Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild (2013–…): Season 4, Episode 5 - Scotland - full transcript
I'm Ben Fogle. And over the past
few weeks I've been living
with different people
who inhabit some of the most remote
locations on Earth.
It's just so hot here.
It's unbelievable...
to lie in bed...
at night just sweating.
From the jungle islands of Laos...
to the remote Australian outback...
the mountain forests of Tennessee...
and the vast Pacific Ocean.
He's armed.
Who are the people who have the guts
to escape for ever?
I just always felt
a little bit like a slave.
You can't do this, you can't do
that. I've never liked being
told what to do.
Is it daring...
or just downright crazy?
I think anyone who says
they haven't been scared at sea
is a fool or a liar.
I want to discover the reality behind
giving up the rat race.
What's the longest you've gone
without washing? I think a month.
And that was a God-awful smell.
As I find out why people build
New Lives in the Wild.
All I understood was how to use a
mobile phone. For here - pointless.
Today, I'm venturing closer to home.
I'm in the Inner Hebrides,
off the west coast of Scotland.
I'll be living with
Nic and Ady Goddard,
who are raising their teenaged kids
on a remote weatherbeaten island.
I'll discover why this family
left behind urban life in
the south of England...
If you'll believe,
I think you can do anything.
..to grow and rear all their own food
on this exposed and barren isle.
It's dead anyway.
What?! (LAUGHS)
Why didn't you tell me?
And, despite the isolation here...
I miss having friends.
..why they've spent the last
three years building a new life...
No need for a gym out here.
..in this wild landscape.
Once you're here and you see the
terrain, that takes dogged
determination.
If the shit hits the fan, we've got
a head start on most people in the
UK. Absolutely.
I'm in the depths
of the Scottish Highlands.
This is a pretty
astonishing landscape here.
Some may call it bleak.
I'd call it beautiful, actually.
This is proper Braveheart country.
But my journey began in Worthing.
The Goddard family used to live
in this house,
in the heart of
this West Sussex town.
I'm retracing their 600 mile trip
to their new home on the Isle of Rum.
This is really a place where the
weather dominates...absolutely
everything.
As I head towards the coast,
a storm is brewing.
If it hits, the boats will refuse to
take me across to the island.
I've travelled the world,
to the farthest corners.
And this could be
my toughest one yet.
Whether I can actually reach
the island of Rum.
I've been on the road for 12 hours.
With another two hours ahead of me.
It's touch and go
whether I'm going to make it.
(LOWING)
Now, that's called
a highland cow jam.
There we go. Thank you.
It's supposed to be the weather,
not the cattle stopping me
getting to Rum.
But once I finally arrive
at the port of Elgol,
the storm's blown over.
Sunshine at last.
And I can make the last 12 miles
of my journey to the island itself.
As Rum approaches,
I'm beginning to feel nostalgic.
I've spent a lot of time
in the Scottish islands.
And they have a special place
in my heart.
This is where I took my wife
for our honeymoon.
I'm such a romantic.
There's not a soul in sight.
And, with only 40 residents dotted
across the eight mile long island,
maybe that's to be expected.
It's a lonely two mile hike inland
to the Goddard's home.
That must be them up there.
It's quite a welcoming party of...
chickens...ducks...
Don't think I'm gonna go hungry.
Is this weather specially for me?
(LAUGHTER)
You must be Ady. How are you?
Nice to meet you.
Hello. This is Scarlett.
Hello, Scarlett.
Davies. Davies. Nice to meet you.
And my wife Nic.
Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you.
Please tell me what this is about.
This makes my suntan look better
cos it's white (!)
Who's the dog, by the way? That's
Bonnie. Rounding up the geese.
Come on in.
Home, sweet home.
Come on in.
Thank you very much.
Three years ago,
The Goddards lived in a four bedroom
house in Worthing, Sussex.
Dad Ady was earning £45,000 a year as
a sales executive.
We did the mortgage,
we did the marriage and
then we did the maternity.
These are my two ducklings.
But Mum Nic didn't choose a
conventional path for her children.
Instead of sending them to a school,
she educated them at home herself.
Whilst she juggled a part-time job
and an allotment.
I came home and Nic said,
'I've got this great idea.'
And that always worries me, because
Nic doesn't have great ideas,
she has crazy ideas.
She dreamed of running
a self-sufficient farm
where the family worked together
to grow all their own food.
Ady was always
a lot more reticent than I was.
He would be the one dragging me back
down to earth with a bit of a bump.
He said, 'We can't just sell up
everything and go off and chase
a dream like that.'
So, in 2011,
she convinced Ady to quit his job
so that they could
volunteer on farms...
trading labour for room and board.
Her passion makes it happen.
If you'll believe,
I think you can do anything.
They travelled the length of
the country in a beat up caravan.
And it didn't take long for them all
to fall in love with this new
way of life.
We went and saw
the most amazing things
and the most amazing people.
In Scotland,
they landed on the Isle of Rum.
The underpopulated island had eight
acres of wilderness to rent for just
£100 a year.
If the new tenants managed the land
and built their own home.
This type of small scale
tenancy farming is known as crofting.
Nic always saw it as home, I think,
from day one.
She saw it and thought, 'This is
where we could build a life.'
And in 2012 the family
moved to the island
to become highland crofters.
Every day, I walk round it
like some sort of lord.
I feel so privileged to have it.
They've rented out their
£250,000 house in Worthing,
which gives them a small income.
For now, home is this static
caravan...which cost just £7,000.
It's a temporary fix until they
build something more permanent.
It's already a tight squeeze
for the family of four.
So I'm in the guest room.
Which does come
with its own en suite (!)
Presumably there are
no horses in there (!)
This is gonna be your toilet, Ben.
Oh, no.
In here?
All the creature comforts (!)
So, when it all gets too much
in my tent tonight,
I can er...just come
and seek refuge in here.
You won't worry about us,
cos we don't use this any more.
We've upgraded.
We've got a flushing toilet now.
You can't use it. Start from the
bottom and work your way up.
Cruel man (!)
(LAUGHS)
It may not be a palace, but tonight
I'm in for some fine dining.
Venison from the island's
herd of wild deer.
Nic and Ady butcher two deer
each year,
which supplements the meat
they rear themselves.
Wow! Thank you.
The smells that were coming out...
Is this one of the reasons
you came here in the first place?
Because you wanted, kind of, to be
closer to the food that you eat?
That was a really big deal for us.
And the pride of serving up
a dinner that...
you've grown and raised the meat
and processed it is fantastic.
Three years in and they're working
hard to realise Nic's dream of
self-sufficiency.
And potatoes. Are these
home-grown from here as well?
I'd love to say they were,
but they're not.
But would you like to -
Yeah, absolutely.
Christmas dinner was a really good
self-sufficient dinner for us.
Did you kill your own turkey?
Yeah.
Was that quite hard, when you've got
these animals around your home
and you get to know them?
No, it wasn't.
He was named Rudolph.
He was my favourite turkey.
He was the biggest.
But was that not still sad when you
had to say goodbye to him?
Yeah, I really missed him.
But when I tried to say goodbye
he tried to peck me, so...
that helped a little bit.
So, was he tasty, at least?
He was delicious.
We can always say we ate Rudolph for
Christmas dinner (!) There you go.
Amazing family.
Slightly crazy setup. You know.
In the middle of a windswept,
icy island...
here in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is bramble crumble. This is
foraged brambles from the island.
Crumble is officially
my favourite pudding ever. Yay!
I'm looking forward to learning more
about their crofting style.
How they do it as a family,
how they eke out a living in this...
tough environment.
I'm on a remote island
off the west coast of Scotland.
I'm living with the Goddard family.
Three years ago, they gave up their
comfortable town life in Sussex
to become self-sufficient crofters.
And so far, they've raised pigs...
and a menagerie of poultry.
It was a little bit damp last night.
In fact, I don't think it
stopped raining.
I heard lots and lots of bird action.
Of the geese, turkey, chicken...
guinea fowl kind.
Rum is supposed to be the...
wettest place in the British Isles.
So it's probably not paradise
for everyone (!)
Some people love rain, though.
Temperatures are just above freezing.
And it's hard to believe
it's almost summer here.
The only place to warm up is inside
their rather basic caravan.
This must be crazy in big storms.
Many's the night we've laid awake
in bed thinking,
'What on earth have we done?' The
roof's rattling, the wall's shaking.
We made a fatal error my putting it
here on top of a mountain,
basically.
The most exposed spot on Rum,
I think.
They're so remote, they aren't
connected to the mains.
But the family are very resourceful.
When they arrived, the first job was
taking care of their most basic need.
It took him a few months,
but Ady managed to plumb water
into the caravan
from a burn half a kilometre away...
..digging hundreds of metres
of piping into the rock,
all for the cost of a year's water
in their old house.
We have a feral goat around
at the moment.
Erm...he's on his last legs, really.
So we have to make sure,
if he has died,
he's not anywhere near our source
of where we get our water from.
And the supply needs to be kept
crystal clear for the family's
latest home improvement.
We said at the start of this
adventure that it was to be about
enjoyment, not endurance.
And that still holds true.
And, whilst you can strip away
a lot of modern conveniences,
and you don't miss them,
you don't look back,
there are certain things where
you think, 'You know what?
I do deserve this.'
Or, 'This makes life
so much better.'
Even in the wild, they still manage
to have all the mod cons.
It costs £90 a month for gas
canisters and petrol for
the generator,
which they ship in from the mainland.
This means they even have
a washing machine here.
Wood is free and plentiful.
And a wood burner is all you need
to heat a small caravan.
A combination of both
solar and wind turbine
give them power for a couple
of lights and some patchy internet.
An absolute must.
If we didn't have internet,
we probably wouldn't still be here.
It just gives us a little bit of
sanity in what can be quite
a wild existence.
We haven't got landline phone
up here.
So, when the weather's poor and our
friends at home are hearing dreadful
weather forecasts,
they can stay in touch online
and make sure we're still OK.
And today the forecast is warning us
to batten down the hatches.
(BUZZ OF THE WIND TURBINE)
That's a familiar sound over there.
An incoming storm could destroy
the wind turbine.
If the propeller spins too quickly,
it could burst into flames.
My first job is to stop the turbine
before the wind gets any stronger.
It goes so fast, we burnt one out
last year. Completely caught fire.
Apparently,
all I have to do is get up there
and grab the end (!)
So the idea is not to
take your head off here, Ben (!)
I'll hold the ladder.
I don't really want to lose
my face or my head. Is that OK (?)
(LAUGHS) We don't want your face
all over the croft either, Ben (!)
Once you've got the back, you've
got control. So, you have control.
Looking good. Keep your face away.
Excellent. Still looking pretty (!)
Don't worry. Some might think
it an improvement (!)
That's it. Even then, you can feel
the power, can't you?
Even when it's just
slowing down like that.
Amen. There we go.
I'm the wind controller.
You have control of the elements.
Perched on this
rather precarious ladder,
it seems incredible that Ady does
this at night in driving rain.
I had a head torch on, on my hat,
and it was so windy,
my hat blew off.
And Nic always watches me
from the caravan.
And because of that, she thought
I had fallen off the ladder.
I thought you were gonna say she
thought your head had come off (!)
I never thought of that.
That could've been it.
The head and the head torch
spiralling off.
You've seen how fast this can go.
If I got a major injury,
this could be the end of our dream.
I think I'll leave you to do that
in the future, though.
You're not doing it tonight? No.
Twice a week, supplies
are delivered from the mainland.
Ady often helps unload provisions
for the other islanders.
Today, we're carting
a heavy load of bird feed.
It's a long, two-mile trudge
back to their home.
Everything really is quite physical
here, isn't it?
You've noticed that, Ben (!)
Yeah.
Back in 2012, when they arrived on
the island with their caravan in tow,
they faced the daunting challenge
of getting it to their croft.
Along this dirt trail.
Nic and I walked this track and we
sort of convinced ourselves that
it could be done.
And it's easy to do that when you
haven't got a great big caravan
to actually measure up.
The lorry had no hope
of reaching their croft.
So they were forced to call on
the help of their new neighbours.
Their only option
was to tow it by tractor.
We came down this track here,
which is not really a track,
it's just a grass verge.
When I look at it now,
it seems so crazy.
The 32-foot long caravan wouldn't fit
along the narrow trail.
So they had to drag it cross-country.
From up there, looking down here,
you're thinking,
this is gonna be
one heck of a journey.
I imagine crossing this river was a
slight kind of heart in mouth moment.
This was everything we had
going across scaffolding planks.
If it went either way, that's it.
It would've crashed into the water
and our dream would've
finished here.
How nervewracking was it?
It was very emotional.
Not only because we felt like
we had to get it to the croft,
but it was a point of no return.
The caravan's two tiny wheels
burst with the strain.
And the bottom of their new home
was ripped out.
Even if it all fell to pieces,
we would drag whatever was here,
just to get it somewhere.
We wanted to prove to the community
that we could do it.
There was a few sceptics about
at the time.
And rightly so. Saying, 'I don't
think you'll get it up there.'
It took them another week
to haul it into place.
But finally, they'd made it.
Did it almost fast track you
into the heart of the community.
It did, absolutely. We met people
and we saw how kind people can be.
If it wasn't for the community
coming together, we never
would've done it.
Well...I'm glad we've just got
two bags of animal feed today.
We might have to get them to help us
with that if we keep on gassing (!)
Yeah, they'll be waiting for us.
They will.
The chickens are like,
'Where's our food?'
Getting a static caravan across
this sort of terrain...
up on top of a hill on an island
off the west coast of Scotland
is a pretty astonishing achievement.
It might sound simpler than it is.
But once you're here
and you see the rivers
and you see the rocks
and the terrain
they had to get it across,
that takes dogged determination.
The last three years have been
an exciting adventure
for 14-year-old Davies
and 12-year-old Scarlett...
who traded town life
for this wild playground.
How many eggs in this one?
Two again.
Though one thing has stayed the same.
They didn't go to school in Sussex,
and they don't go to school here.
They've always been educated at home
by mum Nic.
Something that wasn't
in her life plan.
I never even particularly
wanted kids.
So I certainly intended to pack 'em
off to school as soon as they
were old enough.
But when Davies didn't adjust
to being at nursery,
away from his mum,
Nic gave up work to start
educating him herself.
For me, it was
a fantastic adventure.
And the opportunity to go back
and explore the world anew
through the eyes of a child.
Back in Worthing,
Nic had the resources of a big town
to occupy and educate her children.
But I wonder about
the remoteness here.
And the impact this has.
It could look as though we've run
away and cut ourselves off
from the real world.
It's like you're trying to protect
your kids, wrap them up
in cotton wool.
The reality couldn't be further
from the truth, actually.
I think our kids are exposed to
far more of reality here.
But it's a genuine reality.
It's not a manufactured one.
It's not consumer driven or run
by the TV. It's actually real life.
Here's the treat.
OK?
But, in order to get the treat...
go through the hoop.
Go through the hoop.
Through the hoop. Through the hoop.
(LAUGHTER)
Quick, Bonnie. Hoop.
Oh, my goodness!
It seems like an idyllic life
for two young nature lovers.
Sit down. But I'm keen to learn more
about their unique education.
Does it work like
a timetabled school?
Do you have to be there
at 9:30 in the morning?
No. It's a very laid back
kind of process.
There is actually
two different types of things.
Home educating and home school.
Home school is basically just being
taught at home like at school.
And then there's home educating,
what is...
Basically, we ask what a lion eats
and we get taught what a lion eats.
So, you wake up in the morning
and you might wonder...
where rain comes from,
so you ask about that.
Or you wake up in the morning, 'I
want to learn how to read a book.'
Then we spend the next week
learning how to read a book.
No classes, no paperwork,
no nothing.
When you finish here,
would you like to go to university?
Have you thought about that?
I don't want to go to university.
Why not?
I just don't think it's something
that I'm gonna want to do.
I can learn stuff by myself. I don't
need to be taught it by a teacher.
(LAUGHS) But what happens if...
You love animals.
What happens if you decided
you wanted to be a vet, for example?
Actually, I would never
want to be a vet because...
the thing about vets is,
they get the saddest life.
Because, if you love animals,
you want to be with ones
that are living.
So, vets, usually the decision is
to put them down.
You're right. Vets do have to
put animals down.
But they also see happy times
when people are -
There's pros and cons to everything.
Course.
What do you think you'd like to be?
I would maybe like to be a breeder,
so breed animals.
So, you're basically saying you would
like to be a crofter. Basically.
I would love to inherit the
croft here. What about you, Davies?
Would you like to be a farmer?
I've always loved travelling.
I'd love to travel the world.
And maybe after I've seen
what I wanted to see,
maybe I will settle down
and do a croft or farm.
Who knows how to do a bowline?
In the spirit of home education,
I'm attempting to pass on
some of the skills
I've picked up along the way.
Here's the rabbit...
sticks its head up...
looks around...
pecks you on the nose...
How can a rabbit peck?
I'm not sure that teaching
is my natural...vocation in life.
..back of the tree...
I think there's quite a lot
to be said for home schooling.
I've never done it with my own.
It fills me with fear.
You know. Unless I've got...
my internet open and er...
a pile of encyclopaedias,
I don't think I could answer with
confidence all the questions my
children are already asking.
And my kids are, you know...
just three and five.
When I'm back at home,
I don't spend...
a 24 hour block constantly, like,
in eye contact.
It might be nice for one day.
But I think we'd all go
slightly stir crazy.
Harder.
Harder!
OK. That's hurt my fingers.
Ady keeps two breeding pigs.
Tom and Barbara.
Their piglets, when fully grown,
will be meat for the family.
In the meantime, tending to all these
creatures is a mucky business.
Here's some fresh poo. We're really
looking for things like tapeworm.
To make sure there's nothing in
there. But that looks good.
That looks fine.
I'm happy with that.
I certainly spend a good
hour and a half to two hours
a day with the pigs.
It's great to build up
a relationship with them.
He does like his tummy tickled.
Eh? Is that nice?
It's just human contact with them.
To show that, you know,
we respect them.
Cos he is a powerful fella
and he could do damage.
Eh, fella? Eh?
But it's not the pigs
I need to watch out for.
On this remote island,
nasty things lay in wait.
Ticks lurk in the long grass
and are impossible to avoid.
They tend to go for the warmest
areas, which is the most
personal areas.
Have you pulled ticks off yourself?
I have one here.
Do you want to see my wound?
There we go. There we go.
It's just there, Ben.
That's your belly button.
No, below that, below that!
It's not that big.
That will heal up because
we got it off pretty early.
These parasites
can carry Lyme Disease,
which attacks the nervous system.
The last thing we wanna do is get
sick and have to be carted
off the island.
The nearest hospital is
12 miles away - on the mainland.
So it's good to know
how to get these things off...
if you're bitten.
And, fortunately for Bonnie,
Ady has become
something of an expert.
They just pull off
at a certain size. Good girl.
That's unfortunately
full of her blood.
They're pinhead size
to start off with.
And they grow to this size in
sort of...probably 24 hours,
the way they feed.
And how many of these
are you taking off her?
Well, this time of year,
we're probably taking...
10, 12 a day?
Really?
Yeah. It's horrendous.
So if I was to squeeze that,
it's just full of her blood.
Go on.
OK. Here we go, then.
See? Just pure blood. I don't think
that tick's going to er...
attack anyone else, is he?
No, he's not.
I'm on Rum, a tiny island
in the Scottish Hebrides.
I've been living with
Nic and Ady Goddard,
who moved their family here
to become highland crofters.
Well...it's another day on Rum.
I can't hear any rain.
That's a good sign for the day ahead.
(COCK CROWS)
Come on.
Ady's already up.
The first job every morning
is getting breakfast.
Come on!
Come on!
For chickens...geese...
ducks...turkeys...oh...
and guinea fowl.
Go on!
It's obvious Ady takes great care
of his extended family.
We don't want them to become pets,
because obviously we need
to live off these guys. But...
You can't help it because you feed
them and look after them every day.
The birds keep the family in eggs...
and give them some meat.
Any spare eggs are sold
to the other islanders,
which just about covers the cost
of the bird feed.
You...are pushing your luck.
Ain't you?
Christmas dinner (!)
(LAUGHS)
His beloved birds have a free range
life on the croft's eight acres.
We're very fortunate. Cos we're
an island, there's no foxes.
But there's other predators that
can come and take these animals.
This is my pet one.
He will walk around with me all day.
Won't you? Yeah.
But their flock of chickens
is too boy heavy.
These frisky cockerels
are pestering the laying hens.
So they're the first choice
for the family's table.
OK. Dinner.
OK. Here we go.
This is not a good part of the job.
That's it. Done.
Just a quick flick of the wrist
and the neck's broken.
I'm impressed, Ady.
Yeah. Simple as that.
Quite swift. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a sort of knack.
As a young man, before he built
a successful career in sales,
Ady worked in intensive farming.
I used to work in a slaughterhouse.
Did you?
But it was just turkeys.
But mass-produced. So...
It was a production line. It's
a completely different feel here,
out in a field, than doing it in
a big factory environment.
You kind of saw in some ways,
the dark side of mass animal
consumption. Yeah.
It was just a job and you never
put any thought into it.
And now, you sort of think,
'It's one of our birds gone.'
And this is completely ours from...
from egg to table.
But this wild island
is a tough place.
Even for a well cared for chicken.
It's a skinny thing, this one.
Yeah. Not much... No.
Well, it's just come out of
the winter, really.
Having left the grizzly job of
killing to the expert,
it's time to get my hands dirty.
Don't be gentle with it.
It's er...it's dead anyway.
What?!
(LAUGHS)
Why didn't you tell me (?)
Round... Yeah.
And then it's just a matter of um...
pulling all this out now.
So, hand in.
That'll be nice and warm. It is.
It's always a bit like a...
a horror movie, really. (LAUGHS)
It's not the most pleasant of things,
is it?
There's the gizzard.
Ady's keen to prove his free range
method is best for the bird.
What you've gotta do is open it up
like a purse.
That'll do. So you can open up that.
And there's all the grass...
it's been eating.
You can see that this is free range.
There's nothing in there apart from
what you'd normally find in a field.
But my lesson isn't over yet.
He's even proud the fresh air gives
his birds a healthy pair
of lungs too.
That's exactly what I'd wanna see.
Mm-hm. That looks very nice.
OK? Right.
We don't even have to tidy up here.
No, that's it. That'll get cleared.
I saw a huge amount of respect there.
He was stroking that bird before
he...dispatched it.
Even I can see...this is a hard place
to keep free range birds.
It's expensive to bring them
onto the island,
to feed them.
You saw that chicken there. There was
barely anything on it, really.
I think the...the reality
of keeping those...
giving them enough food...
to eat them,
I'm not sure the economics really...
work out properly.
Especially in this environment, where
the chicken's probably losing half
its bodyweight fighting the cold.
That's a tough place to have
free range chickens.
It ain't just tough for the chickens.
When the family arrived here
three years ago, their croft
was nothing but eight acres
of barren land.
Without a background in farming,
Nic found the prospect
of fulfilling her dream to grow
all her own food intimidating.
It's hugely daunting.
It's really, really hard.
It literally was a bare field.
She did have some skills from back
home and started to make
a vegetable plot.
It's pretty much exactly the size
our allotment was down in Sussex.
And we thought
if that could feed a family of four,
then we know that that'll work.
But the earth here is heavy clay.
So they've had to buy in compost.
Not cheap to ship to an island.
You have to be really realistic
about how much time and effort
and soil improvement and money
you're going to put into something
in order to make it
grow for you here.
I'm impressed Nic isn't letting
these challenges overwhelm her.
I still keep my nails
quite manicured.
I guess there's always a little bit
of you that you're never gonna lose,
no matter where you live
or what you do.
Another huge obstacle on their road
to self-sufficiency
is the unrelenting weather.
Oh dear.
I know.
The remnants of a poly tunnel.
I've seen happier poly tunnels
in my time. Isn't it sad?
Their poly tunnel,
a makeshift greenhouse,
was destroyed last winter
by a series of storms.
It was absolutely devastating.
Presumably,
you're gonna try and repair this.
Absolutely.
But like everything here, it's
on order. It hasn't got here yet.
Ferries get cancelled. Things just
take so much longer living here.
I might just step through the wall.
Yes, do come on in.
This warm, protected shelter was
the only place their crops thrive
in this inhospitable climate.
Poignantly, this was...
the only thing that I had
in the ground.
Strawberries?
Strawberries. Look at them.
Yum! Doesn't it just show you
how productive it was? Yeah.
The poly tunnel provided food
for the family and a bit
extra to sell on.
Would you say we as a nation
encourage...this sort of lifestyle?
No, not at all.
We've moved so far away
from our roots...
of growing our own food
and rearing our own animals
and putting it
on the plate ourselves
that people think
you're crazy, honestly.
Do you think more people...
should try this lifestyle?
I think that more people have to
try this lifestyle.
I really don't know how sustainable
our current economy is.
I don't know how much longer we can
continue going out to work
in jobs we hate
to pay people to provide
our basic needs for us.
We need to get way back more in
touch with those things ourselves.
In a way, is there a sort of slight
smug satisfaction that you've
already done it?
You're ahead of us. We'll all
come running for these hills.
If the shit hits the fan, we've got
a head start on most people
in the UK. Absolutely.
It may be a head start, but Nic and
Ady still have to buy in more than
half of their food.
They've had to look for work to pay
for the stuff they don't grow.
Two miles from their home
is the only village on Rum...
..where the other islanders live.
The heart of the community
is a tiny shop...
also the post office, where Nic
takes a few shifts a week.
There we go. Thanks very much.
Since I've been here,
I don't think I've seen Nic stop.
You don't have that downtime
like I used to have when
I lived in a house.
There isn't that kind of...you do
all of your stuff during the day
and it gets to five o'clock and you
eat your dinner, sit down and that's
the end of your evening.
There's very little sitting down
in a caravan.
Ady is just as busy.
And a hostel
for the island's visitors
gives him the chance to earn
much-needed cash.
He's a cleaner here twice a week
and earns minimum wage.
I used to drive a nice company car,
go to the next business meeting,
making sure that
my tie was straight.
And now I'm making sure that
I've got good gloves on.
Ady had been
climbing the corporate ladder,
working long hours, before
he moved his family to the island.
I do think people put a lot of
emphasis on high-paid jobs.
It's something they do because...
they want something -
they want a nice telly, a nice car.
It's a rollercoaster
of luxury products.
And we've taken that all away.
It's all gone for us now.
Between them, Nic and Ady
now earn just £5,000.
This is something that
I never would dream of doing.
But it's something that has to be
done for us to survive on
this island.
So I'm prepared to sacrifice
that glamour for this lifestyle.
To be with my children and my wife
more times than I would've done
any other times when I was working.
For the last three years, the whole
family have lived in this
cramped caravan.
It was meant to be a temporary fix,
until they built something permanent.
And more suitable for the climate.
The caravan won't stand
another winter.
And plans are underway
for their new home.
OK. Ta-da!
This is a cob oven.
We cook pizzas in it just now.
But the material it's made of, we're
gonna make our house out of it.
Earth, mud?
Yeah. It's what we're walking on
combined with a bit of straw
and a bit of sand.
This has withstood a winter...
and fared better than
the caravan has.
This must be pretty cheap compared to
traditional building materials.
A bit of blood, sweat and tears
and that's it.
OK. You coming, Bonnie?
In fact, Nic reckons that they can
have a three bedroom home here
for just £10,000.
And, once rendered with limewash,
it should be thoroughly waterproof.
They've been hand digging
for six months.
And this is as far as they've got.
Well...hard at work.
No refreshments? What's going on (?)
My first thing is,
it looks...on a bit of a gradient?
Yeah. We're gonna have to
level that out, definitely.
Even when it is levelled,
and easier to walk on,
I'm not convinced they've picked
the best location.
We're at the bottom of a hill. I can
see the water draining down here.
Will you not get a huge amount
of run-off? No. This drainage ditch
is doing a cracking job already.
So the drainage will be sorted
and it'll all end up down
in the river there.
Your caravan's not really gonna last
another winter.
So you've basically got less than
a year now to turn this...
this mudpit on a slope...
Yep.
..into...an extraordinary home.
So, Ben. Stop talking.
Get a shovel and start digging.
She's a hard taskmaster, isn't she?
With 32 square feet to level,
I'm really gonna earn my keep here.
We can't get demoralised
by thinking, 'All this mud.'
'Is it ever gonna happen?'
Because, even on the mainland,
when they build houses, they don't
look pretty when they start off.
No need for a gym out here.
Yeah.
Your home in Worthing.
Psychologically, is that an escape?
Not at all. Do you know what?
We could never live there now.
We've come so, so far from that.
It would just...
We're different people. I can't even
envisage myself back in that space.
You just couldn't go back to that
sort of urban lifestyle,
if you like.
We need this open space
and these beautiful views.
They brought that caravan.
One big storm, I'd be worried that
that thing would be ripped apart.
They've got to build this house.
And it's a cob house. It's not
straightforward, building it.
They could've bought a flatpacked
house from the mainland somewhere.
But...they've given themselves...
less than 12 months now...
..to...to move homes.
If you come here and...you understand
what it is to live somewhere
like this, you become hooked.
You...you become tied to it.
You can't give this up.
It's like a drug.
You become obsessed
with these mountains,
with the noises, with the fresh air,
with the mud on your boots
and in your fingernails.
I'm glad that I can now say that
I was part of er...your house.
Not literally, Ben.
We won't leave you here (!)
Over the last few days, I've been
living on a tiny island
in the Hebrides.
For my last morning,
I'm on the hunt for breakfast.
Follow the turkey road.
Have you got one? I have.
It's a turkey egg.
Definitely not a chicken egg.
You got some?
There are four.
She's looking at me. She's giving me
the evil... I think you need to
leave her alone. OK.
OK. So, no eggs for us here.
Where next?
I'm not the only one up and about.
Three years ago,
when they moved to Rum,
Davies was just 11
and Scarlett was nine.
But they've always been expected
to do their bit.
I've been sent to help them
with their morning chores.
But I'll have to find them first.
This is where you're hiding.
Now I understand
why there was all this squealing
and oohing and ahing inside.
Did I not hear your parents say
you're not supposed to be just
messing around with the piglets here?
You're supposed to be tidying up,
aren't you? Maybe (!) Well done.
How often do you have to redo this?
Well, usually, you do it every day.
But actually, she's pretty good
at doing it herself.
You see her bringing it in and out.
They're very clean, pigs.
We're fluffing it out to make it
like a duvet. A straw fight. Exactly.
We should have a straw fight.
A straw fight? Straw fight!
What, like that?
Aw! Yeah. Like that!
Oh, that had pig muck on it!
(LAUGHTER)
How many piglets are there?
Six.
Do you remember when they were born?
Yeah, I was here. Was it special?
Yeah, it was pretty good.
The weather was very rainy.
It leaked here.
And over there,
when they were being born.
But that didn't stop you.
You were still out here. Yeah.
It was amazing.
Are you ever in your caravan,
tucked up in bed,
listening to the wind,
worrying about your piglets?
Have you ever been tempted
to bring the pig inside?
Yes. Very much so.
Have you done it?
No. Why not?
I'm not allowed to.
Bonnie would hate it.
Bonnie would hate it or your mum and
dad would hate it?
Both. What's the best thing
about living on Rum?
Erm...probably having all this
freedom and getting to play with
animals like this.
Anything you miss, though,
from your previous life?
Erm...previous life.
Er...I miss having friends.
That's quite a big thing,
not having friends here.
Yeah. I still speak to them on the
internet when we've got the power.
So I'm still in contact.
And we occasionally go off
and visit them, so...
Has anyone come here to visit you?
Yeah, lots of times.
Do they like it?
Yeah, they love it.
Lots of our friends
are very jealous.
Scarlett, is that one of the harder
things for you being here,
not having friends around?
Er, yeah. But I'd rather have
animals than my friends around.
Cos I do get to see them often.
Just not as often as we used to.
Can you imagine leaving here now?
Erm...no. I can't.
What about you, Davies? Can you
imagine going back to your old life?
No. I couldn't do that now.
As a parent, you want you kids
to want to muck around...
with piglets all day,
getting mucky and coming home...
having played with the chickens.
The reality is that kids,
as they grow up, need more.
I think the huge
missing ingredient...
is friends.
And the fact that both of them
admitted that that's what
they miss...
that's a big deprivation...
to have when you're here.
For two kids at the start
of their teenage years,
the limits of a remote island
seem to loom on the horizon.
But for now, Nic is determined
to make life work here.
Definitely had to toughen up.
Every single morning,
you wake up and you see this view.
And if you have a moment where you
think, 'What the hell are we doing?'
you open those curtains and you go,
'Yeah. That's what we're doing.'
In spite of the hardships,
Nic always seems to put
a positive spin on things.
It's hard to believe the challenges
don't even get the better of her.
You are in this for the long term.
Yeah, absolutely.
I say that. You never know
what's gonna happen next year.
And we've got two teenage kids
who might at some future point
decide this isn't for them,
and we're always gonna follow them.
I'm also realistic about the fact
that we're away from my family.
I've got parents who are aging.
They're right down the country.
And I don't know
what'll happen as they age.
Do you miss your parents?
I miss my parents every day. I do.
It's the hardest, hardest part
of being here.
I can put up with all of the
challenges that Rum chucks at me.
But not being able to have a hug
from my mum or dad is really tough.
It strikes me,
chatting to Scarlett and Davies,
that the one thing they're really
missing is friends. Yeah, absolutely.
Erm...and that is just
the way it goes.
But there are... There's always
gonna be bits of your life
that are tough.
We have regular friends and family
come and stay with us.
And they've made friends with
the adults here.
But also, there are kids
in the wider community.
Not necessarily here on Rum,
but certainly
on the mainland
or on the other small islands.
All you can do when you're a parent
is equip your kids for life.
And that's totally what we're doing.
You have to have kids
who will love rain. Yes.
Before they moved to the island,
it was Ady who worried most about
building a new life here.
Where do you see yourself in...
two, three years time?
We will have more animals.
We will have a house and we will
have a real good family
lifestyle here.
But what about the kids? Would you
like them to stay on the island?
No. I'd like them to go off and...
be adventurous.
And it's important that
we do encourage that.
There's so many things out there.
And if they don't like it,
then they can always come back here.
Can you see yourself and Nic
living out your twilight years here?
I think, if we stay...
in good health,
and...and...we don't
lose the plot...
then, yeah.
Hopefully, the children take over.
Then they can look after us.
And all the guinea fowl.
And all the other things
that make lots of noises.
Turkeys and chickens and ducks.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Now it's snowing. Mental.
It's so cold!
I think Nic and Ady really complement
each other very well.
I think Nic is probably the driving
force. She comes up with the ideas.
And Ady helps...put them into place,
actually makes them happen.
(LAUGHS)
Get out.
I have great admiration for anyone
that swaps one life for another,
wherever they do it.
When you see
what this family have done,
it's pretty astonishing, really.
I've always had dreams
and aspirations to...
have a similar lifestyle to this
with my family.
But I think deep down I know that...
I'm not really cut out for
a crofting life.
Ready? Yeah.
You pick up the bits I drop.
But really,
I take my hat off to them.
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