Slept in a Supermarket in Scotland | WINTER VANLIFE [ep 6]

This has never happened in my entire life. Soon we're going to turn into National Geographic. We're not exactly stealth but we are camping in a Tesco's car park. Well this is what we're waking up to this morning. Joined by another couple of campers, one there from yesterday and this guy who rolled in last night. It's been a good spot to stay this we've been here for a couple of days now but it's time to move on. It's Sunday morning we are heading to Oban today. We've actually just run out of water so I need to pop into King Lock 11, top up with water and then we need to get ourselves down to Oban. One of the biggest reasons we're going to Oban is because I have a charge cable which I can use at EV charge points which for some reason isn't working correctly so I need to get down to the Tesco's that's there and then phone the guy who sold me the cable and then basically plug it into the charger there and see what's going on with it. And the reason why it's Tesco's is because it's one of the only places where he's 100% sure that the cable actually works and that he can help me test it. So we're going to get ourselves to King Lock 11 first, top up the van with water and then head down there. All right, better just check my drawers aren't I? Drawers are shut which is good. Don't want them flying open. All right so our first job is to get water because we are completely out and I'm hoping that this tap works over here because back in January it was turned off which they do do through the winter. Always good when it's actually on. So this is my Victron control panel, this is where all the electric and all my levels and everything are so levels. There's fresh water completely out so that will slowly creep up but from my memory that tap has a very poor flow rate so it's going to take us a while to fill up but I'd rather do it here knowing I can do it because I've never actually topped up anywhere down in Oban so until I know where there's a fresh water tap and I can get water I'd rather feel good going down there knowing I've got a full tank and I don't have to stress about it later because one of the most stressful things in the world is driving around knowing that you've run out of water or electric and you're trying to handle all those things as well as like general life. My sister has just commented on my last YouTube video the Ben Nevis one that I put out she put fantastic achievement bro proud of you epic filming massive challenge but you made it memories to last love the video and so did the boys proud of their uncle too. Bless her that's cougar reed 26% we're getting there slowly but we are getting there. This here used to be known as the largest indoor ice climbing wall in the world at about 12 meters high with real ice and snow it had about 500 tons of ice and snow inside which is pretty insane. The building itself actually used to be a aluminium smelter house or smelter building and they built the ice climbing wall inside it it's huge it opened in 2003 and was actually formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 but then got shut in 2023 I think it was March 2023 over a rent dispute believe there are plans or rumors that it may be reopening but it doesn't look like it it looks uh looks pretty derelict all right we're showing 100% in the van so hopefully the water's going to be coming out anytime soon and we can unplug and be on our way and there we go we are full oh it took long enough literally took about 15 minutes to fill the water tank when normally it takes about five less than that so King Loch Leven is a very small village you've got so you've got the Highland getaway which is like a guest house and like tea room and stuff and then there's a little shop just around the corner you've got the old ice climbing wall there there's a hostel just down the back here where we filled up the water then you've bridge here river coming down off the mountain and if we go over the other side you should be able to see some rapids it's really cool in the summer because you can see people like with their kayaks and stuff going down here and then just down here is where Grey Mears waterfall is which we went to the other day but for now it's time to leave King Loch Leven and head down to Oban I'm not sure I mentioned this in one of my last videos either but King Loch Leven is actually somewhere where you can stay and is kind of a stopover for people who are completing the West Highland Way and the West Highland Way for those of you who don't know is one of Scotland's most famous long distance hiking routes it is a 96 meter walking route which runs from just outside Glasgow to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands people started first hiking it in the 1980s and it takes about five between five and eight days to complete and around 40 to 45,000 people complete the route each year definitely one I have on my bucket list because it takes in some of the most iconic scenery in Scotland so no doubt one day in the future we'll be taking that one on but right now to Oban Wow before anything else we need to get a ticket well I should have really recorded that I just went to the car park machine to get a ticket this has never happened in my entire life but I put my registration in and it said free time available and we've now got till three o'clock free I'm in a car park in the United Kingdom and I've just been given three hours free car parking I think the universe is in my favour anyway just pulled up in this car park let me show you the view this is where we're at this is literally our car park view it's pretty stunning so yeah it's not a bad view we are on the coast at the moment so the actual we're still we're in Oban but the actual town centre is about 10 minutes away and that's where the test goes is that we need to go to tonight to speak to the guy regarding the cable that I've got an issue with that I need to sort so what I'm thinking is we're going to stay here chill we'll do some lunch go for a little walk I think there's some stuff to see so we'll go and check that out and then this afternoon we're going to drive to Tesco's speak to the guy about the cable I'm going to pick up some brioche buns and some cheese in Tesco's as well and then tonight we can cook smash burgers because that's something I've been craving for a little while so we're going to cook those tonight and then probably end up doing it in Tesco's car park so I think for lunch I'm going to keep it really simple and I'm going to do a wrap so I think we've got some tuna leftover mixed up quite a lot yesterday so I'm going to use the tuna and beans get out use up this that I made yesterday which is tuna avocado one little teaspoon of greek yogurt and then just some salad beans in there and a little bit of lemon as well a little bit of lemon perfect stick that in the sink I'm going to deal with that later I think we might have a quick cup of tea while we're here as well so we get the kettle on I think we'll walk along this edge and then we'll head out over to those rocks over there see if we can get a better view such great views out here today it's really nice even though it's cloudy and a little windy it's actually very bright out and it's not that cold either not as cold as it was the other night in King Loch Leven so that over there in the distance is the Isle of Mull and that one there which is kind of lit up in front of us not this small rock here but the one behind that's the Isle of Lismore the mountains behind it are the Scottish that's the Scottish mainland but the Isle of Lismore is in the middle here that's about 10 to 15 kilometers away from us and this is Loch Linhy so Loch Linhy goes all the way up to Fort William and this island here Lismore sits in the middle of it and it falls under the region of Argyll and Bute but it actually makes up the part of the Some more interesting facts for you soon we're going to turn into National Geographic I know I said it wasn't cold but when the wind gets up it is actually a little fresh but we don't mind that. All right so we could stay here a bit longer but what I think we're going to do we're going to drive just up the road because there's a couple of cool spots along this road I saw which will be worth going to visit and I think there's some free parking on the side of road up there. I know there's somewhere you can't park vans but there is a free lay-by which I'm hoping we can get on so we're going to try and get up there now. I'm going to put my other hat back on as well. I wore my other hat because it's quite bright out and I don't want to have to put my contacts in to put my sunglasses on because my sunglasses aren't prescription so in order for to wear sunglasses I have to put my contacts in and that's just a hassle. All right rock and roll So I've spotted the castle it's just up here it's just there you've got ruins of it there I'm not sure how we can get to see it better whether you can get around the other side I'm sure I saw a footpath or something along the other side of the road so we're going to go around check it out and see if we can find a way to get closer. So this is around the other side not much to see really there's a little bit of a ruin on the top and then it's just on this huge kind of rock outcrop here obviously it's all grown in with the trees and everything. Okay so it's called Dun Olly there Dun Olly castle it's a castle and tea room there's a tea room I mean that's the only ruin and there's a tea room there but it's closed but Dun Olly is what it's called and I've just had a look on google as well and that's kind of the only part of it so there's no bigger part to the castle it's just that little ruin. That's all we got for castles today nothing nothing more than that this though this is nice this view but this house here though on this little island rock outcrop looks like it belongs in Canada somewhere and we've got some sheep as well running away now they've seen me. Oban is also the place where you catch the ferry to the Isle of Mull and to the Outer Hebrides which is out through that channel there that goes right out to the Outer Hebrides and that there is one of the ferries and that's definitely on the list we're going to do that certainly not within the next couple of months but we are going to get to the Outer Hebrides because that's somewhere I wanted to visit for a long time so I'm going to put some birdseed down on the side of the path so I just stuck the camera on the on the path and walked away just to see whether the birds would come up so if if it's in the video then you know it worked out. All right so it's only half two still got a bit of time to kill so we're going to head to another attraction that's popular with tourists when they come and visit Oban so I will see you when we get there and here we are this is Macraig's Tower and here it is this is Scotland's answer to a Colosseum when it was built it was actually inspired by the Colosseum in Rome it's actually really windy up here we're about 250 feet above sea level and this thing is situated on Battery Hill so this thing was built between 1897 and 1902 by banker John Stuart Macraig hence why it's called Macraig's Tower. Let's see if we can go up in the middle and do a little 360 way and I think there's a little viewpoint down here as well so we can actually get views out over the port city of Oban probably be able to see the ferry terminal as well so there's the ferry terminal down there and you've got I think that down there where that kind of chimney stack is there I think that down there is the distillery where Oban whiskey is made and you've got views right out to the Isle of Mull and then you've got the Colosseum behind me it's a cool place apparently it's really famous for uh with the locals for watching sunset up here but I don't think that's going to be the case today because it's very overcast all right so we've got one last stop to make one last attraction to visit so there were actually two reasons why Macraig wanted to build that tower number one was to leave a monument a legacy to his family and the other was to give local stonemasons jobs in the winter months for when jobs in Oban were quite scarce and this is our final location the Oban distillery apparently it's a must-see attraction when you come here so not that it's open but we can say that we've been here and we've seen it so there we go we can say we've been to the Oban distillery all right we're on the other side of the road now and you can just see the Oban distillery up there and the chimney stack behind I'm not sure what that does mind you I know nothing about the process of making whiskey but I could say I've been though and this is the harbour tides out at the moment we'll go around to this north pier around here and have a look you've got a really great view of the uh tower up there as well viewpoint's quite busy now that over there as well is the ferry ferry terminal ferry port so you get on there to go to the Outer Hebrides or Mull or wherever you're going so that's good to know but it's just gone three o'clock though I think what we're going to do is head back to the van head over to the supermarket get our stuff that we need for tonight and then I'm going to see about getting this cable issue sorted with my guy so I will catch up with you guys a bit later and we're back so spoken to my guy about the cable we are getting a result he's sending me another one up here so I get to pick that up in a couple of days should hopefully sort the issue out I want to talk to you guys about that and I want to show you that whole thing because it's pretty insane what you can do it's basically using EV chargers so electric vehicle chargers to charge your camper van which is incredible because it means places like this Tesco's where they have the pod points I can then come and I can charge my van at an EV charging point which is ridiculous because if I am running low on power which does happen because I use a lot of power every day it means I can come here and I can use one of the pod points plug my van in if it's quiet like on a Sunday afternoon and then I can charge my battery right up and the great thing about that is the fact that you get 15 minutes free and then it's like nothing it's like literally cost you like a couple of quid to charge a van up it's a win-win so I want to talk to you more about that but I'm just waiting to resolve this issue at the moment and then yeah and then we'll probably do a separate video on that so you can park here for three hours for free which we've been here nearly three hours anyway actually but then you've got like these location IDs don't know if you can see that but you get the green signs on the lamppost there then you just put that location ID in the app it's like another parking app you know because you need like 25 parking apps these days so you put that ID in the parking app and then you pay to stay overnight it's literally cost us five quid to stay here for the night which is which is awesome it's actually for 24 hours so we got until five o'clock tomorrow which is great I've come across really tired as well I think it's uh I think it's all the fresh air all the hikes from this week all the driving it's a Sunday afternoon and when I look back on what we've done this week we've done a lot we've done a lot of hiking a lot of driving a lot of everything a lot of filming it's been a good week a couple of vans that have come in now as well look we've got one there Citroen we've got another one over there I'm not sure whether that Merc over there's a van I don't think that's a camper so we might have some company tonight we're not exactly stealth but we are camping in a Tesco's car park so but I think I'm gonna try and wake myself up a bit I might make a tea and then I'm probably gonna start getting dinner ready cook some smash burgers I think we'll make a tea we'll have a chill and then we'll do dinner in like an hour or so and if this happens to be your first time watching one of my videos welcome to the channel my name is John and I live and travel full-time in my self-converted camper van and have done for the past couple of years so if you're interested in van life and the outdoors hiking adventure and all that stuff could maybe consider subscribing it really does help out the channel and if you could drop this video a like while you're down there I would really really appreciate it but with that said I'm gonna kick back have my tea and chill out for a little while drinking peppermint tea at the moment it's really good for you it's hot though let's put a bit more cold on that well that one hour quickly became two I'm still so tired we're in the process of cooking burgers so we got the brioche rolls we bought in Tesco's we've got some mature cheddar cheese slices just because it's quick and easy and then the burgers are being cooked in the air fryer so we've got 200 grams of minced beef that's five percent grass-fed ground beef and we've got yeah 200 grams over four burgers so 50 grams of burger and we got it on 180 for 10 minutes in the air fryer yeah we're gonna double stack them we're gonna do cheese and we're gonna make some good burgers quick and easy tonight because um I say I just can't be bothered I'm quite tired so well I think that's where I'm gonna leave you guys for tonight I'm gonna plate these burgers up get washed up and then just chill and then I'm probably going to go to bed early to be honest with you so I will catch up with you guys in the morning and leave you with a little nighttime montage good morning and you join me this morning the Tesco's car park so there was actually a funfair down the road last night just behind the Tesco's and I thought it was going to keep me up last night but it was actually pretty quiet it all shut down after about seven o'clock and then the rest of the car park was silent there was no noise at all there was no traffic noise or anything so I got a really good night's sleep last night which I was really grateful for because I was feeling it last night I think it's all the hiking and stuff we've done this week but this morning I've just been catching up on a bit of client work and getting myself up together with a few business things so I think this is where I'm going to leave you guys make sure you join me next time because I'm going to be revealing where we're going on our big Scotland road trip and all of the things that you've got to look forward to so if you aren't already maybe consider subscribing it really does help out the channel and drop this video a like while you're down there as always I really really really do appreciate you guys watching my videos it does mean a lot to me and I will see you guys in the next one