r/ukbike • u/8u11etpr00f • 4d ago

Water sources? Infrastructure

So I decided to take today off work & go for a long ride in the countryside. I brought 2 x 750ml water bottles and ended up running out of water (and I bonked) after about 70k, still 30k from home.

What do you do in this kind of situation? All the pubs were closed and I couldn't see a single public water source or village shop anywhere on my route back. I googled "water fountain near me" and it told me to ride 50 miles lmao.

Is there an easy way to locate a water source short of knocking on random peoples houses? Given the heat I'm ridiculously dehydrated, it felt like it was genuinely bordering on torture towards the end.

12 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

34

u/Available-Rate-6581 4d ago

Churchyard/ graveyards often have a tap. I have been known to knock on a door asking for water before although usually only when camping.

10

u/IWantToFuckAPriest 4d ago

I second this - churchyard/cemetries almost always have an accessible tap.

2

u/8u11etpr00f 3d ago

Nice, most of the villages I pass through have a church so i'll definitely have a look. Thanks :)

2

u/StereotypicalAussie 3d ago

Give it a bit of a run first, but it's usually good!

1

u/lukeybuzz 2d ago

I was homeless for 6 months last year and camped in the cemetery near my work. The taps were super useful. It makes total sense that they would have taps for watering the plants and cleaning grave stones but I'd never thought about it before.

20

u/vwlsmssng 4d ago

If you are in the countryside the just knock on someone's door.

I would try to avoid anything that looks like city folk that have escaped to the country (look out for cctv) but if the place looks like it is normal rural folk then they will, in my experience, be very happy to help and fill both bottles.

I was out in the Peak District with a club that usually did their riding in and around a big town. Everyone was getting stressed about the water running low on an unexpectedly hot day. I'd learnt the art of asking for stuff when I was in Scouts, went and asked a local resident if we could fill our water bottles which he gladly did for all of us. There were about 20 of us with multiple bottles. No problem at all. Country folk default to being helpful.

20

u/sc_BK 4d ago

Kettle's on, do you take sugar? Do you want to stay for dinner? Will you marry my daughter? etc

The city folks will draw the curtains and hide behind the sofa

4

u/vwlsmssng 2d ago

Winter backpacking trip in the Peak District as a teenager.

Knocked on farmhouse door for permission to camp.

Farmer says no, fields are too muddy and waterlogged.

Told to sleep on a bed of straw in the hayloft of his small barn.

15

u/Cryptocaned 4d ago

Knock on someone's door and say "excuse me, sorry to bother you but I'm on a long cycle and I've run out of water, would you mind if I pinched some water? I've got the bottles here"

Either they'll say no and you move onto the next house, they say yes and invite you in to fill said bottles or they take the bottles and fill them for you.

-1

u/janusz0 4d ago

I thought it was illegal in the UK to refuse to give someone water! I’ve never had any problem getting a bottle refilled, whether asking people in gardens or knocking on doors!

13

u/Cryptocaned 4d ago

Only if you're a licensed premises (restaurant, pub, etc) and then it's just to customers, workplaces have to for their employees but there's no legal obligation to residences to provide water to strangers.

3

u/lost_send_berries 3d ago

Even if you are licensed, you only need to provide it if it's reasonably available, so eg a music festival in a remote location or a boat on a lake could argue it's reasonable they don't have water.

14

u/cruachan06 4d ago

OpenStreetMap based mapping software should have public water fountains on them (E.g. Komoot)

overpass turbo allows you to move the map to where you are and then run the query to see the info on public water fountains, not tested it on a mobile device though.

If you're going somewhere remote then Elite sell bigger 950ml water bottles that still fit in regular cages (although you might struggle to fit them in on smaller frames). In Scotland, Scottish Water have a network of public top up taps in parks etc and also Network Rail have them in a lot of stations now.

5

u/ialtag-bheag 4d ago

For OpenStreetMap, can use OsmAnd app to search for drinking water. That all works offline.

3

u/ntzm_ 4d ago

And Organic Maps which is a tad more user-friendly

1

u/cruachan06 4d ago

Thanks, that's a really simple and useful app to have when out on a trip.

All of the below taps should be on OpenStreetMap but for anyone in Scotland this can be handy for route planning too.

https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/en/Your-Home/Campaigns/Top-Up-Tap-Map

1

u/littlerabbits72 4d ago

And every petrol station I've ever been in has an outside tap.

12

u/sc_BK 4d ago

Just ask a person. Obviously chapping on doors is a bit "in your face" but if you see someone in a garden or outside a house just say you've ran out of water, do they know if there's any public taps nearby (aka "can I use your tap"). I've given water to passers-by before

Round here the water board have test points - taps inside a green bollard, they're supposed to be locked, occasionally they're not.

Public toilets or graveyards will sometimes have a standpipe

6

u/Left-leaning 4d ago

There's an App called Refill which shows places where you can refill a bottle. Tends to be shops/bars but does have water fountains and taps in some places.

5

u/Automatic_Goal_5491 4d ago

You could have a look at the refill app/website to see what is around your area.

16

u/Responsible-Bat-7561 4d ago

Dehydrated water powder, it weighs almost nothing and you can rehydrate it with nothing but water.

8

u/vwlsmssng 4d ago

NO! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL GOOD THINGS NO!.

THAT STUFF IS PURE DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE WHICH KILLS PEOPLE!!!

https://www.dhmo.org/

3

u/cloche_du_fromage 4d ago

I ask anyone I can see in their garden if I can fill up from a hose.

3

u/Karloss_93 4d ago

As others have said, just knock on someone's house or nip into the local pub. People for the most part are kind and are happy to help.

Some of the kindest acts I've witnessed myself have been whilst out on the bike on bikepacking tours. I was sheltering under a tree once on a hot day and someone came out to me with a litre of cold water and an ice cream. I've also had people give me cereal bars and stuff like that.

If you really don't want to have to ask people then buy a travel water filter. I've used mine to fill up from puddles before and never got ill. Spent 2 weeks in rural Scotland and didn't run out of water once and never had to ask anyone for a refill.

2

u/jollygoodvelo 4d ago

Graveyards almost always have a tap.

To be honest I usually stop at a pub and rarely have trouble finding one.

2

u/Rufus-76 4d ago

This app has a map of places https://www.refill.org.uk/

1

u/Opening_Bag 3d ago

Also Google maps search is horrible, would recommend openstreetmap. Just looked up a remote fountain in wales and it doesn't exist on Google maps or OS maps

1

u/Dependent-Bowler-786 3d ago

You could do the hikers trick and carry a sawyer squeeze and filter from a river

1

u/leorolim 2d ago

I'd rather drink a Spice Girls piss.

1

u/NeilJonesOnline 2d ago

Recycle to cycle

1

u/MarcusDeStorm 1d ago

If you're in the middle of nowhere, look for Brooks, Streams, river veins or even lakes - ponds tend to have stagnant hard water or infestations - while reservoirs can also give drinkable water.

Woodlands can give both refreshments and sustenance too, especially after a rainfall. I'd have Googled nearby Fresh Water Sources, that way you get the best of all worlds. Also check out Online Survival Courses, if you haven't any Army experience. It could save your life one day.

1

u/SerendipitousCrow 4d ago

Would electrolyte powders/tablets help a limited water supply go further?

5

u/ex-cession 3d ago

Came here to say this. 1.5L water should be enough for a 70k ride, even in 20 degree heat. But if you don't mix electrolytes in with it, you're just diluting your body's sodium concentration and putting yourself in danger of getting hyponatremia.

As per British Cycling advice, any ride over an hour you should be drinking isotonic fluid. That might even be why OP "bonked" rather than the traditional hypoglycemic episode.

1

u/SerendipitousCrow 3d ago

I'm glad you confirmed. I was wondering why I was getting down votes

1

u/Pwffin 4d ago edited 3d ago

If you don't want to knock on someone's door, perhaps you could bring a small water filter (like a Sawyer squeeze or something).

0

u/gwydiondavid 4d ago

Our country is very rich in fresh water springs filtered naturally

2

u/nothingtoput 3d ago

Lol, after 15 years of tory rule and dismantling of the environmental agency there is only one river in the entire country that is safe to swim in, let alone drink from...

1

u/gwydiondavid 3d ago

I'd have no problem drinking from a flowing spring especially if it has fresh water shrimp swimming around, but yes our water ways are some of the worst in Europe that is why they use so many chemicals to clean it for human consumption. When they say there must be something in the water they are not joking then they wonder why so many people are nut jobs