I'm not a fan of wildcamping

two said:
I think 'wilding' means 'at no cost'. It's certainly not 'roughing it' in most of today's motorhomes.

It amuses me that folk who have invested so much in their equipment try to avoid paying a small amount in the scheme of things to stay somewhere. Then there are those who claim they are pumping money back into the local economy instead. I don't think we're all tight and devious, however. It should be little surprise that we watch the pennies because the very attraction of motor homing is to be able to holiday more economically and often.

I will stop where convenient when en route somewhere, but try to do so inconspicuously and then it's only overnight. I'll pick an approved spot if I'm staying for longer, which means a site/aire/stellplatz/etc..
I'm not ant-wilding, so long as it's done in a way that does not spoil it for others. We don't want to become outlawed like Gypsies. That's not to say that all Gypsies have unsociable habits; I understand that some are very good at laying tarmac.
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I see it as not so much avoiding paying an amount however small, but as not buying something that I don't need. And I don't claim to be putting money into the local economy because I don't see myself as someone else's income stream.
 
Jaws said:
A few years ago ( welllll.. about 10 actually :) )my son and I was on our way to Garda for a bike meet.. Due to a late arrival in Calais we could not do our normal and do it in one hit..
Somewhere well down the A8 autobahn we just puled off, dived in to the forest and set up the tents ..
During the following years we tented up in the alps, and 4 years ago all over Scotland..Only rarely using camp sites
I reckon that rates wild camping without a motorhome :)
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I had a 3,600 mile 'bucket list' sightseeing camping tour around Europe on my 65 yr old Matchless motorbike, pitching in farm fields on beaches, in woods and occasionally on sites (for showers and laundry).
CNV00014_04.JPG


One evening after pitching my tent in a wood on the Col du Tourmalet (2,100m) in the Pyrenees I heard voices and wandered back to the road to chat with a couple of (mad) cyclists. A couple of Gendarmes joined us. One pointed out a sign on a tree 'Attention! Ours' (Bears). Apparently the area is being 're-wilded' but some farmers put poison out believing that they kill their lambs and a bear with guts ache was not to be trifled with. I couldn't be bothered to move on but didn't sleep well.

Bear country. Col de Tourmalet 2110m..JPG
 
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As cmcardle75 quite rightly pointed out, sites are fine if you have arranged your travel plans to stop early. Generally, I don't and therefore sites tend to be closed by the time I want, or need, to stop for the night.
There is also an element of "because we can" to it as well. As has been stated, we are in a vehicle that has our comfortable beds, central heating a full shower and washing facilities and last, but certainly not least!! a toilet. When we have all these facilities with us, why do we "need" to go to a site every night? Putting money into the local economy of the places we visit certainly doesn't mean only giving it to a campsite does it? On our longer summer holiday, we tended to alternate every couple of nights, mainly because it was our first time ever in a motorhome. We enjoyed both aspects...the solitude of "wild" camping (as well as feeling "aren't we brave!!" as well as the more communal (certainly in Poland) feel of the campsites we stayed on.

No reason why you can't enjoy both in my humble opinion.

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RubyOptics said:
We enjoyed both aspects...the solitude of "wild" camping (as well as feeling "aren't we brave!!" as well as the more communal (certainly in Poland) feel of the campsites we stayed on.

No reason why you can't enjoy both in my humble opinion.
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Not had experience of Polish campsites while livng here for 10 years, but then there are not many in Southern Poland. There is a nice looking one here, but as it is only 2km away we will not be using that. Anyway off-site is so easy in Poland, and Slowakia.

Slight change of emphasis on campsites, but why do campsites when not busy not allow one to pay only for parking? We came across one on the edge of Ullswater that had about 100 pitches and about 10 occupied. We said we did not need facilities but they would not budge on price. We drove 1/2km down road and parked on the side of the road in a pretty spot with some inquisitve, friendly cows just over the stonewall, with good view of the water. Campsite lost £10-12 we would have offered.

Geoff
 
I would like to wildcamp occassionally. I’ve got two leisure batteries And a solar panel. The problem is I don’t know how long the lights, tv, water heater and slow cooker would last before I was in trouble?
 
Hammie said:
I would like to wildcamp occassionally. I’ve got two leisure batteries And a solar panel. The problem is I don’t know how long the lights, tv, water heater and slow cooker would last before I was in trouble?
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Not knowing the size of your battery bank, and how many watts of panel on your rooof, and what your usage is then it's difficult to say. Next time you are on a campsite, don't hook up and see how you get on,
 
Hammie said:
I would like to wildcamp occassionally. I’ve got two leisure batteries And a solar panel. The problem is I don’t know how long the lights, tv, water heater and slow cooker would last before I was in trouble?
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We had exactly the same worries the first time we went. I would second Jim's suggestion to try on a campsite without EHU. You'll get a good feel for what you can run and for how long and always have the peace of mind that you can just plug in if things go south!

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pandas said:
I am confused about the definition of ‘wild camping’. Pub car parks, lay-byes, boy racers, burying your toilet waste! Doesn’t sound like much fun to me. Had a brief look at the park4night sight for areas near ish us in the South East just to see what people are recommending. Ditto the issues I mentioned above with the occasional cul-de-sac in remote/rural area but also near houses where I would personally miffed if a few motorhomes stayed overnight. Not sure what the incentive is, they are not Aires, they are not in remote parts of Italy or Canada just seems to be an incentive based on cost. Why not stay in CL sites where they are set up, they have some facilities for dumping waste, grey and black and are in places that will not hack anybody off. If you want tob’wild’ it buy a small tent and walk off into the woods - just take your rubbish (and waste) back with you.


Note from Jim: This topic was split from another thread. It needed it's own thread as it would have ruined the one it was posted in.
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back in your cage, if thats what you want, i like it free as the wind, here we go. stay safein your den, ok.pj.
 
Wild cats...........:confused:


(I only left it for a couple of hours to go with biker chums to a bar in a Belgian village).

CNV00013.JPG
 
Hammie said:
I would like to wildcamp occassionally. I’ve got two leisure batteries And a solar panel. The problem is I don’t know how long the lights, tv, water heater and slow cooker would last before I was in trouble?
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An easy test is to stay on a site, on EHU, with the charger turned off. You can turn it on once the test is complete.
 
I spend the occasional night off-site when travelling. I hate booking an itinerary just to be certain of a site each night and if the stop is over-night only then I can stay on route. The worst aspect of using sites to break up a journey is the time wasted travelling to / from them. Most of my trips these days involve camping with a mixed group of tuggers and mh'ers. So most of the time the mh is used like a caravan. When on our own we use cls and FLT for the odd night.
 
TM59 said:
Agree nice looking place. Love the sound of running water. In your travels why not post photos of your nightly spots, it might change the minds of some.
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I do usually...they are on my travel thread

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Hammie said:
I would like to wildcamp occassionally. I’ve got two leisure batteries And a solar panel. The problem is I don’t know how long the lights, tv, water heater and slow cooker would last before I was in trouble?
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Depends how often you move and what you use to drain power. The last time my van was on hookup was about 25 days ago.
 
Northernraider said:
Neither of those pics are technically wild camping ...riding a motorbike somewhere and pitching a tent right next to it is no different from a car &caravan , motorhome or car and tent .

Nice try but failed miserably.
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Talking from your bottom I'm afraid, the bike is mine, a lovely wild clearing in a wood somewhere in France.

No layby.. no chance of being seen from the road, about half a mile away.
 
LesW said:
Talking from your bottom I'm afraid, the bike is mine, a lovely wild clearing in a wood somewhere in France.

No layby.. no chance of being seen from the road, about half a mile away.
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Its still not the definition of wild camping regardless of how you may wish it to be 🤷🏻‍♂️

Had you parked the bike and hiked with a backpack and tent 10 miles in to the woods you may have come close

Otherwise you're just doing exactly the same thing as the motorhome you're comparing to.
 
Northernraider said:
Otherwise you're just doing exactly the same thing as the motorhome you're comparing to.
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You're having a laugh ain't you... the same as a moho?.. wake up pal.

Even a 4x4 moho wouldn't have reached where I was..:LOL:
 
Can we stop being semantical/pedantical about this. (Two words i made up just now :D)

If you want to keep to the strict dictionary definition then it is not camping unless you are in a tent or bivvi bag. You can't "camp in a motorhome, unless you are pitching a tent next to it. " The OED only mentions tents.

So why do we call campsites that don't accept tents, "campsites"? Because colloquially we just do! Is it technically correct? probably not. Who really cares.

Large numbers of motorhomers refer to any overnighting not on a designated campsite as wild camping. Now we know it's not even camping and for the most part it's definitely not wild. But off-campsite parking has become widely known within our community as wild camping.

So...as far as our community is concerned.. No matter how many times you've carried your tent into the wilds of Patagonia; Wild Camping in your motorhome here, equals overnighting in places other than campsites. <full stop :D
 
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Wild camping is just two words. Some people use these words to describe having a night in a motorhome which is not on a campsite/aire/pub stop.

There is another site, frequented by motorhomers, that is called: Wild Camping
 
LesW said:
You're having a laugh ain't you... the same as a moho.. wake up pal.

Even a 4x4 moho wouldn't have reached where I was..:LOL:
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Wildcamping does not involve a vehicle of any description..

Its that simple

If you wish to get high and mighty avout people calling off grid camping in a motorhome wildcamping then you need to accept the fact that doing it on a motorbike is exactly the same

Wildcamping is done on foot or by bicycle

Not a motorised vehicle


Thats what i love about judgemental people

They always think their definition is somehow different.


Its not and you're not
 
Jim said:
Can we stop being semantical/pedantical about this. (Two words i made up just now :D)

If you want to keep to the strict dictionary definition then it is not camping unless you are in a tent or bivvi bag. You can't "camp in a motorhome, unless you are pitching a tent next to it. " The OED only mentions tents.

So why do we call campsites that don't accept tents, "campsites"? Because colloquially we just do! Is it technically correct? probably not. Who really cares.

Large numbers of motorhomers refer to any overnighting not on a designated campsite as wild camping. Now we know it's not even camping and for the most part it's definitely not wild. But off-campsite parking has become widely known within our community as wild camping.

So...as far as our community is concerned.. No matter how many times you've carried your tent into the wilds of Patagonia; Wild Camping in your motorhome here, equals overnighting in places other than campsites. <full stop :D
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Quiet morning is it , been reading a dictionary? Broken Link Removed :rofl:
pedantical - an obsolete word for pedantic
You'll start another discussion now about the meaning of words :unsure:

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