havingfun said:
hi,
as most people who wild camp say,use your sense,if it feels good it should be good,we parked in faro,lyons,and several more cities on our trip,but spent a little time weighing up where to park,but once you decide,enjoy.
mags
I would agree with that up to a point. but I certainly would not park up in a major city, a small rural village maybe but never a city or major town. Foreign registered vehicle and not just motohomes are targetted in many countries by criminal gangs who operate not only on the European motorway network but in the heart of many heavily populated towns an cities. And as the recession bites deeper these gangs will become more desparate.
My brother has been tramping the roads of Europe and the Middle East for a long time, and has been dragged out of the cab of his truck in the middle of the night at gunpoint in Italy. More recently, as twice had his Merc Sprinter white van broken into whilst he was sleeping in it. and last year he saw a chap stab a pointed screwdriver into his rear tyre as he bought a Czech vignette near the border. His experience told not to tackle the chap, but to put as much distance between the two of them. so he managed to get 5kms down the road before changing the wheel at a well lit junction.
Only today, he was telling me the situation is getting much across much of expanded European Union
Don't think I'm not against wild camping, or being alarmist, better to be armed with the facts, then we can all make a more educated decision rather than rely on the "It wont happen to me" with fingers crossed behind your back and your heart in your mouth.
Finally, I live on a terraced street, the kind of street that people would look at and think this looks nice and quiet we'll park here. Come 2am and the local revellers come staggering out of the clubs, disco's in the town centre and the wings mirrors on cars begin to fly by the local would be Johnny Wilkinsons. Well three winng mirrors later and a scratch down to the metal along the entire length of a three week old car. We decided to park ours 10miles away on a storage site and pay £440 a year for the privelage.
