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We have enjoyed wildcamping in all of the ways you have described and it's all a matter of what suits us best at the time!
The beauty of wildcamping for us is that we don't always have a set plan and we often make an impromptu decision if we suddenly come across a beautiful location that takes our breath away! There's nothing more rewarding than feeling as if you are totally isolated from the rest of the world and waking up to open fields, blue seas or some other magical scene and where on earth could you find a campsite that could ever offer such fantasic views and solitude?
If we are visiting a particular area or event etc and decide to wildcamp afterwards, then generally we would park up somewhere safe and secure whilst we visited wherever and then we would probably return to our motorhome and drive for a while until we found a safe place to stop for the night. We do stay on campsites too though and generally when away touring, especially around Europe, we would enjoy a mixture of both! This is the true beauty and freedom of owning a motorhome and why we both love the whole motorhoming lifestyle so much and we just love being able to do our own thing whenever the fancy takes us!
Why not give it a try - you will love it I'm sure!
Thank you everyone, that was helpful. OK, let’s assume we want to give it a try. At the moment I can think of a couple of circumstances where it could work well for us, but I still can’t quite see what would be the best approach.
I’d like us to do some spontaneous overnight trips within a 1.5 to 2 hours drive. In this context spontaneous means not having to plan a cat feeder so we’d have to come back the next day and would want to make the most of the time available. We could, let’s say, be somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales by mid morning. We want to do a walk, perhaps in the Malham area. Do we park in the car park, go walking for the day, come back, then set off to find somewhere to stay for the night? Or, should we drive around the area looking for suitable camping places first, and having found one start our walk from there?
To me, one advantage of wild-camping in this instance is that you don’t have to wait until midday to be let into a campsite. On the other hand, could we be driving around for ages, or end up miles from where we want to be? I can’t share the driving because of visual problems and I’m sure John would prefer to relax and have a meal after the walk rather than set off for who knows where.
The other scenario is when we’re planning a longer distance trip (for instance we go to Dorset to stay near my son’s family a few times each year). At the moment we tend to stop overnight roughly halfway in each direction. So far we’ve stopped at Devizes, Tewkesbury (twice), Bath, and Broadway. If we were to wild-camp instead of booking a site how much would we need to plan when and where to come off the motorway and start looking for a stopping place. We would not be interested in staying in lay-bys just to save money. The point of stopping overnight is to avoid a long, tiring, possibly 7 hour drive in one day and to see other interesting parts of the country. How likely is it that the quest to find somewhere to stop increases overall driving time and produces stress rather than a sense of freedom?
Perhaps these examples are not typical of how others use wild-camping, which was the point of my original question. i feel though that until we’ve tried it for the odd overnight stop, as above, we’re unlikely to know whether it’s something we’d like to do more frequently and plan longer trips and tours without booking sites.
Our 10 year old van is comfortable but perhaps not equipped for long periods off site an without hook-up. Before investing effort and money in being able to be more independent of sites we need to know if it’s for us.
Oh well, I think we'll just have to give it a try.
I have no knowledge of wilding in UK, but I would opt for the first scenario as a try out. Then post on here, or look up wildcamping website and ask where would be a good place to stay in that area.
You don't have to make it all up yourselves, nothing wrong with picking other people's brains. I have done it myself for places I haven't been to myself. A good first experience will give you a bit of confidence, leading to a slightly more relaxed time next trip. Find your parking spot first, then go for your walk. You will enjoy it more, knowing that you have somewhere to stay.
Have a backup ready if it feels more comfortable for you. The reality is that I have never spoken to anybody who has been asked to move on, and we have wilded in Ireland, France and Spain.
Thanks Ca, that makes a lot of sense. Don't know why I didn't think about trying to check where others actually stay. I'll check out websites and perhaps the database on MHF (the fount of all my m/h knowledge).
Actually, I could much more imagine wild-camping in Ireland. I know more wild, uncrowded places there. Wish the ferry there was cheaper, we'd be over like a shot. We'll wait though until we can have several weeks together to make the travel cost worthwhile.
we have only been motorhoming 21/2 years, and we have not stayed on a site yet,except bream last year,and that was fun.
we are too i would say disorganised,but really its just wanting to come and go as we please,after 40 odd years having to be in a routine.
we, really me... goes on all the wildcamping sites, including this one,and gets an idea about an area,and ask other motorhomers,then we usally spend most of the day walking or round a castle or something,and then make in the general direction of where i,ve seen somewhere to park,but you get a good feel for somewhere,beach,lake national park,and try to park before it goes dark,so you can see what the ground is like,etc.
the first time you lay awake most of the night,every noise is at least a ten foot black bear,,,,,,,but you wake in the morning look out,and hopefully to a great veiw,we must be coming up to 400 nights,and still enjoy as much as the first week.
mags.
"The first time you lay awake, that is what it putting me off" 'wild camping' 6' and 16 stone, a big feardie!
Dave
______________________________________________________________ I´ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom!
My normal touring routine is to find a spot about 6-7pm. Then the next day I will normaly leave the van in the morning to go cyceling or do whatever else I intend. I will either be back in time to move pre lunch or pre-teatime. I will move on and stop somewhere for lunch/tea. I then move on again to get into the region of where I want to be the next night in the 6-7pm timeframe. I rarly spend two nights in the same spot but will if it is a good spot and I put in a hard days cyceling.
This is about wild camping......It depends on so many things, the most important being, where you are in the world??? In Bulgaria we wild camped regularily outside Monasteries, plenty of room & always a water supply. In Greece the beach, but only remote ones,in France small villages, in front of or near the Church( if there is no aire) In any country Sports grounds are good once the sportsmen have gone home! There is usually water & we have known hot showers open. We do always try to buy something locally the next day if we are near a shop. Another lovely option is a small fishing port just look on your map & find that piece of land jutting out to sea, always space & you merge into the landscape amongst the boats , vans & fishing paraphenalia. We are at our most cautious in Spain.
A point about security, we have a routine, 1, we always have our van in a 'ready to go' mode ie, pointing in right direction to leave, keys @ the ready, nothing left outside, step in up position & we dont use our overcab (Hymer) bed for obvious reasons. 2, we do have a home made strap system across the inside of the door & a similar system on the inside of the only sliding window. On paper this sounds a bit of a pain but actually its simple & routine & we sleep soundly. Wild camping is not about avoiding paying, to us being alone in often remote places & exploring the narrow roads the tiny hamlets the vast skies. Just do it!!!
Thanks Chris for starting this thread, something John and I have talked about often, but not tried yet.
We have used aires in france and spain often being the only van there. We have also driven to some which looked great in the book but did not feel right so moved on to our next choice.
I also worry about getting rid of black and grey waste, so would probably use a campsite/aire to dispose of these.
Certainly intend giving it a try this year though.
I think we need to stop using the term "Wildcamp" and find another terminolgoy, my understanding of wildcamping is something you do with a tent in the wilderness and eat the wildlife you snare (or the baked beans you took with you!).
Freestop is another matter and is something you just do
I'm not sure how or why this old thread got resurrected, but now it has been, I might as well join in :
Places I have slept the night in my van:
* on various family and friends' driveways
* on various streets outside friends' houses or someway down their street till I could find a space (either because of visiting them and no spare room, or because of them having parties and me not wanting to drive home afterwards)
* on the street within 5 minutes walk from where I live (no apparent reason)
* in various carparks of various nightclubs, with their permission (so as not to have to drive home afterwards)
* on a village green in Oxfordshire, spending the evening at the nearby pub, and filling up with water in the morning from said pub
* at Marine Crescent now no longer allowed....
If I'm planning to spend the night in the van, then I usually like to know quite early on where that will be.
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