Who Wild Camps?

[Anthony]

I have done 2 tours now, LeJog and Portsmouth to Gibraltar. Every single night I wild camped, I have never paid for a camp site once. I have often found magnificant places to pitch a tent which are far better than any camp site.

It seems like most people on this forum use camp sites alot. So I was wondering if anyone else wild camps and if not why not? lol.

Please leave reasons why or why not you wild camp.

 

[col]

I used to wild camp years ago,more often than not it was with mates on the bikes and we would just pick a place and head off.I still like camping,i think,as its been a long time since i did,so im wondering if the comfort thing and showers toilets ect are more important to me now.I remember enjoying it back then,didnt matter how cold or windy or even wet we were,but i think i might find it too uncomfortable these days,so a site will probably be my first try after so long,but then in the summer i would give it another go.

 

[Percy]

I have done both but in general I would use a site - I like to get a feel for the culture and people of the places I go and I'd rather spend an evening in a town, hanging around with the locals, than in a field on my own, not interacting with anyone. I find I get enough countryside and solitute during the days to make wild camping for that sake unnecessary.

Campsites are, generally, pretty cheap too and I'd rather pay to have a hot shower and 'facilities' than sit in a field a mile away, with no facilities, just for sake of saving 5 euros and being 'out there'. As I said, I do wild camp and have had some great nights out, but I wouldn't just do it for the sake of it, for some perceived 'pure' ethic, when there was a perfectly decent site with hot running water just up the road - seems a bit 'cutting off nose to spite face' to me.

 

[Pongunagu]

Given the choice of camping wild, or paying actual money to camp in a place where a van-load of drunken students will think it's "mellow" to play their crap music at 2am, and where thieves know they can access all areas with just a pair of scissors, I'd rather camp wild anyday.

 

[vernon]

I do both in the UK but wild camped in France only when I couldn't find a camp site. I enjoyed the ambience at the French camp sites which extended the opportunities to speak/learn to speak the language.

I only spoke English with an Aussie and a British couple during my Channel to Med ride. I got a buzz out of going native.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I have done kust two wild camps.

1) On Holkham beach in norfolk
2) On a football pitch in Les Riceys France

The first one was deliberate and I have to say it was a superb experience having a beach like that all to myself, wonderful sunset/moonrise...warm balmy summers evening, beer and good food.

The second was an accident as there was no campsite in town and I had ridden all day and could not ride another kilometre. I pitched next to the pitch near the clubhouse, nobody said a thing and I was gone by 8 am.

I would have no issue wild camping in the 'wilderness', but where there are sites I would use them as long as they were not stupidly expensive (and some are). Like Percy said above, I like meeting new people in the evenings on tour and a warm shower after a long ride is something I like.

There are sites who will rip you off and charge a solo cycle tourer the same as a full camper van etc..I have come across these. I object to that and move on.

Living in the south of England I would say that wild camping around here would be pretty difficult...there is always someone whose going to spoil it for you.

 

[Anthony]

Perhaps its because i'm a cheapskate or maybe i have a different view of touring, but i'd rather wild camp any day.

I love the feeling of not having a clue where you're going to pitch your tent for the night, it's exciting and adventurous.

The idea of a campsite to me seems boring. I don't want to stay in a hedged in field with other random people and be charged for the mispleasure when I could be camping in the woods, on the beach, next to a lake, behind a hay stack, or wherever. When wild camping you can light a fire, watch the stars and emmerse yourself into the wild.

I understand that a hot shower is important and meeting the locals is part of the touring magic but I still can do that wild camping. I use beach showers, rivers, or even sneak into a campsite and use their showers. If you choose your camp well then it is easy to set your tent up and go into the local town for a few hours, knowing that it is highly unlikely that anyone will find your stuff.

 

[Brains]

Done a lot of both. If there is a site nearby I'd use it, if not I'd wild camp.

Having said which I've done a lot of 'wild' camping in closed camp sites out of season, pub gardens, municipal football fields and corners of farmers fields (with permission)

In 40+ years only been chucked off once and that was for camping on a nice bit of grass behind some dunes in the dark. At dawn the groundsman was not impressed as it was the 7th tee of the golf course.

 

[Amanda P]

Mrs Uncle Phil and I do both.

We object to paying UK camp site fees - you're typically asked for anything up to £8 for access to a bit of lumpy grass and use of a loo. Then to add insult to injury, you usually have to pay even more to have a shower. I call that a rip-off.

We'll wild camp when we can. Reasons not to on a given day might include wanting a shower (you do need one eventually, and it ain't always warm enough to just jump in a river), not being able to find a suitably discreet wild camping spot, not being able to find a flat spot (can be difficult in moorland areas - it's all lumpy) or finishing a day in the dark when it's hard to assess whether a spot is suitable - (see Brains' 7th tee experience above).

In rural areas with small farms, knocking on doors and asking usually gets a good response. (And the worst they can do is say no). This seems the best of all worlds - no worries about upsetting anyone, you usually get offered all sorts of hospitality, you get to absorb/swap some culture/language/booze with your host, and it's free.

Bigger, more commercial farming isn't so great - for a start, there's never anyone in!

You could also consider joining and using warmshowers.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

When wild camping you can light a fire, watch the stars and emmerse yourself into the wild.

..lighting a fire...sounds cool, but I doubt I'd do that on a wild camp unless I was really out in the middle of nowhere on common land.

...dunno maybe I just ride in the wrong places or something but I have never really found anywhere cool to wild camp apart from the one beach camp I did.

The UK campsitres suck though...big, horrible caravan parks full of drunken chavs...and for a 2m bit of grass you get to pay around £10...German campsites are just as expensive but at least they are clean.

I think that actually much of this may be to do with being hesitant/embarrassed to ask permission to camp on a farm or in a garden etc...perhpsa if I overcame that I might wild camp more. But in the UK I honestly believe most people if asked would tell me to sling my hook.

Portsmouth to Gib I can imagine lot's of cool places to wild camp in France...but on the Le Jog run...hmm..well it looks like I am definatly missing an opportunity

 

[Amanda P]

Try it, BTFB. Small villages and small farms are the best prospects, where people still trust each other, and own small grazing fields. (East Anglian grain-baron country - forget it). I deal with farmers a lot in my work, and they are a surprisingly open-minded bunch on the whole.

You get the odd person who tells you where to go, so go and try the next place. No big deal.

If you don't want to ask straight out if you can camp on their land, ask if they know somewhere you can camp. If they take this literally and start directing you to a campsite, or if they just seem clueless, you can say you only want a bit of grass - perhaps they have a corner of a field, or maybe a neighbour has...? People generally respond favourably to that.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Iwill on my next trip. ...I think the way you 'positioned' the question is brilliant...much less 'confrontational' and more likely to get a good response. I will try it that way. I might add on that if they feel like laying on dinner and entertainment that would be cool as well

 

[snorri]

or paying actual money to camp in a place where a van-load of drunken students will think it's "mellow" to play their crap music at 2am,

This does not sound like any camp site I have stayed on, and I have been on quite a few.

 

[psmiffy]

Ditto Snorri - I have spent around 30nights a year camping on tour for the last 15 years and camped a lot with a car before starting touring and never had that experience on any europeaen (or antipodean) campsite

I have camped wild many times but it is nearly always due to not being near a campsite (or one that is open) - sometimes it has been "magnificant" particulaly in the mountains but often not - on balence I have probably camped in more good
locations at campsites than in the wild

wrt asking permission I have only ever found one person at home at home when i have steeled myself to go and knock on a door - favourable response i ended up camping in their garden

I value being able to have a shower, wash up after a good meal and the proximity of sit down porcelain - but everybody to their own

 

[Pongunagu]

This does not sound like any camp site I have stayed on

I've been unlucky twice! UNbelievable. Annoying wee sh1ts with no redeeming features whatsoever. And don't get me started about the one with white-trustafarian dreadlocks and designer holes in his fair-trade woolly jumper who swings those stupid balls-on-strings. There's always one, in any group of undergraduate adolescents who go camping.