What does a roundabout, a police station, a McDonald's drive-thru and a burnt-out car have in common? This Sunderland YouTuber has used them all as campsites.
Chris Young has developed a loyal following on the video site by combining his passions for camping in odd places and whiskey drinking. The 45-year-old originally set up his YouTube channel - Blot Outdoors - around three years ago as a way to look back on some of his hiking trips he shared with his mates.
But the channel soon started taking off when Chris began doing whiskey reviews, with viewers immediately taking to his no-nonsense sense of humour and unpretentious opinions. The channel gained even more followers when Chris began to pitch his tent in some of the most random places imaginable.
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Speaking about how the channel started, Chris, who lives in Silksworth with his wife Amanda, said he originally set it up as a way to look back on his frequent hiking trips in the Lake District. "At first I never had a clue about YouTube", he said, "My mate told me about it and I thought I'd take some photos and a little bit of video and put it on there to look back on. I was then wanting to start talking on the videos, and I've always liked a whiskey, so a friend and I decided to do a whiskey review and just have a laugh with it and not be serious, but at the same time tell people what we think."
Chris then began to include more whiskey reviews into his videos, and it wasn't long before people began to subscribe to his channel. But things really took off when he started doing "mad-camps", which involved him pitching his tent and spending the night in weird - and sometimes even dangerous - places.
He said: "I was going over to the Lake District or Northumberland once a month, but the more I was getting into it, I was heading over more and more, but it was taking up all my money. The wife didn't complain, but every penny was getting used for the camping trips. I wanted to keep going camping every week, but I couldn't afford it, so that's where the idea to do the weird camps came from."
Chris also took inspiration from fellow YouTuber, Steve Wallis, a Canadian with over one million subscribers who also camps out in strange places. He said: "I thought about doing what he does, but put my own spin on it and not copy him. I still didn't think it was going to do anything with the channel, I wasn't doing it to gain subscribers, I just did it to get out of the house. I don't go out drinking and I don't play football or golf or anything, I just like camping."
So far on his travels, Chris has camped out behind Southwick Police Station, a Harvester restaurant, on a roundabout in Silksworth and on Silksworth running track - but there's two places that stick out for him. "Two of the weirdest places I camped was probably behind some Biffa bins near a Morrisons or the time I camped in a burnt-out car", he said. "Those two were definitely up there. Once you're there and set up, you just get on with it."
With 30.2k channel subscribers to Blot Outdoors - Chris, who works as a cleaner and also at a factory in Seaham - is always on the lookout for new places to camp. He said: "I normally go out and have a mooch about with my dog and look for another spot. I've got a couple in mind then I go and make sure it's clean-ish. I just try and think of weird ideas. There's a lot of YouTube videos with people hiking in beautiful places but they're all very similar. They're talking about their expensive tents and jackets and I just want to do something a bit different."
With gaining a loyal following and even having his own well known catch-phrases, Chris - who is often joined on his trips by his mate Michael Halliday, has even started to earn a bit money from YouTube - albeit a "few pence" here and there. He said: "This last couple of months, I have started making something. The lads at work joke on saying I must be making a fortune but I'm not, nowhere near. It's a few pence which will go towards buying a new tent because my last one was wrecked. It's nothing like leaving work kind of money."
He's also started to become recognised when out and about in Sunderland, he added: "It doesn't happen loads, but I've been in Wetherspoons in town and Amanda and I were stood at the bar and there was a big group who recognised me. I was also out having a meal and a couple approached me and asked for a photo and I said of course. I feel a bit embarrassed sometimes because I'm just a normal bloke that works in a factory."
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