Hill Wimp
Fair weathered,fair minded but easily persuaded.
FB is full of sites/locations you can wild camp here and abroad.
Free/wild camping tips
- Thread starter Blue Hills
- Start date
-
- Tags
- camping
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OP
OP
- Location
- London
Is FB the dreaded FaceB? Apart from avoiding that as much as I can for all sorts of reasons, anything found in there doesn't exactly sound private/hidden/secret. I would have thought you might well wake up to find yourself amongst a rave/drunken/drugged party.
Cycleops
Legendary Member
- Location
- Accra, Ghana
Just going to sign up! And to think I've been avoiding their invitations to join for years.
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snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
This wouldn't give me sufficient time for sleeping
.
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jongooligan
Legendary Member
- Location
- Behind bars
For some practical advise on finding spots to pitch have a look at Alastair Humphrey's site
His ultralight cycle touring page is quite useful too.
His ultralight cycle touring page is quite useful too.
OP
OP
- Location
- London
My own fairly limited take on it.
Quite often the best or at least perfectly decent places can be overlooked because they seem to be "too close" to stuff.
In fact this can be handy.
I have bivvied on a verge with light tree cover no distance at all from a dual carriageway.
And put the tent up in another verge not far at all from a road where I could see the cars but they couldn't see me.
Both were roads where cars where unlikely to stop.
IF they did see me/something, they would wonder for a while about what had flashed before their conscious/subconscious mind, but by then be several hundred metres down a road where they weren't going to turn back.
Quite often the best or at least perfectly decent places can be overlooked because they seem to be "too close" to stuff.
In fact this can be handy.
I have bivvied on a verge with light tree cover no distance at all from a dual carriageway.
And put the tent up in another verge not far at all from a road where I could see the cars but they couldn't see me.
Both were roads where cars where unlikely to stop.
IF they did see me/something, they would wonder for a while about what had flashed before their conscious/subconscious mind, but by then be several hundred metres down a road where they weren't going to turn back.
Over the years i've done a lot of Stealth and Wild camping
Wild Camping - in most of the French Alpine National Parks, as long as you do "7a7" (Don't pitch before 7pm, tent down before 7am) you can 'usually' get away with it, although been woken up at 05.00 by Italian Rangers more than once (perhaps they start earlier than French ones)
Stealth Camping - Football fields are alwyas good; Pub gardens, many a time; The garden of a doctors surgery (with 5 tents and river view) was special, it was a wekend so no one to ask!; A disued stables; WWII fortifications; The 10th tee of Rock golf course, excelent camping grass, perfectly level. Groundsman was unimpressed!; Beaches, many beaches; Several city parks; Communal City gardens; Fields next to campsites (a bit naughty, that one); Many a farmers field, witrh permission where possible; 100m down a random track off a minor road; Woodland, all over the place; The grounds of a statley home (done this several times, allways a good stealth camp); Car Parks, and they often have loos; ...... and many more ....
I think I've been asked to remove a tent perhaps 5 times in the last 30 years.
Wild Camping - in most of the French Alpine National Parks, as long as you do "7a7" (Don't pitch before 7pm, tent down before 7am) you can 'usually' get away with it, although been woken up at 05.00 by Italian Rangers more than once (perhaps they start earlier than French ones)
Stealth Camping - Football fields are alwyas good; Pub gardens, many a time; The garden of a doctors surgery (with 5 tents and river view) was special, it was a wekend so no one to ask!; A disued stables; WWII fortifications; The 10th tee of Rock golf course, excelent camping grass, perfectly level. Groundsman was unimpressed!; Beaches, many beaches; Several city parks; Communal City gardens; Fields next to campsites (a bit naughty, that one); Many a farmers field, witrh permission where possible; 100m down a random track off a minor road; Woodland, all over the place; The grounds of a statley home (done this several times, allways a good stealth camp); Car Parks, and they often have loos; ...... and many more ....
I think I've been asked to remove a tent perhaps 5 times in the last 30 years.
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OP
OP
- Location
- London
nice post brains, thanks.
About the pubs, did you ask?
I did come across a pub last year somewhere Suffolk Norfolk way that was marked on my OSM as a campsite. I asked in the pub and the folk behind the bar seemed a bit bemused by my enquiry. After a brief conference they decided on a fiver. The only facilities were that the pubs external toilet and basin were left open overnight. No shower or anything else. Since it was so basic I couldn't help but wonder if an offer to buy a couple of pints and some food would have secured it, such as it was (some grass and a toilet) for free. I didn't stop as I was hurrying on.
I have in the past put a tent up on a cinder Italian football pitch.
Dome/geodesic/freestanding tents are great things.
- Location
- Inside my skull
This wouldn't give me sufficient time for sleeping
Plenty of time if you do it in winter
FishFright
More wheels than sense
Its handy to remember you don't have to be you on there if you don't want to keep up with friends and family etc
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
You going to bivvy bag, or rig up a basha?
The film Deliverance is chock full of tips for wild camping.
The film Deliverance is chock full of tips for wild camping.
Pub Garden Camping:
Usually in Winter:
Before you arrive, scope out camping options, the Village Green, the Local sports field, the extra land behind the allotments, the school fields, local playing grounds, and the local pub garden
Turn up at the pub
Eat a meal, drink a few pints
Get talking to the landlord and regulars
20 mins before closing asking about local fields for camping in, suggest the garden, usually yes, sometimes no, often the old outside loo left open, and a couple of times breakfast has been thrown in.
Usually free, othertimes a few quid.
jongooligan
Legendary Member
- Location
- Behind bars
Most comfortable - a leaf filled moat around an Iron Age Fort
Smelliest - inside an old crane in an abandoned quarry
Weirdest - woken at 3am by loud voices. Peeped out of bivi to see two cross-dressing persons marching past in high heels. This was on Esk Hause in the Lake District, miles from the nearest road. Still wonder whether I was hallucinating.
Scariest - woken by an earthquake. Jumped out of my bag with the intention of running to safety before it dawned on me that you can't outrun an earthquake
Second scariest - wrong side of a dry but very wide storm drain with a thunderstorm rumbling in the distance. If the drain had flooded we could have been stranded for days without food or water.
Best ones have been on the shores of various Scottish lochs but they have been on canoeing trips where it's easy to carry lots of luxuries. We once had a game of table tennis on Loch Awe.
Smelliest - inside an old crane in an abandoned quarry
Weirdest - woken at 3am by loud voices. Peeped out of bivi to see two cross-dressing persons marching past in high heels. This was on Esk Hause in the Lake District, miles from the nearest road. Still wonder whether I was hallucinating.
Scariest - woken by an earthquake. Jumped out of my bag with the intention of running to safety before it dawned on me that you can't outrun an earthquake
Second scariest - wrong side of a dry but very wide storm drain with a thunderstorm rumbling in the distance. If the drain had flooded we could have been stranded for days without food or water.
Best ones have been on the shores of various Scottish lochs but they have been on canoeing trips where it's easy to carry lots of luxuries. We once had a game of table tennis on Loch Awe.
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HobbesOnTour
Guru
- Location
- España
Definitely my most interesting experience was on the rod to Verona, in Italy. I was racing against an incoming storm when my saddle pin snapped about 30 km from Verona. Walked along the road until I came to an unmanned, 24 hour petrol station just as the storm broke. Broke out my stove and made some coffee and food (amazing how hot food can lift your spirits) and tried to figure out the best option.
The station was a little strange. While I was there, 2 SUVs arrived and guys in semi-military clothing had a long talk and started transferring big boxes from one van to another. I was studiously looking elsewhere. Eventually as the clock was ticking close to 11 pm, I decided that the back of the station would be the home for my tent for the night. There had been a shop/cafe as part of the station, so I went behind, ducked under the red/white plastic tape that was keeping people away from the fire-damaged rear of the station and set up the tent on a rough bit of grass.
Just as I was about to get into the tent, a car pulls up and the driver is straight over to me telling me to move! I figured out too late that there was an alarm and going behind the "lines" I had set it off. In some despair I started taking down the tent and preparing my self mentally to walk along the road. (An earlier scouting mission had shown no likely camping spots, only very well fenced farmland or vineyards). But as it turned out, my tormentor became my hero. He just wanted me to move outside of the screened off area! He seemed to understand without the building I was more exposed, so walked over to me and pointed up at a light pole and showed me the (very small) CCTV camera, and then another and intimated that as long as I was between the 2, I would be safe! (Of course, he may also have been warning me that I wasn't to do anything silly, as Big Brother was watching!)
He wished me a good sleep and headed off.
I was terribly impressed with the calmness and friendliness of this stranger who I was responsible for dragging out into a nasty thunderstorm on a Saturday night!
On the same trip, I had my favourite wild camping experience in a mountain valley in Austria. I breezed past my likely campsite for the night because the evening was just so nice. I was on a perfect road that all the traffic disappeared from about 6 pm. The sun was going down and the colours and shading of the valley was a joy to cycle through. The stars were slowly coming out and with the clear air the sky was becoming the most beautiful ceiling. I didn't want to stop, just keep cycling along enjoying the colours, the views, the whole experience.
Eventually about 11 pm, I turned off into a vineyard, went aways from the road and turned down one of the rows.
Didn't even throw up a tent. Put down my sleeping pad and fell asleep looking at the Milky Way glowing what seemed to be just above my head.
My biggest issue wild camping appears to be my snoring! One morning at a wild camping spot, as I was making my morning coffee, a guy emerged from the woods beside me to tell me that he could hear me snoring all night long! So now I look for places that I'll not be seen..... and heard!
The station was a little strange. While I was there, 2 SUVs arrived and guys in semi-military clothing had a long talk and started transferring big boxes from one van to another. I was studiously looking elsewhere. Eventually as the clock was ticking close to 11 pm, I decided that the back of the station would be the home for my tent for the night. There had been a shop/cafe as part of the station, so I went behind, ducked under the red/white plastic tape that was keeping people away from the fire-damaged rear of the station and set up the tent on a rough bit of grass.
Just as I was about to get into the tent, a car pulls up and the driver is straight over to me telling me to move! I figured out too late that there was an alarm and going behind the "lines" I had set it off. In some despair I started taking down the tent and preparing my self mentally to walk along the road. (An earlier scouting mission had shown no likely camping spots, only very well fenced farmland or vineyards). But as it turned out, my tormentor became my hero. He just wanted me to move outside of the screened off area! He seemed to understand without the building I was more exposed, so walked over to me and pointed up at a light pole and showed me the (very small) CCTV camera, and then another and intimated that as long as I was between the 2, I would be safe! (Of course, he may also have been warning me that I wasn't to do anything silly, as Big Brother was watching!)
He wished me a good sleep and headed off.
I was terribly impressed with the calmness and friendliness of this stranger who I was responsible for dragging out into a nasty thunderstorm on a Saturday night!
On the same trip, I had my favourite wild camping experience in a mountain valley in Austria. I breezed past my likely campsite for the night because the evening was just so nice. I was on a perfect road that all the traffic disappeared from about 6 pm. The sun was going down and the colours and shading of the valley was a joy to cycle through. The stars were slowly coming out and with the clear air the sky was becoming the most beautiful ceiling. I didn't want to stop, just keep cycling along enjoying the colours, the views, the whole experience.
Eventually about 11 pm, I turned off into a vineyard, went aways from the road and turned down one of the rows.
Didn't even throw up a tent. Put down my sleeping pad and fell asleep looking at the Milky Way glowing what seemed to be just above my head.
My biggest issue wild camping appears to be my snoring! One morning at a wild camping spot, as I was making my morning coffee, a guy emerged from the woods beside me to tell me that he could hear me snoring all night long! So now I look for places that I'll not be seen..... and heard!
