like don't leave we don't want to be left on our own in the storm but uh yeah i'm sure it's going to be fine it says don't park next to buildings trees structures and something else which doesn't leave you that many options yeah and dizzy dizzy's barking so we better take him for a little walk he's had his dinner and he's gone back to bed actually barking from under the covers this oh he's trapped oh he's trapped how did you get yourself trapped is that's why he's barking oh you're all right come on come on he's like i'm not going out in that storm no way yes come on come on come on lazy bones so this big old furnace behind us that sarah pointed out is actually the bedlam furnace which was originally built in 1757. it's where they transformed iron ore into molten iron and they use steam power and the power of the water to generate temperatures up to 1 300 degrees celsius and it's sited on the river 7 so they can easily transport the iron to its customers all over the country and in 1781 here in this town was built the first bridge made of cast iron in the whole world which means this is where the industrial revolution started pretty much it inspired the mass use of cast iron as for structural um compounds for buildings all over the world so it's celebrated that this is the heart of the industrial revolution yeah it's quite quite that's really cool and that's kind of why we thought oh we'll stop off here and we're definitely going to go and have a look at the the iron bridge in iron bridge once this storm because i know charlie's looking forward to seeing him so we've just left dizzy in the van because there's no way he was going to get out of bed when a storm's coming and we're heading to the famous iron bridge you can always just run back to the van if the weather gets really bad it's not that much of a walk into town anyways about 10 minutes really and nick spotted a fish and chip shop so that's the real reason we're just getting caught in another rainstorm here let's hope we can make it to the bridge and the chippy and back before the storm comes [Music] look at the name of that estate agent nick tartt i am not a target you are i am not quite a few roads clothes in this area [Music] [Music] yeah so you can see the river seven is actually quite high and it's very fast moving we're just looking over at those buildings on the other side there they haven't got much leeway have they i mean i'm sure that area must flood or has flooded in the past i'd be a little bit worried if we were that side [Music] so this is the famous iron bridge and as you can see it was constructed in the year mdccclxxix who knew that meant 1781. was it 1781 1781 i'm sure yeah yeah there you go it's not massive is it but the first one built in the world in the world and inspired the industrial revolution across the whole world pretty impressive [Music] it's a really pretty little town to walk around that is one seriously fast flowing river yeah [Music] charlie come here brave boy it must be a good bridge because charlie doesn't even realize he's on one so this bridge built over 200 years ago has survived floods earthquakes but then when they happen but that's what it said on the sign but um you can still blow off it in high winds can't you so um yeah it's a really picturesque little village though just look at that scene there it's beautiful it's lovely isn't it sat in this lovely gorge and hopefully sheltered from the storm what you found there darling what you found so as it's our last week in the uk and nick hasn't had one for a while we're going in to this little micro pub to see if we can get a nail the good thing about this place is it's dog friendly [Music] so we've come to the coracle micro cub where steve the barman has given us a lovely selection of six of the finest or different ales now we're gonna get him to see if we can remember what he put down 13 one okay so the first one is twisted bubblery i see shapes and you've got sloping movie which is the local brewery that's called spectrum it's a bitter quarterback conquest is a porter on the wire which is uh in birmingham ball city rhubarb and custard sour and finally flock on the inside congratulations well done now we're not sure whether he's telling us the truth he could have just made that up but we'll go with it this is nick's absolute dream isn't it trying six different ales it's awesome oh that's nice we can't film this we'll be here for the whole vlogging we're like this every day [Music] oh [Music] um [Music] [Music] and guys if you're ever in ironbridge come and see steve this lovely little micro brewery they've got so many incredible casks and keg ales on offer next stop is of course we have to get something that was quick it's literally dripping with vinegar oh no i think it's my imagination mixing your drinks you're out of bed that's nice to see [Applause] oh yeah don't mind if i do [Music] oh yeah look at that comfort food while we wait for the storm to pass is the storm coming though because look out there blue skies again what is going on with this weather nutritional yeast [Music] hmm who thinks sarah baby fires that little dog over there i do baby fire them i can't help it dizzy's just slept through the entire storm in fact bit of an anti-climax here anti-climax because we didn't really have a storm did we it sort of didn't really happen yeah looks like we found an incredible place to hide from the storm because there was just a little bit of wind that was it yeah the weather was a lot worse when we went up the reeking yesterday which is a little hill about 15 minutes drive from here this is probably going to be a very bad idea [Music] we made it we made it and it's getting a little bit windy up here probably we made it before the rain starts but it looks like the rain's coming that way not bad for you love [Music] but the views from here are pretty impressive you can see all the way to the shropshire hills the countryside's so flat around here you can see the rain coming for miles oh my ears oh you need a hat darling i don't know whether you can see that or hear this but you can see a big front of rain coming in on that note let's get off this dumb mountain before we get absolutely soaked wreaking definitely um worth a little hike up there it's one of the most popular walks in the area because it's it's quite accessible and then you can you can climb up from two directions the way we went which is sort of a gradual incredible views from up there amazing views and also the the car park where we parked was on park for night and we were actually gonna stay there but we really needed signal we didn't have any phone signal did we or very little phone signal that's why we kind of moved earlier than planned to here at iron bridge we're gonna have a quick coffee and then we're just gonna go for a little walk down that way see what's that way and before it gets dark so this is batman bridge batman bridge i personally can't see the resemblance come on look at his ears and some wings coming out either side use your imagination yeah but anyway it's blinking freezing so i don't think we're going to stay out very long on this little walk i think we're gonna go back to the van and get the heater on so we decided to continue our walk a little bit further um yeah there's loads of museums at ironbridge so if that's your sort of thing there's so much history going on here about the industrial revolution the bridge and all sorts really and look at that we just got back for the turning on of the furnace lights [Music] good morning guys or good afternoon should we say good afternoon and guess what it's still raining it hasn't stopped raining yeah yesterday it pretty much rained all day and it's been the same so far we just didn't even leave the van hardly at all did we we went for a brief walk with the doggies twice with the umbrella we just just in the van getting on with things pretty much all day i mean we don't don't get us wrong we never get bored in the man there's always so much to do yeah on you know on the laptops getting on with work and stuff so yeah we just busied ourselves anyway so we're just um three's a magic number we don't like to stay anywhere more than three nights and we've been here for three nights but it's hard to leave because it's not even though the weather's been bad you've got a lovely little town like 10 minutes walk away they've got a lovely clean public toilet a lot of people sort of ask us about like how do we you know do our business and all that and in the uk it's been really easy just get up in the morning go for a little walk into town and then you can use a loose things like that yeah we've got a lovely river view as well so we're just gonna stay in the van and eat doing a nice black bean stir fry one of my favorites black bean surfer i won't take the black bean from yeah so just doing the stir fry and we just had a knock on the door and it was some subscribers and they just popped in to say hello which is obviously really lovely thank goodness the van is quite tidy and we're dressed enough not up to no good because literally just knock on the door you kind of can't just not answer can you sorry we're not here but yeah really nice guy and his wife carlos from portugal portuguese guy said what the hell are you doing here in this miserable weather anyway on with the stir fry my life yes please [Music] [Music] freshly cooked stir-fry yum and we've got a obviously all the vegetables and then we're using our van made seitan if you know we don't know what seitan it's kind of like a meat substitute and we make it in the van a seasoned one and it works perfectly in things like stir fries cheers everyone cheers [Music] so we've just been warned by the nice guy in the ambulance truck there that we should leave now because um it's flooding the weather is getting worse and if we don't leave now we're probably going to get stuck because it's closed off in iron bridge you can't drive that way and the other road is getting closed off so we have to leave now before this area completely floods this weather is absolutely horrendous oh my boo my boo my boo oh no oh oh soaked everywhere i did say that the van's not leaking but we have started to leak so it's time to abandon ship and head for the hills look what happens when you open the window [Music] so we got out all right we're going uphill kind of inland [Music] so we've come into shrewsbury now come here because we're actually meeting nick's folks tomorrow close by and apparently it's a nice town so we thought we'd come and try and find somewhere to park up there's a few spots by the river but we've probably got no chance but we're gonna head there now and have a look anyways and hopefully find somewhere before dark [Music] doing a bit of a tight turn around because we can't go down here because the road is closed we've found a nice little spartan park tonight but it doesn't look like we're gonna be able to go there because yeah it's just down here there's a couple in the town center boy the river but obviously the water levels of the river have come up quite a bit and oh my god check this out a little bit of lovely stuff as well toilet there [Music] this is normally a big road going all the way around there absolutely crazy did not expect this so i don't know whether the other park up which was right next to the river is going to be possible either so that's the uh second second part of the night that we've tried and that one's closed so now what look um now i'm gonna have to drive out of this little town out of shrewsbury third time lucky we've just spotted another one on park for night that's in shrewsbury so one more chance for us to stay in this town before we have a complete change of plan and go somewhere else so fingers crossed [Music] i think this car park might be all right for us the crazy thing is though it's stormier here than it was in iron bridge and nick literally just took the dogs out in a s minute split of a second i was going to say no that basically it stopped raining i was like take him now take him out let's go go start again and it's getting a bit stormy at least we're not gonna get flooded here it's flooded down there but we're safe here so he says let's hope so good all good see that lady over there she's very very rude lady just came up to us um and basically just said this is not a campsite you may think you're free spirits but i think you're cheapskates and she said she spoke to someone else and they were talking about smearing dog how rude how rude never ever has anyone said anything like that to us before in all of our years of doing this just and she was very very quite um angry and shouty type things so that she's gonna smith dog poo up the van and we're not free spirits we're anyway anyway it's so i mean we're just gonna go now obviously but um this is an empty car park stormy as hell all night it wasn't the best night it's not like we've got our camping chairs out and stuff isn't it you know so i mean kind of it's the last thing we want to do we don't want to upset the locals we don't want to upset anyone actually so we're gonna just we're just gonna go now we've gotta meet well dizzy quite likes upsetting the locals we're gonna meet nick's folks shortly anyways so um yeah we'll head off and on that note i think we're gonna end the vlog bombshell we're gonna end the vlog so we're going to walk around shrewsbury today but i think we'll probably just leave we'll probably just leave because that's made us feel a bit yucky and the weather's not great we'll we will come back and walk around shoes though because it does look like a lovely little town so there we go so please guys please subscribe to our channel if you haven't already it's easy and it's free hit the like button but hit the like button and hit that bell get notified and leave some lovely comments that would be fabulous and yeah i think this is probably kind of the last uk vlog after that woman we're out of here we don't deserve to be spoken to you like that do we never say they know who we are obviously she doesn't follow us she obviously doesn't know that we're celebrities she's a rival i'm sure she's got her own little channel maybe oh gosh right we better go before we get dog poo smeared up our van thanks for watching everyone and we'll catch you next week hopefully on our way back to france take care guys see you soon i was just doing a little test so no light small light oh no bright light small light i don't do it again so no light low light flashing light it's fun in it yeah