first wild camp

[roadvader]

what do folk recommend to get used to this?,find somewhere close to home an just go for it?
local hills,woods etc...seems scary!!!

[Justin]

Reasonably local wouldn't be a bad idea to begin with as you've more chance of knowing the local terrain.
Hills, woods, etc. etc all work well.
Just remember to leave no trace of your stay and try and be discreet if you're just stealth camping (i.e. without seeking prior permission). Pitching a few moments before sunset and leaving soon after dawn works for me, unless it's a nice secluded spot, then a lie-in is usually relished.

You can't beat crawling into a nice cosy sleeping bag before cooking a plate of plasta, etc. etc. , a big mug of hot chocolate and settling down to have a read or a listen to the radio.

If you cycle far enough to get to your destination, you'll be too knackered to care or be scared by anything that goes bump in the night

[snibgo]

If you have a back garden, that's a good place to practise the mechanics of setting up and striking camp. When you are out cycling you can practise looking for suitable locations that aren't overlooked by public places, are distant from housing so unlikely to have dog-walkers nearby, and so on.

[eileithyia]

If you have a back garden, that's a good place to practise the mechanics of setting up and striking camp. When you are out cycling you can practise looking for suitable locations that aren't overlooked by public places, are distant from housing so unlikely to have dog-walkers nearby, and so on.

..and running water.


Mind; best place we ended up was the corner of a restaurant car park, we didn't know it was, we just ran out of time in the face of an Alpine storm.... we spotted some flat grassland next to the road and just headed for it. The tent had only been pitched 3x before, I did not realise I could get it pitched so fast , and get the 3 yr old into shelter. What water we had in our water bottles had to suffice along with what we managed to collect from the rain in the cooking pots
It was only th enext day we found out we had camped in the car park of a closed restaurant, but no one bothered us.

[alicej]

I wild camped for the first time last summer, it was awesome! I did it with my partner who has done it before, which helped. Totally added to the thrill, and the second time I did it (2 days later) we found a huge clearing surrounded by forest. Got up for a pee before sleeping and it was totally silent, just amazing.

Was woken up in the night by what we assumed were foxes, making such an incredible sound that I half believed my partner trying to convince me there must be bears in the woods

Our criteria when looking for a spot were; not overlooked by buildings, no livestock, not visible from roads or footpaths, could camp without damaging crops etc, reasonably flat and not too full of brambles & nettles.

We set up just before the sun went down but I'm not very good at getting up so we didn't leave as early as would probably be ideal. Camped also right near the gates of fields etc (just around the corner out of sight) so that if anyone came in in the morning we'd be obvious - sometimes livestock are moved early in the morning and it's better then to be seen and to realise straight away so you can apologise and move.

We carry a platypus water bottle and get as much water as we'll need sometime late in the day to save carrying it very far.

And of course, leave no trace. Don't forget to count all your tent pegs to make sure you haven't left any 'cos they can hurt cow's feet! Mine are painted red.

If we went too long without finding anywhere then our plan was to just knock on the door of a house and ask if we could borrow their lawn until morning, but we never had to do that in the end. Made the whole holiday so much cheaper, and was so much more fun than campsites!

[vernon]

For your first wild camp, I suggest that you pick somewhere local and select the spot while there's enough light to make sure that you are out of the line of sight of the road, footpaths and inhabited buildings. My very first wild camp was when I walked the Dalesway and spent the first evening in various hostelries in Ilkley before visiting the chip shop and walking into the night before pitching the tent on some level grassy field in the middle of nowhere, so we thought.

We were woken by voices at 5:30 in the morning and couldn't figure out what was going on until we popped our headss out of the tents and saw that we'd camped on Ilkley golf course. Good job we hadn't selected one of the greens for our pitches

[Audax67]

My first wild camp was perfect, in a peaceful field near Cheltenham. The second one was halfway over some mountains in Wales, not with the bike but in a wheezy old Citroën Dyane that could only just make it up the hills. We pitched by the light of the headlamps and found that the "greensward" was about 1 cm thick over rock and the pegs would only go in horizontally. Fortunately we were young and it wasn't windy, and we had other things on our minds... slept very well in the end.

[james01]

I once stealth-camped by plunging a couple of hundred yards into the woods through which my road passed. I pitched the tent, dragged the bike back to the road and cycled into the local town a couple of miles away. After a pleasant evening I returned looking forward to a good sleep only to realise I couldn't remember where to swing off the road into the woods. I must have spent a panicky 2 hours searching and only found the tent by luck when my lamp picked out the reflective guy-ropes. So my tip is: don't be so stealthy that you can't find your tent

[daddig]

Camping wether wild or otherwise is always good,just get out there and do it,no rehearsal ! Make sure you leave no trace of yourself,only memories ,not footprints!

[iviehoff]

Personally I wouldn't try stealth camping until I'd first got used to (1) camping and then (2) legal wild camping without the stealth requirement.

I often find necessity is the mother of invention, so I'd go somewhere where wild-camping is practical and sensible, eg, Scottish highlands, and get on with it. And for me the whole point of wild camping is being in the wild, and there isn't a lot of that round where most of us live. Add to which it is not actually legal in England and Wales, a law that tends to be enforced more powerfully in national parks, where you'd probably most like to do it, though it is tolerated in certain areas. Of course you need to be familiar with your equipment, so, if you haven't yet, first go and camp in a campsite and get used to the logistics of camping first. Then get used to the concept of finding suitable wild pitches, so Scotland where you are largely OK to do that. I'd leave stealth camping in your local area for last.

[roadvader]

hi everyone,some great tips and little stories there!!! golf course!! ,going to go for the garden to get familiar with my tent and go with the recommendation of legal campsites to,that sounds a good idea,also was thinking whilst out on the road bike to keep my eyes for a possible stealth campsite!! closer to home.

i was awoke the other night in my bed by badgers or foxes,and made me jump!!!
but i guess you get used to nature and being out there!!

[indy]

Personally I wouldn't try stealth camping until I'd first got used to (1) camping and then (2) legal wild camping without the stealth requirement.

I think thats great advice.