raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Or a Citronella candle.
Free/wild camping tips
- Thread starter Blue Hills
- Start date
-
- Tags
- camping
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Ticktockmy
Guru
- Location
- Crawley, West Sussex
I am one of the lucky peeps who are stinky enough for midges to keep them from biting, however, I still suffer from having a midge halo around me, just no bites.
Heltor Chasca
Out-riding the Black Dog
This weekend a pub was going to let me kip in their garden, but drew the line at letting me have access to facilities. I get that. Leaving the pub open for a stranger was too risky. And as I needed to be awake at 03:15 for an Audax, they weren’t going to get up for me. Don’t blame them.
Randomnerd
Bimbleur
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Hmm....nit-picking I know, but it's still a fire.
And I wouldn't want to rub one all over.
@Ticktockmy may have the answer, with their refusal ever to wash an armpit.
Randomnerd
Bimbleur
- Location
- North Yorkshire
What do you carry for your audax sleep? A bivvy bag and mat? I'm interested in doing a few DIY longer rides, but wonder at the right set-up to get comfort and the necessary speed. I go everywhere at touring speed if I'm wild camping. Maybe audax would mean I'd just have to get fitter and go faster? Does this mean I get to need a new bike?
OP
OP
- Location
- London
Maybe you should bottle and market your essence.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Heltor Chasca
Out-riding the Black Dog
I use the following lightweight setup when bikepacking over a night or two which is exactly what I’ll use for longer DIYs:
Space blanket (to protect my mat and packs to a pocket tissue size)
Thermarest Trek mat (rolls down to a beer can size but is nearly 3” thick
Mamut Blow up pillow (rolls down to a match box size)
Alpkit Hunka bivi (small as I am short and packs to a large soap bar size)
Rab down jacket (beer can size)
No sleeping bag. That’s what the jacket is for.
A few of these ideas have been nicked from Andy Curran’s YouTube videos. I get cold from the ground temperature and if you are only going to sleep for a few hours, it’s worth getting a good rest on a mat.
I think touring speed is ok for most Audax rides. I am somewhere in the middle of the crowd at 20-23kph and I always have plenty of time so mechanicals don’t scare me too much. Taxi fares do if it is a bad one.
I don’t faff at controls on calendar events and on DIYs you can fly along so I normally complete these quicker. I like a mix of social calendar and DIYs.
New bike? That depends on how infected you are by the N+1 bug.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
ALL males of every species die after mating - it's more a question of how long it takes!
At my age, I don't think I'd take a 20 minute offer, but I would probably agree to 20 years. Dying in 2038 with a smile on my face sounds pretty good!
OP
OP
- Location
- London
I have bivvied in a Sussex wood I later discovered was used for shooting parties. Someone who knows more about such things than me reassured me that it would have been outside the hunting season. Tips for avoiding such places in season (still have to figure out when) much appreciated.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
), that would be very useful information! Dehydrated Vodka drink - I multitask 190 grain alcohol (aka Everclear) as stove fuel, and also general purpose cleaner, solvent, sterilizer, antiseptic.
HobbesOnTour
Guru
- Location
- España
No tips, other than to be aware of the official hunting season (and unofficial if one exists!) wherever you are.
Reminds me of a couple of winters ago, on the spur of the moment I headed off for a weekend on the bike. Checked out a campsite that would be open and headed off. Google Maps (like I said, it was spur of the moment!) was fine for most of the 50 odd km but near the end brought me into a forest and got me totally lost going down ever smaller paths. Pitch dark, snow on the ground I had no idea how to get to where I wanted to go. I followed my tracks back to the road and tried to ride around the forest, rather than through it. Thought I was getting closer, but still had to go back into the forest. Same story. Deep in the forest and lost again! Well, not lost - just there was no way to get where I wanted to go!
Looked around and thought that actually, it wasn't such a bad place for a camp!
Was just getting ready to unpack when I realised I didn't have enough water with me to cook, so I took off out of the forest again, got on the road and took a long & winding road to the campsite.
I was kicking myself for my 2 errors - using Google Maps and not bringing enough water, until the next morning when I cycled back through the forest..... a rather large part of it was used for training by the Dutch army - and some of the places I had cycled through were off limits - but in the dark I had missed the signs!
I live close to the Belgian border and there are some great spots for wild camping which would make great overnight trips, but apart from hunting, the issue is criminal activity - mainly the dumping of chemicals used to make synthetic drugs. Some nasty people wandering around these places at night.
Maybe it's the local knowledge bias that scares me off using those areas, but if I was a stranger cycling through these areas, I'd be spoilt for choice to camp.
Randomnerd
Bimbleur
- Location
- North Yorkshire
You’ll find all the season dates here https://www.shootinguk.co.uk/shooti...ng-season-pheasant-pigeon-deer-stalking-32229 and they don’t vary much from year to year.
jongooligan
Legendary Member
- Location
- Behind bars
Think you took my reference to a smoky fire out of context. It was specifically about keeping midges at bay on the shores of Scottish lochs. I've been doing that type of wild camping for over thirty years with lots of different people and organisations. I don't remember any of them camping on Scottish lochs without lighting a fire. It's an essential part of the experience for me and many others.
