Wild camping

[timber]

Thought this site may be of interest to some of you brave people :crazy
Have fun
Timber

 

[timber]

I will forget my head one day ! ! !
http://www.wildcamping.co.uk/
Regards Timber

 

[GrannyJen]

Prompted by a thread elsewhere that was neatly hijacked, a thread to discuss all aspects of wild camping.

In this, for reasons I will mention later, I personally in my mind also think "permissive camping", those places where you have permission to pull over on private property, stop for the night free of charge, often in the hope of the owner reciprocally getting some business. I am thinking particularly of Britstops, Passion, pubstopovers etc.

I have to confess to loving this aspect of camping. For me it justifies everything the California is made for, a serious, go anywhere - stop anywhere vehicle that makes travel and exploring as fun, comfortable and spontaneous as it gets. For me also a minor, but significant, point: 9 nights in Scotland cost me a total of £20 in camping fees

Coming out of the other thread there were two major issues: Legality and safety.

Legally, and I am not a lawyer, I believe it is pretty safe to stop anywhere that is not signed as private, has a bye law prohibiting overnight stops or does not infringe traffic regulations. Scotland is clearer cut with a right to access, continental Europe with it's extensive network of Aires make it even easier, France almost hijacks you to stop overnight.

Safety is a big issue and as a single woman often travelling alone a major concern for me. There is very little difference between permissive and wild. Stopping on an empty pub carpark adjacent to, and visible from, a road is no difference to hunkering down in a deserted lay-by. My rationale is that a locked Cali is just as safe as my locked home, I have a phone (and never camp where I cannot get a signal), a loud horn and lights to attract attention and an engine powering a 3 ton vehicle if I need to get away. For that last reason I only use internal screens when camping wild so I do not need to leave the vehicle to move off.

In practice I have never had a problem and am often surprised to wake up and find that I have neighbours, either other campers, or, in Scotland last week, deer happily grazing watched over by a couple of pine martins sat on a tree branch. However, going to bed on the Mull of Kintyre having watched the sun setting over a distant Ireland, or waking up to a sunrise over Loch Tay is a total, total joy.

So, a few discussion points

 

[Paulgromdrayton]

We still have yet to do our first proper wild night...next Saturday is the plan, up in North Devon somewhere!

 

[motacyclist]

Stopping on an empty pub carpark adjacent to, and visible from, a road is no difference to hunkering down in a deserted lay-by.

Don't think I'd fancy staying in a deserted lay-by unless it was out of sight of the road. At least in a pub people might think the Cali could belong to the landlord.

Would you consider stopping somewhere where other vehicles are parked - say overnight car parks? 24 hour supermarkets, outside Premier Inns etc.

Also residential streets, obviously not outside someone's house; but there is usually somewhere like a sub station or church you could stop and the vehicle would look like it belonged to a neighbouring property ...... more anonymous maybe than being the only vehicle around.

Colin

 

[GrannyJen]

Would you consider stopping somewhere where other vehicles are parked - say overnight car parks? 24 hour supermarkets, outside Premier Inns etc.

Also residential streets, obviously not outside someone's house; but there is usually somewhere like a sub station or church you could stop and the vehicle would look like it belonged to a neighbouring property ...... more anonymous maybe than being the only vehicle around.

Colin

Stopped in all of those

 

[Serendipity C]

Doing a spot of wild camping has always appealed to me but as there are four of us and we need to use the roof I assume this is more difficult. Do you put the roof up when wild camping?

 

[Hotel California]

Doing a spot of wild camping has always appealed to me but as there are four of us and we need to use the roof I assume this is more difficult. Do you put the roof up when wild camping?

Depends on : weather conditions , location , time of arrival/departure plans,....
Surly no awnings,tables and chairs outside....

 

[BerndRos]

I slept for 2 nights right outside the Reichstag in Berlin...roof up and tables and chairs out on the grass during the day. Meals and pots of coffee outside.

Early morning had a stroll and a cuppa with the firemen who were on site as the sprinkler system was being renewed..

They did not want a repeat of 1933.....

 

[GrannyJen]

Doing a spot of wild camping has always appealed to me but as there are four of us and we need to use the roof I assume this is more difficult. Do you put the roof up when wild camping?

It depends where I am. I practically lived in Ypres parked on a wild camp site, roof up, and the van next to me had awning out and barbecue going.

Generally other factors for me are important, noise being one, wind, especially in Scotland a week ago, being another.

 

[acer]

If you did wild camp with the roof up and had to drive off at short notice because you were being attacked could you do so without putting the roof down? I seem to remember a warning beep or similar when putting the keys in the ignition with the roof up.

 

[mucksmuff]

Nothing to stop you driving away just the warning bleep.

 

[Alan]

Nothing to stop you driving away just the warning bleep.

Don't forget any possible tree branches being in the way !
Seems pretty obvious but I'll mention it anyway, when choosing your wild pitch look around for any obstacles that might impair a hasty retreat also glance around in the direction you might be heading off into the dark .
You can't trust these Apaches :thefinger
Seriously I think these scare incidents are indeed rare.
Enjoy the buzz

Alan

 

[GrannyJen]

If I felt that threatened that I had to make a quick exit with the roof up then the safety of the roof would be a very low down second place to considerations of my own personal safety. The chances of having to do that, of not even having a couple of minutes to lower the roof, would be very remote indeed.

My main consideration with dropping the roof would be to cut out road noise. As Alan says, scare events are rare.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

We've woken up in some lovely places wild camped. Cliff tops, by stone circles, in the woods... We've also woken up in some not so nice places, but sometimes needs must. Dunkirk ferry terminal car park comes to mind

Often have our roof up. Sometime's we'll sit outside and have a bbq, it all depends on where we are and how we feel about a place.

Originally started doing some wilding after watching some of the videos over at CampervanCulture.com.

We always do a litter pick around where we've been camped and tend to only stay one night, but then we rarely stay more than one or two nights anywhere when on a campsite.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

The POI from the Wildcamping site has some nice spots, also sources of water and friendly pub carparks. Some of the places make you think "why would anyone camp here?" though, but everyone is different luckily.

 

[acer]

Some great added value there thanks.

I wasn't sure if the engine just refused to work without the roof in place, but it obviously does. Many thanks.

I had the wildcamping website but now added "campervan culture" to my favourites too. Thanks.

We wild-camped for most of the time in our round Australia trip, but that was 18 years ago, without kids and without a pop-top roof. My wife always looks to where the fire escape is in a hotel and I think about being able to drive off quickly if that herd of wild elephants should stampede in our direction. I guess you just need to use a little common sense.