Corvus

Has anyone here managed to live a life in the wilderness? I have experience living in arctic Norway and fell in love with the (semi) self-sufficient lifestyle. I've read about other people escaping the UK and setting up husky/survival businesses but it seems that a lot of savings are required which I will never attain (never got on the property ladder here in the UK) and the one story of the couple who moved from Wales with only £2000 seems like sheer luck after apparently moving to a town in Sweden and a local tip off led them to an old foresters cabin which they have for free in exchange for looking after the forest.

So what I'm asking is, is this possible? A local tip off that could lead to a cabin you can convert for little or no money, sounds unlikely, or would I be buying land and be allowed to build on it? I know buying land here in the UK would not allow building, is Scandinavia different? I could save a a few thousand pounds or work a few more years to put together a little and of course learn the local language. However I can't do that until I know if I'm looking at Norway, Iceland, Finland or Sweden...... Ideally I would like to be living a sustenance lifestyle, but if I could commute I am educated to PhD level and could work in research/University to earn money to build and live until I was able to become more independent and make enough money from a small husky team or trade.

Opinions and experience much appreciated!

Gordon Barlow

In short - yes, it's possible, but you'd have to be extremely lucky. If you do find a place, it's not going to happen overnight. My son has just bought a piece of land in a forest in Norway with some beat-up shacks on it, which he and a couple of local Latvian friends will rebuild more or less from from scratch. But... he has been looking around for property, and carefully selected the place. I very carefully reviewed the purchase for him; the bank decided he had enough resources - and a steady job - to give him a mortgage.

The same thing could happen in Sweden. Tell us how much money you're likely to have - or your parents have. To pull a figure out of the air, I'd say you'd have to have 50,000 pounds to even think about doing what you want to do.

Corvus

Hey,

Thank you for your response, I was hesitant to post fearing that I would look naive! I have no parents, no family, so really my savings are what I can muster in the next few years. I have the agree that luck seems to be the reality, I guess I should look at a scouting trip to Norway, Sweden and maybe Iceland to make contacts. Work away. Org looks like a good start for that

Gordon Barlow

Corvus. Tell me how old you are and what work you've been doing. I might be able to offer some useful advice; you never know. (No guarantees, though!)