Walking Forum
Regions - Trip reports, destination advice, recommended routes, etc. => South West England => Topic started by: the aged plodder on 13:55:26, 04/12/18
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Newbie here with a question: where do you long distance walkers find water in towns? I'm thinking of doing the South West coast path next spring/summer. Sounds good because it's never too far from the next town or beach cafe or shop. But I don't want to buy bottled water every day - so where do I find a free supply in villages? Churches usually have a tap (and lead pipe supply lines - eek!) but where else would you trust the water?I have purifying tabs and an infra-red toy for water drawn from streams etc. in the country. I'd want to go a long way inland before I drew from a coastal stream though. I'll be backpacking and bivvying and finding hostals /B&Bs / pubs every few days.
Can I rely on those plentyfull beach cafes and shops for refills?
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Free refills should not be a problem, I have done it on occasion. Cafes and pubs are likely to give you a refill if you have bought something. There are public loos at most beaches and coastal car parks. There is the odd tap where people rinse off from the beach as well. Some of the streams running into the sea are actually quite clean, especially the ones that rise a little way inland - if you have the right gear to purify.
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As Ninthace's reply, plenty of places though I worry about chemicals from agriculture in streams (not sure how filters etc deal with that).
Lead pipes in church yards? the incoming mains pipe in my house is still lead. Cheers!
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[quote author=Jac link=topic=37630.msg533794#msg533794 date=15439382
the incoming mains pipe in my house is still lead. Cheers!
Lead water services were made illegal 50 years ago. Once informed and requested to do so the local water company must replace free of charge. Google "lead water service replacement " with the name of your local water company for better details.
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[quote author=Jac link=topic=37630.msg533794#msg533794 date=15439382
the incoming mains pipe in my house is still lead. Cheers!
Lead water services were made illegal 50 years ago. Once informed and requested to do so the local water company must replace free of charge. Google "lead water service replacement " with the name of your local water company for better details.
Thank you for the suggestion.
I googled but they only replace from the main to the boundary of the property - in my case less than a metre from my water meter. I would have to pay for new piping into the property which would mean under the front 9 steps, a sloping pathway, under the house and through to the kitchen. After over 40 years here I think I'll not worry about it.
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Unless I am high in the mountains I try to avoid streams etc. I've never had any problems with getting water from cafes, pubs, churches, farmyard taps, etc and when I'm in the middle of nowhere I also find cattle troughs are great! BUT! I always ensure that I collect my water at the point where it comes out of the ballcock, never from the trough itself. Depending on the design of the troughs some are easier to get at the water than others. I have a small plastic cup hanging from my rucksack and if necessary I use this to collect the water, then transfer it to my water bladder in the back of my rucksack. If I'm worried about the water quality I just use my Lifestraw water filter. It must work because I'm still here to tell the tale. Sometimes when I'm feeling desperate I will also knock on a random door, most people in my experience are very helpful.
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Thanks chaps. My memory must be going though - all those ideas I have used in the past but they had slipped my mind. I haven't 'begged' water before but why not? Most of the natives are friendly after all. I'm waiting for the better weather. My hips don't like sleeping out in the cold any more. And having to pee in the small hours ain't much fun in a frost.
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Unless I am high in the mountains I try to avoid streams etc. I've never had any problems with getting water from cafes, pubs, churches, farmyard taps, etc and when I'm in the middle of nowhere I also find cattle troughs are great! BUT! I always ensure that I collect my water at the point where it comes out of the ballcock, never from the trough itself. Depending on the design of the troughs some are easier to get at the water than others. I have a small plastic cup hanging from my rucksack and if necessary I use this to collect the water, then transfer it to my water bladder in the back of my rucksack. If I'm worried about the water quality I just use my Lifestraw water filter. It must work because I'm still here to tell the tale. Sometimes when I'm feeling desperate I will also knock on a random door, most people in my experience are very helpful.
Please DONT take water from cattle troughs. An awful lot of them in Cornwall and probably elsewhere are fed from rainwater harvesting tanks from buildings or untested boreholes and springs. They are not mains water in a large % of installs. I inspect farms water systems for a living and know this first hand.
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Whoops on my part! Thanks for the tip.
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Whoops on my part! Thanks for the tip.
no worries at all. The appropriate Regulations state that alternative sources of water, other than mains, should be clearly identified with permament labelling but its just not done unfortunately, you really wouldnt want to have to see what i investigate each day at work. Glad i could offer some assistance, mines quite a closed world to most.
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My mind has gone off in another direction now, a comedy TV programme has come into my head (I can't remember which one?) where the catchphrase was "I'm alive, I'm alive!" :-[
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and an infra-red toy for water
Infra-Red or Ultra-Violet? One warms the other bashes.
Please DONT take water from cattle troughs. An awful lot of them in Cornwall and probably elsewhere are fed from rainwater harvesting tanks from buildings or untested boreholes and springs. They are not mains water in a large % of installs. I inspect farms water systems for a living and know this first hand.
Some may come from shallow boreholes as well, rather than decent deep ones.
Just remember that Cornwall has the most expensive water in the country, but locals will usually help, we are not all bad.
Gas stations often have a mains pipe, and a lot of pubs have an outside tap for garden watering.
To check if if is mains water, put your thumb over the outlet and turn the tap on. If it is from a tank the water will not come out.
Mains will squirt all over the place.
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I have collected water directly from the ballcocks in troughs for YEARS quite a few times! I never really gave it a thought. Even when we were kids (there were 4 of us and grew up in the country) we would often do this to get a drink of water on a hot day. We were too poor to carry a cup, just cupped our hands together.
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Infra-Red or Ultra-Violet? One warms the other bashes.
To check if if is mains water, put your thumb over the outlet and turn the tap on. If it is from a tank the water will not come out.
Mains will squirt all over the place.
Afraid thats not correct either. All the finger over the end does is prove whether the supply is pressurised or not. mains is (generally, although it often flows by gravity) boreholes are, and most harvesting systems are as well. The tank in your house roof is pretty much the only time this check applies.
As for UV, this works to render paracites impotent and incapable of breeding, it doesnt kill them. The turbidity of the water also plays a part, as virus and paracites 'hide' behind particles in suspension and so are shielded from the UV effects.
Im a water quality scientist with 30 years experience and a qualified plumber by trade.
Dont drink out of cattle trough ballvalves, you only have to be unlucky once and dont want crypto et al
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Don't know if this is of any help with water resupply
https://refill.org.uk/get-the-refill-app/
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Dont drink out of cattle trough ballvalves, you only have to be unlucky once and dont want crypto et al
What about if you then filter this water with a system like the Sawyer? This is what I have done in the past and im worried now.
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I would be cautious, I'm certainly not going to dismiss the advice, but if I desperately needed water and I've got my filter with me I'm sure I'd still give it a go! Makes me wonder though, looking back, did I drink from some even worse locations? I'm sure I did but obviously lived to tell the tale.
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Actually in a town I would always buy water if I needed it. In a village, or a field, or on the hills, I will take water from the cleanest looking source I can see and filter it.
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Water is one thing but as a child working on farms, as children we ate loads of fruit, especially apples, all directly from the trees. These trees were always sprayed with all sorts of stuff, no Idea what it was, DDT perhaps, after all this was the 50s in particular. I've never washed an apple in my life, just a rub on my thigh (old habits die hard) to make it shine then to eat it. As an adult I will often scrump as I walk, I ate some blackberries recently, straight from the bushes on my recent South Downs walk. There were fields all around so they might have had spray on them but I've no way of knowing.What should we fear most?
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I've just checked my emails. I'd emailed a man (Chinmaya Dunster) who used to live in the house next to where we lived in the Hoppers Huts on Hancock's Farm, Cranbrook in 1960 and asked him if he remembered any of the names the farm employees at the time.
He wrote one interesting line to me today - 'Do you remember a farm worker named George Manktelow? used to do the apple spraying. Unfortunately the poison got to him and he died relatively young.'
I wonder for how many years I ate George's 'poison?'
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...............What should we fear most?
Fear itself
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Water is one thing but as a child working on farms, as children we ate loads of fruit, especially apples, all directly from the trees. These trees were always sprayed with all sorts of stuff, no Idea what it was, DDT perhaps, after all this was the 50s in particular. I've never washed an apple in my life, just a rub on my thigh (old habits die hard) to make it shine then to eat it. As an adult I will often scrump as I walk, I ate some blackberries recently, straight from the bushes on my recent South Downs walk. There were fields all around so they might have had spray on them but I've no way of knowing.What should we fear most?
I never eat low hanging blackberries. Certainly no lower than a dog can [censored] its leg ;)