Daftest (maybe)/closest to folk you've ever freecamped/bivvied

[Blue Hills]

I have a theory, need to test it more, that the safest/least likely to be discovered/bothered places are often quite close to folk where they will be beetling past/have no reason to stop, rather than the "deserted" spots possibly frequented by other nature hounds/dog walkers and the like.

So have bivived with minimal cover in a verge alongside a service road just off a dual carriageway.

Anyone got any others?

Oh, there was the time, sans bike, many many years ago on a roundabout in the Bois de Bolougne in Paris - friend told me in the morning that prostitutes had been taking clients there all through the night. I slept like a log.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

On top of a shepherd's hut built into a hillside in Portugal. I didn't realise until the next morning when the shepherd came out and complained his dog's barking had kept him awake all night.

 

[Blue Hills]

On top of a shepherd's hut built into a hillside in Portugal. I didn't realise until the next morning when the shepherd came out and complained his dog's barking had kept him awake all night.

you understand that complaint in portuguese? am impressed.

 

[robjh]

This bivi in a derelict chapel on the edge of a central Spanish village was a very good choice in some ways as I stayed warm and alive despite near-zero temperatures outside, but the state of the roof, piles of rubble and cracks in the walls gave me pause for thought when I saw them clearly in the morning light.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Beach hut just below the pub we had been drinking in. First we saw was dog walkers in sand dunes not long after 6am. We saw a dawn murmerration which was superb.

 

[robjh]

There was also this one in Portugal a few years back, on a beach near Porto airport where I arrived near midnight. There were some bars further up the beach road but this seemed like a quiet, dark spot that would do for the night. Just as I was dropping off, two people wandered over from the bars, lay down a few meters in front of me and as far as I could tell in the dark and against the sound of the waves, had sex in the sand.
Next morning I was woken before dawn by the blinding headlights of the machine that rakes the sand which I thought was heading towards me. Somehow I managed to reassure myself that I was on a slight rise in the dunes that wouldn't get raked, and slept on until sunrise, when my only companions on the beach were some early-morning fishermen.

The view in the other direction was of the Matosinhos oil refinery

 

[Drago]

In an allotment, close to the edge of a village in Devon, in the lee of a garden roller.

 

[robjh]

In an allotment, close to the edge of a village in Devon, in the lee of a garden roller.

Were they doing much rolling that night?

 

[Rusty Nails]

I read a couple of years ago about a bloke who was cycling from Cardiff to the Brecon Beacons. Started late in the evening so needed to stop in the Beacons just above Merthyr. Made camp in a field beside a rough wall. He was woken up in the late night by noise and lights, peeped over the wall only to find that he had chosen a spot next to a notorious dogging site. Luckily he wasn't found, but couldn't get up to leave and didn't get much sleep.

Probably apocryphal, but it made me smile, and I like to believe it.

 

[Milkfloat]

Under the ‘covers’ at Bognor Regis cricket club. It was raining a lot and seemed an ideal place, the bonus was no looking for stones before putting my mat down.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

One night in the early 80s on wanderabout, I ended up in Edinburgh. Uphill and out of the wind seemed the best plan. So uphill I went - some kind of public park I thought - but with a big high wall for shelter and nobody about. I'd only slept under the wall of Edinburgh castle! It would be impossible to get an uninterrupted night's kip there nowadays.

 

[MikeG]

On a formal lawn against a flagpole in front of a provincial policestation somewhere in South Australia. Arrived after dark, and had no idea of the circumstance until first light.

 

[andrew_s]

Round the side of a petrol station in Maidenhead, on the way back home from Heathrow.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Car park in a France. A visit from the a Gendarmerie in the night but they left me. In the morning a lady delivered a bag of fresh croissants right to me. Nice huh?

 

[Blue Hills]

This bivi in a derelict chapel on the edge of a central Spanish village was a very good choice in some ways as I stayed warm and alive despite near-zero temperatures outside, but the state of the roof, piles of rubble and cracks in the walls gave me pause for thought when I saw them clearly in the morning light.
View attachment 440956

I know a deserted church a bit like that in the UK's eastern parts where I have every intention of spending a night.

But better keep it to myself in case I find myself waking up to a cyclechat rave.