October 12, 2018 5.04 pm This story is over 64 months old

Lincolnshire among zombie apocalypse ‘safe zones’

Tampons and condoms are apparently survival kit essentials

Surviving a zombie apocalypse could require a Shaun of the Dead style trip to a cosy Lincolnshire pub, having a pint and waiting for it all to blow over.

In fact, people are actively being advised to make route to Lincolnshire and the Wolds after an apocalypse expert listed the top 10 safe zones in the UK, should an event like this arise.

Professor Lewis Dartnell, a ‘zombie and apocalypse expert’ and professor in Science Communication, worked with NOW TV to create his top tips on how to survive a zombie apocalypse ago to mark the return of Season 9 of the Walking Dead.

Now TV found that the average Brit has spent three and a half hours thinking about what they’d do in this scenario, but whether anyone is prepared in reality is another question entirely.

Over a quarter of Brits say they have at least a vague plan for what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse, but almost 8% don’t think we could last a week.

After surveying 2,000 Brits the report also found that the average person believes they could evade a zombie bite for just over nine weeks, 13 hours and 26 minutes, but professor Dartnell says “very large numbers of people would succumb almost immediately in the packed cities” and “the average survival time would be a matter of days”.

Professor Lewis Dartnell, Zombie and Apocalypse expert.

Professor Lewis Dartnell said: “Lincolnshire is a great region for restarting agriculture after an apocalypse – its soils, laid down by past ice ages, are rich and fertile. The fenlands to the south also offer a lot of peat, which was an important fuel before coal or oil.”

Top 10 safe zones in the UK

  • Highlands
  • Isle of Man
  • Isle of Wight
  • Lincolnshire 
  • South Wales
  • Snowdonia
  • North Cornwall
  • Dartmoor
  • South Downs
  • Lake District

Top Tips

  • Condoms and tampons are essential items for any survival kits. An unraveled tampon makes an ideal dressing to stop a wound bleeding and it’s perfect kindling for starting a fire. A condom can hold over a gallon of water, just don’t let it rupture in your bag!
  • Make your first destination a camping shop for warm clothing, waterproofs and some sturdy hiking boots
  • Pick up iodine tablets
  • Rely on a car GPS device instead of smart phone maps
  • A plastic bottle needs to be your new best mate!
  • Chapstick, vaseline and hairspray can be used to get a fire started in difficult conditions (and give yourself a post-apocalypse makeover)
  • Leave your house behind and head for isolation, so get out of the cities and and go to the countryside
  • Stick together rather than trying to survive as a lone wolf. Send scouting parties to find other pockets of survivors or rig-up a radio transmitter
  • In the early stages of a zombie attack scavenge food from abandoned supermarkets or distribution centres
  • If you forget your tin opener grind the top of the can in flat circles pushing down onto a paving slab
  • Always dig DIY loos at least 15 metres away from your water source
  • Soap can be made from scratch by soaking water through the ashes of burned seaweed to extract soda and then reacting this with slaked lime. Boil this with lard or any other animal fat or plant oil to make soap.

Best escape routes

The best escape routes out of London and Manchester according to professor Dartnell.