Returning from middlewood, id booked a couple of extra days annual leave for travel recovery and bimbiling about, as it was it turned out my mate verloc also had some time off so on Monday lunchtime we set off to spend a couple of days in the woods.
We had a few places we wanted to check out, the first a remote lochan was ok, but a little more barren and cold than we expected, was mid afternoon and the water was still frozen, and snow on the ground, bit cold we thought...
We had one other place up our sleeve but, the OS maps showed a proper road, but in reality was a dirt track that I was not prepared to take my less than a week old car down without having checked it out on foot first
So thus it was to go back to a spot we had visited in the past that was reasonably close to the road with a layby to park and not to far a walk in, a good amount of dead standing birch that burns really well on the cold nights.
We got there just before the light faded and setup rapidly as the dark descended. A good evening was had around a spark free and warm fire.
The problem began when I awoke to hear voices, possibly verloc on the phone, then I heard my name... Twas the police... None to happy about being out in the woods at 8am in the morning either.
Apparently somebody had complained about the "abandoned" car that was near the woods. pfft! That and the fact that Arnold Clark in their wish to cover my new car as much as possible in their logo, had put new number plates on with their logo at the top, but had ballsed it up, and got it a digit out on the back, so effectively the car ive been driving the past week was illegal.
On the front I had a tax disk that was correct but a works carpark pass that had my old car reg on it, and when they checked who it was registered to it still showed up as being in trade. I guess from a police point of view it all smelled a bit fishy.
They turned up in a kind of Good cop Bad cop fashion with one pulling up a deck chair to quiz me about the car and was pretty good humored, second was the bad cop reminding me it was an offense to have the wrong plates on the back for "dodging speed cameras".
Once that was sorted and let off without any points we where told the "land owner" had asked that we be moved on !!
Verloc who was more awake than me argued the fact about the land reform act 2005 allowing wild camping in Scotland etc, but Bad cop was adamant that the act only applied to Government owned land and not private estate land which we where camped on.
Given id got off with the number plate offense which wasn't my fault, and we did have a small fire which we did not have permission for I did not want to argue, but did leave a bitter taste on what was a good night out otherwise.
Some photos before we tore down and hot footed it home.
Stoo.
We had a few places we wanted to check out, the first a remote lochan was ok, but a little more barren and cold than we expected, was mid afternoon and the water was still frozen, and snow on the ground, bit cold we thought...
We had one other place up our sleeve but, the OS maps showed a proper road, but in reality was a dirt track that I was not prepared to take my less than a week old car down without having checked it out on foot first
So thus it was to go back to a spot we had visited in the past that was reasonably close to the road with a layby to park and not to far a walk in, a good amount of dead standing birch that burns really well on the cold nights.
We got there just before the light faded and setup rapidly as the dark descended. A good evening was had around a spark free and warm fire.
The problem began when I awoke to hear voices, possibly verloc on the phone, then I heard my name... Twas the police... None to happy about being out in the woods at 8am in the morning either.
Apparently somebody had complained about the "abandoned" car that was near the woods. pfft! That and the fact that Arnold Clark in their wish to cover my new car as much as possible in their logo, had put new number plates on with their logo at the top, but had ballsed it up, and got it a digit out on the back, so effectively the car ive been driving the past week was illegal.
On the front I had a tax disk that was correct but a works carpark pass that had my old car reg on it, and when they checked who it was registered to it still showed up as being in trade. I guess from a police point of view it all smelled a bit fishy.
They turned up in a kind of Good cop Bad cop fashion with one pulling up a deck chair to quiz me about the car and was pretty good humored, second was the bad cop reminding me it was an offense to have the wrong plates on the back for "dodging speed cameras".
Once that was sorted and let off without any points we where told the "land owner" had asked that we be moved on !!
Verloc who was more awake than me argued the fact about the land reform act 2005 allowing wild camping in Scotland etc, but Bad cop was adamant that the act only applied to Government owned land and not private estate land which we where camped on.
Given id got off with the number plate offense which wasn't my fault, and we did have a small fire which we did not have permission for I did not want to argue, but did leave a bitter taste on what was a good night out otherwise.
Some photos before we tore down and hot footed it home.
Stoo.
I know you both and neither of you deserved this reaction from the police.
