Best "wild" camping spots

[TVRBRZ]

I guess the definition of Wild Camping is open to interpretation. My take is that it covers backpacking, bikepacking or canoe/kayak/SUP "packing" where you go at least a few km away from the road. This seems to be the definition in Scotland within the access rights and nice glossy guide books terms too.

I've done all three above, so I consider myself a "Wild Camper". However on my recent NC500 hoon I did a bit of stealth roadside vagrancy...



I suppose if I'd kipped in the car I'd be "roadside vanning". Semantics. I guess that if Vanlifers have appropriated the term "Wild Camping" for a non-aire or campsite parking spot then they need to appreciate that the few back/bike/canoe "packers" might get narked.

However there are considerably more vanlifers than backpackers etc, so I guess at some point "Wild Camping" will become the popular lexicon for roadside vanning. A pity IMHO, but when an entire website devoted to roadside vanning is called "wildcamping.org", I guess sadly inevitable.

Perhaps we few "true" wild campers should just go back to calling what we do "backpacking, bikepacking or canoe camping and gracefully surrender the term "Wild Camp" to the new interpretation.

Still, below a proper "backpack bivvy" miles from the car park....

[Evanivitch]

TVRBRZ said:

Still, below a proper "backpack bivvy" miles from the car park....

Nice cooking stand, is that a decathlon special?

[TVRBRZ]

Evanivitch said:

Nice cooking stand, is that a decathlon special?

Nah....quality a bit better, Alpkit...!



Dirt cheap breakfast mind

[ATG]

Bumped into an old mate at Euston Station last night. I was about to get a train to home via Crewe, he was getting on the Caledonian Sleeper for a two day hike with an intervening biv in the Highlands. Not in any way jealous. Not in the slightest.

[LimaDelta]

TVRBRZ said:

I suppose if I'd kipped in the car I'd be "roadside vanning". Semantics. I guess that if Vanlifers have appropriated the term "Wild Camping" for a non-aire or campsite parking spot then they need to appreciate that the few back/bike/canoe "packers" might get narked.

However there are considerably more vanlifers than backpackers etc, so I guess at some point "Wild Camping" will become the popular lexicon for roadside vanning. A pity IMHO, but when an entire website devoted to roadside vanning is called "wildcamping.org", I guess sadly inevitable.

The thing is, in many parts of the world it is possible to take your vehicle into truly wild places, Oz, NZ, USA/Canada, most of Africa, etc. It's only really Europe and in particular the UK where you are so constrained by roads. England and Wales have few greenlanes, and most are only a few miles long and don't really take you anywhere a metalled road wouldn't, and in Scotland it is literally impossible to get off the tarmac without permission of an estate owner.

The UK based 'vanlifer' is the same as the UK based OLLI Land Rover owner, with a winch and sand-ladders in Tesco carpark. The brochure sells you this:





but the reality is





But I guess there is nothing wrong with dreaming about that RTW trip, and living out the fantasy a bit. We all do the same in our own ways.

[TVRBRZ]

I buy in to that fantasy too - I've done a bit of "overlanding" in Oman with a Hilux. If I'm ever lucky enough to go to Oz or SA then I'm hiring a rig and I'll be off into the bush in an instant.

Being a Subaru Outback owner, I've researched and driven the handful of "forest" scenic drives in the UK, and then dreamed of touring Norway in winter off road....

But yes the reality is that the only real off-roading I do is the more challenging muddy field on the formal campsite.

So are you saying that "Wild Camping" is a global term for vehicle born off grid, and that we in the UK have been using it wrong? Just curious- not being contentious...

[LimaDelta]

TVRBRZ said:

I buy in to that fantasy too - I've done a bit of "overlanding" in Oman with a Hilux. If I'm ever lucky enough to go to Oz or SA then I'm hiring a rig and I'll be off into the bush in an instant.

Being a Subaru Outback owner, I've researched and driven the handful of "forest" scenic drives in the UK, and then dreamed of touring Norway in winter off road....

But yes the reality is that the only real off-roading I do is the more challenging muddy field on the formal campsite.

So are you saying that "Wild Camping" is a global term for vehicle born off grid, and that we in the UK have been using it wrong? Just curious- not being contentious...

Wild camping is just that - camping in a wild place. How you get there shouldn't really matter. I think for most of the world the terms 'Van Life' and 'Wild Camping' are not mutually exclusive. Nobody walks into the GAFA for example. It's just in the UK the notion that you can reach any truly wild place in a motor vehicle is flawed.

[TVRBRZ]

LimaDelta said:

Wild camping is just that - camping in a wild place. How you get there shouldn't really matter. I think for most of the world the terms 'Van Life' and 'Wild Camping' are not mutually exclusive. Nobody walks into the GAFA for example. It's just in the UK the notion that you can reach any truly wild place in a motor vehicle is flawed.

[Antony Moxey]

I’d always took wild camping to simply mean off grid and not on a site with hook ups and waste facilities. I guess if the snobs want to get uppity about someone parking a Motorhome in a layby and not trekking 40 miles into the undergrowth with just a machete and a pair of £400 walking boots for company then that’s up to them, but then there’ll always be those that get upset that someone’s pinched their labels and jumped on their bandwagon.

[LimaDelta]

Antony Moxey said:

I’d always took wild camping to simply mean off grid and not on a site with hook ups and waste facilities. I guess if the snobs want to get uppity about someone parking a Motorhome in a layby and not trekking 40 miles into the undergrowth with just a machete and a pair of £400 walking boots for company then that’s up to them, but then there’ll always be those that get upset that someone’s pinched their labels and jumped on their bandwagon.

I guess if you live and work in a city then a layby near some countryside is a 'wild' experience.

[Evanivitch]

LimaDelta said:

I guess if you live and work in a city then a layby near some countryside is a 'wild' experience.

Anything outside of Deliveroo and UberEats range qualifies!

The "wild" doesn't really exist in the UK, we've made our mark and managed every inch. There's certainly some enjoyment to getting into a secluded wood block and chilling out for a night, but it's about as wild as it gets when the sheep and cows bother you in the morning.

[ATG]

Evanivitch said:

LimaDelta said:

I guess if you live and work in a city then a layby near some countryside is a 'wild' experience.

Anything outside of Deliveroo and UberEats range qualifies!

The "wild" doesn't really exist in the UK, we've made our mark and managed every inch. There's certainly some enjoyment to getting into a secluded wood block and chilling out for a night, but it's about as wild as it gets when the sheep and cows bother you in the morning.

Reminds me of tales of pizza deliveries to cross roads in the middle of Dartmoor where a "bush" stands up, walks over to the confused scooter rider, offers him a credit card, then takes food back to the rest of his section who are sitting in a ditch practicing hiding and living off the land.

[LimaDelta]

ATG said:

Evanivitch said:

LimaDelta said:

I guess if you live and work in a city then a layby near some countryside is a 'wild' experience.

Anything outside of Deliveroo and UberEats range qualifies!

The "wild" doesn't really exist in the UK, we've made our mark and managed every inch. There's certainly some enjoyment to getting into a secluded wood block and chilling out for a night, but it's about as wild as it gets when the sheep and cows bother you in the morning.

Reminds me of tales of pizza deliveries to cross roads in the middle of Dartmoor where a "bush" stands up, walks over to the confused scooter rider, offers him a credit card, then takes food back to the rest of his section who are sitting in a ditch practicing hiding and living off the land.

Guilty. Even better if you order via a telephone patch on an HF net (we didn't have many mobiles in the 90s).

[TVRBRZ]

LimaDelta said:

Guilty. Even better if you order via a telephone patch on an HF net (we didn't have many mobiles in the 90s).

And you used BATCO....

Didn't get pizza on my SERE, none of us caught anything with the snares and the DS were so exasperated that one of them went off and shot a rabbit. 8 of us shared one skinny rabbit, I got a foreleg. We were so grateful for the sustenance that the next morning we built a raft and put the pelt and some hexy tabs on it. We then set it alight and pushed it off onto the Loch to give it a Viking Funeral...

[Evanivitch]

LimaDelta said:

ATG said:

Evanivitch said:

LimaDelta said:

I guess if you live and work in a city then a layby near some countryside is a 'wild' experience.

Anything outside of Deliveroo and UberEats range qualifies!

The "wild" doesn't really exist in the UK, we've made our mark and managed every inch. There's certainly some enjoyment to getting into a secluded wood block and chilling out for a night, but it's about as wild as it gets when the sheep and cows bother you in the morning.

Reminds me of tales of pizza deliveries to cross roads in the middle of Dartmoor where a "bush" stands up, walks over to the confused scooter rider, offers him a credit card, then takes food back to the rest of his section who are sitting in a ditch practicing hiding and living off the land.

Guilty. Even better if you order via a telephone patch on an HF net (we didn't have many mobiles in the 90s).

What else are you supposed to do before the range opens for night firing?