Supermarket Parkups #3 - Stealth Camping at IKEA!
As my name, The Urban Motorhome, suggests, I park in some unconventional places. I’ve parked in some random places in my time, including supermarkets and fast food chain car parks.
I always film my experiences so I can take my viewers along for the ride, showing everyone how I find urban park ups and what I look out for.
In this edition of my supermarket park up series, I attempt to park overnight at Sainsbury's!
If You’re New Around Here, Welcome
My name is Darran and I've been living in my motorhome in the UK, full-time, for over 6 years. I very rarely go on sites, I just find park ups as and where I can.
The twist is I like to park where most wouldn’t dare! Nothing phases me, I will literally try anywhere. As I mentioned above, I film my life, park ups and all, and post the videos on my YouTube channel.
Come And Find An Urban Park Up With Me
After the success of my Tesco and Sainsbury's park ups, another supermarket had to come next! Come with me as I attempt to do a park up at IKEA!
The video is below, so you can come along with me. The transcript is underneath the video.
'It's a park up video, woohoo!
Good afternoon guys, welcome back to another video. It's a park up video, woohoo! Right, I haven't done one of these in a while, so the last one I've done was Sainsbury's? No, Tesco's. So I've done Sainsbury's, I've done Tesco's. This one's on the similar lines, but a little tweak. So I am at IKEA! Haha. So, as you can see, I'm parked up right here at the moment, so I'm a bit away from Ikea, [but] still in the Ikea car park.
I'm in Milton Keynes. Um, but what I'm gonna do, because it's a bit busy over there, I'm gonna wait. It's about 4 o'clock at the moment, so I'm gonna wait a little bit, and then I'm gonna move closer to the store, and then, uh, see if I can park in Ikea for the night, do an Ikea park up. Why not? Just because we can.
That's a massive Asda, apparently, over there, and then there's the MK Dons Stadium. So, I might go shopping in a bit over there, get some Pepsi Max. And then, uh, I did look around this car park for parking restriction signs, but it's full of COVID signs about two metres distance and walk this way and walk that way. But, there isn't actually any parking signs.
And I saw a trolley attendant that was pushing the mahoosive queue of, train of trolleys and I said excuse me mate what's what's the parking restrictions and he said there aren't any, it's 24 hours do what you want, so see what uh, [we'll] see if that's true because now I know in Asda's car park, that's got a three hour three hour limit, customers only blah blah blah. Um, but I thought I'd do Ikea. Asda is on my list, but a lot of Asdas, I know I'm gonna get a ticket with Asda, so I'm just, I'm, I'm leaving that to the end, I don't really want a ticket straight away, you know.
Um, so we'll see what happens in here, if I do get a knock on the door here, then I'll have to leave, I suppose, and there are a few places around here which I've already spotted that I could probably go park up in if I have to leave. But I don't know, I can't, I can't see it being a problem. Not, like, not here because I'm too far away, but when I get down there, we'll, uh, we'll see what happens.
So there's me thinking 'uh, I don't know what to have for dinner tonight, I'm not that hungry, but I don't know what to have'. Ugh!! Meatballs. Can't come to IKEA and park in IKEA and not have meatballs, can ya? What an idiot I almost was. So yeah, meatball run. Gotta go get the balls, gotta get the balls.
I made it! Meatballs! Ha ha ha ha! Oh and they've got the dime cake, they've got a dime cake. Must be good, I must be good. No cake.
You don't want these, you don't want these and you don't want these. You want these - meatballs and blue cheese. Not a bad combo, is it? Can't believe I had to walk all through the whole flippin store, though.
The security guy [is] proper bogging me out.
One thing I have noticed while I was trying to talk to you lot with this [on my face], is you can't see my face. You can just see [mouthing]. Back to the motorhome with my meatballs.
Right, so, still parked up in uh, IKEA, it's now 9.45ish. I'll be honest, I haven't really done anything. I've, um, I'm not even hungry. So, uh, I had that casbah, I had Kasbar earlier today with John and Mandy and that done me, that's honestly done me. I might, I might have a packet of crisps or something in a bit, but I'm pretty done. But, um, I've just been editing. And I'll be honest, because I finished a night shift today, didn't I? This morning. And now I've been editing. I must have fell asleep for about 20 minutes just sitting here at my desk editing, so. I don't know what woke me up, but it did. So yeah, I'm really not worried about food or anything.
But, uh, right now, there's um, trolley collectors, just going round the car park. There's a rat. I saw a rat on the CCTV. But yeah, so, I think the shop shuts at nine. So, this is Yeah, look, look, look, look, look, there's a rat. You see it? I've got company tonight. A different sort of company that is!
Um, but yeah, so now would be the time, because obviously staff are leaving, going home, car park is literally empty, I'm going to show you outside in a moment. Um, now's, I suppose, the time when someone will come round and go, Hi mate, what you doing? But, to be honest, I want to go to bed soon because, uh, obviously I want to get some sleep. And, um, I've got to be up early, I've got to be out of here early. That's a point, what time does this place open? Am I going to get locked in?
Nah, I couldn't get locked in, could I? Could I? There's only one way to find out, I suppose.
Really poor, but there's the guy down there with the trolleys, sorting them out, and this is, [the] car park.
It's uh, dead, apart from a rat over there. Yeah as you can see, pretty dead. Okay, so I decided to actually have something, nothing major, just one of these quick things I had in the fridge, um, normally, obviously they're, they're microwave things, I wouldn't normally have them um, and, I don't like putting it in the microwave because it can come off soggy, but actually under the grill or in the oven and toast it all up, they are pretty nice.
Um, so yeah, I'm just going to have that with a packet of crisps and a Pepsi. So scoff that, watch a bit of TV. Not sure whether I'm going to, I'm really not sure if I'm going to sleep down here tonight, or actually up in the top bunk. Um, because I've been sleeping down here because I've been at work for the last six days. Uh, yeah, six days, so it's been quite warm, so I've been on this bed. So I'm not really sure where I'm going to sleep. It's probably where I'm going to pass out to be fair. Um. So yeah, let's close that [blind] shall we. Um, yeah, really not sure, really not sure to be fair. I sleep fine on either, you know. I can sleep in a truck, so I can sleep anywhere.
Um, I have noticed though, I am parked on a bit of a slope. Because when I walk down this way, it is down, down a little bit. But it's no, no biggie. Right, let's scoff some food.
Well there we go guys, IKEA car park. Everyone seems to have uh, disappeared. They've collected all the trolleys. Um, over there is Asda. Um, this is the main road here. So this is the main road in, which then goes down to, splits off, goes to Asda and to here. So I think that will stay open, um, because I think Asda's open until 10, um, but yeah, it seems alright. There's taxis coming and going, there are a few taxis, um, but like I say, they've collected all the trolleys and there were trolleys all around me.
But yeah, this is, this is it. The motorhome's here, IKEA's entrance there. There is a team of them still over there, so they could still come over quite easily. Um, but, we'll see. I can't see them coming over to be fair.
So yeah, I don't think there's going to be much more for me tonight really, I'm just gonna chill out in the motorhome. I might, um, grab a packet of crisps or something, I'm really not that hungry to be fair. I've already, like I said, I ate Kazbar earlier and that, that well and truly done me, um, double bacon cheeseburger. So, that's, yeah, I thought, I went and bought meatballs. I thought I wanted them, which I did, but they're in the freezer now, I'm not touching them. I can't, I can't be arsed, so I'm gonna whack a bit of TV on for a half hou and then, uh, and then probably get my head down really and hopefully it's a quiet night and no, no commotion, no trouble, no knocks on the door.
Um, but yeah, get my head down and then, uh, yeah, up early. Hopefully we have a peaceful night. Take it easy guys, hope to see you in the morning, but if not, anything happens, I'll press the record button.
Okay, so it is, it is twenty to twelve. As you can see, all the lights are out in the car park, apart from a couple over [in] the far corner, right near the entrance. But yeah, that's pretty much it. So I'm going to put the steering lock on [and] close up for the night. Um, I've chucked all the stuff back down, so I'm going back up there. Um, you can see from the CCTV, it's all quiet. Nothing's going on.
Um, and a lot of you want to know about, like, power. So obviously I haven't really spent much time watching TV tonight, and I watch usually on my tablet whilst I'm sitting there. But this TV's been on with the CCTV, the CCTV system is running in the wardrobe. So that's what we're currently pulling, currently pulling four and a half amps. And I've been parked up since like five o'clock, six o'clock. [I'm] currently down 15 amps so it's not too bad.
Yeah, so all the lights have been on, I've been charging stuff, the CCTV system's on, the TV's been on, um, yeah, so, currently down 16 amps. I'll probably guess I'll be down [on amps] in the morning. So it's like, near 12 o'clock now, so I'm gonna be up before 6, so I'd say I'm probably gonna be down 25 amps, 27 amps?
That'll be my guess by the morning. But that's nothing. That'll be re-, uh, If I wasn't going into a garage at 7 o'clock in the morning, that would be recharged by, by 9, 10 o'clock because of the sun. The morning sun. um, but I'll be fine, It'll charge up during the day. Not a worry there, so, unless anything happens tonight and I get a knock on the door or anything, um, touch wood that doesn't happen. But if anything does then I'll record it, but, looks like I'll see you at about 6am.
And there we go. Sleeping, sleeping, in IKEA's car park in my motorhome. Have a good night, guys.
Good morning guys. Right. Well, an uneventful night, and I kind of woke up a little bit late, so I'm in a bit of a, in a bit of a rush right now.
So, so yeah, nothing happened last night. I slept like a log. Um, [I'm] gonna open the curtains and everything now and then, uh, get going and yeah, see what happens. But yeah, an uneventful night, really easy. So, there is the total used for last night. Minus 33 [amps], well minus 34. So, it's not too bad. Not too bad at all. I did have the fan on and the CCTV on.
There we go. Lots of vans over there. No problems. Easy night.
No hassle last night. Parking in an IKEA car park. Successful. Done! Um, I have overslept a little bit, so I am in a little bit of a rush, but, um, yeah I had no hassle last night. No one bothered me. Motorhome's still intact. No one knocked, no one, no one done anything. So, yeah.
Perfect night really. Um, so I'm going to get cracking on now to the garage, ready for them to do the work, and uh, then get on with the rest of the day, but, parking in an IKEA car park, done.'
End of transcription.
If you have any suggestions of places I should do a park up, leave them in the comments below!