Complete Newb - Wild Camping

[512Chris]

Hi guys,

Happen to come across a guy on youtube by the name of Joe Robinet and have been completely hooked the last few weeks on bushcraft and wild camping.

A quick google reveals isn't as straight forward to do so in the UK as is in America/Canada.

Is there anywere in the UK (east midlands would be great!) that i would be able to go out, pitch a tent and cook some food over and open fire in a forest (i am aware of the implications of fire + forest) it would be a smallish fire using stones/rocks.

I also have a drone so would be great to go somewere that has a bit of eye candy!

Cheers,
Chris

 

[BJJJ]

There is a woodland where wild camping is allowed and campfires, look up Beehive bushcraft in Liecestershire. I beilieve the cost per night is about £5. Facilities are very limited. It might suit your needs. It is not a regular campsite. If you use facebook I think there is a dedicated page with all the details.

 

[Laurentius]

There is a woodland where wild camping is allowed and campfires, look up Beehive bushcraft in Liecestershire. I beilieve the cost per night is about £5. Facilities are very limited. It might suit your needs. It is not a regular campsite. If you use facebook I think there is a dedicated page with all the details.

I am tempted to say that if there is a facility to collect your five pounds then it isn't really wild camping. There is a site in Wales where there is an honesty box to pay for your privelege at the end of Cym Bychan, it is quite remote.

 

[Janne]

Legal wild camping is quite difficult in UK.
Take a cheap flight to Sweden and do it properly!

 

[vestlenning]

Freedom to roam!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam

 

[Andy T]

Try northwood, its a great meet with friendly people.

 

[Nice65]

Freedom to roam!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam

Not camp though.

 

[Janne]

Not camp though.

Depends on which country.
Even if legal, it should be one or two nights maximum on each site, to minimize the impact.

 

[BJJJ]

I am tempted to say that if there is a facility to collect your five pounds then it isn't really wild camping. There is a site in Wales where there is an honesty box to pay for your privelege at the end of Cym Bychan, it is quite remote.

I guess everyone has a view on what constitutes wild camping.

 

[nobby8126]

Ask Farmers and landowners re their woodland or try beehive. You may as well be sure you won't get moved on for your first time. After you have the bug You'll be all over google earth finding locations and as long as you're sensible and clean you'll rarely encounter problems.
Also reach out to see if there are any local groups in your area generally the community are a great bunch and will help and advise.

 

[C_Claycomb]

I think that taking small steps in the journey towards wild camping is a good way for someone new to learn. There can be a lot of new stuff to take on board, and having some sort of toilet can make the learning easier. One of the things that really winds (wound) up the New Zealanders is visitors defecating all over the place around beauty spots, and either leaving toilet paper and wet wipes behind, or risking bush fires when they try to burn them.

Using stones or rocks to contain a fire is not the way to do it. The stones will carry the scorch mark for a very long time, not "leave no trace". If you get the wrong stones you can get them to explode. Stones under a fire can help shield the ground, but if the ground is likely to catch light you cannot count on the stones preventing it, and if it isn't going to catch light, you don't need to shield it. There are lots of resources around for learning how do do this well. Beware of using material from Youtube, you need a good source, and it needs to be aimed at the sort of ground and location you are using.

You are a little late to come down to the Bush Moot, just from your planning point of view, but you could get along to the Wilderness Gathering and I am sure you would have fun.

 

[Robson Valley]

All of the very best wild camping places in my district have very good natural stone fire rings.
Sure there's a fire scar. So is a 10,000 ha wild fire. Tramping and compacting soils to make a trail is a bigger scar.
Stone fire rings do a really good job of keeping everyone's fire in the same place.
There isn't charcoal and ash mess scattered everywhere. That's most valuable.
The stone fire rings also indicate the good places to camp.
The stones are those which didn't crack from the fire heat, too.

All the best places fill up with hunting parties in Sept/Oct. Same people, same places, same 2 weeks.
Nobody local ( we sleep at home). These hunting camps leave not a single trace at all.
I've searched the day after they pull out. Absolutely nothing human to find.

I can pop you into the wilderness with the Grizzly bears and the eagles in about 30 minutes.
Absolutely stunning smooth and level camp sites beside rushing, roaring mountain streams.
British Columbia Law says you have 14 days then move on, which isn't hard to do if you need to stick it out for 6 weeks.

There's nothing to forage and you might be facing 10-15' snow in the winter and you cannot build a cabin.

 

[Janne]

Wet the ground under the fire shield ( stones, bricks, sand..) really, really well. Then it will be fine.

I am anal of not torching the land scape, I have seen areas in the arctic Sweden that were fired more than a Century previously, and they look like the fire was yesterday. Sterile.

I even empty my bladder before I cover it up with the heat shield material.


I resist writing about toilet habits until I get the 'Yes" or 'No' from the Mods!

I think it is one of the more important subjects . Nothing to be prude about.
IMHO.

 

[Robson Valley]

That's exactly why we use the existing fire rings.
Camp sites are camp sites. Our situation is so different
Up the Holmes river, you might not see another human for a week or more.
You can have the fire ban tent sites, cheek-to-jowl in a National Park or
be mindful and enjoy a wilderness site.

One fire ring/pit is almost comical. I'll bet that people have been adding stone, BIG flat stones,
for the last 20-30 years. Quite the "fire place" now, stone shelves and all.
It isn't a Henge yet but it's getting there.

Speaking of Grizz, grab your camera. There's a sow with 2 cubs, checking out houses and apple trees,
up Mountainview road. 10 minutes.

 

[Janne]

She is doing a recon. No Apple Pies and Sauce this year for you if she is clever!

A fire place is basically the only thing where I do not 'leave no traces".

I try to find an old one. Usually the previous people have chosen a nice flat piece of ground, or some other quality. maybe scenic, maybe dry, maybe good fishing.

Fireplaces in those instances tend to be used over and over again.

I used to find very old fireplaces in the Swedish and Norwegian mountains. Sometimes hundreds of years old, considering the lichen and moss on the stones and fire floor.

 

[Robson Valley]

Your entire landscape has been culturally modified with human intent for thousands of years.
What is the climax seral stage in succession in your biogeoclimatic zones?
Got any of that left at all? That alone would be "wild."

From what little I've seen, I think that I'd like to laze about and tent camp someplace in Yorkshire,
over towards Rosedale, Egton Bridge and Whitby. I don't think I want a place to visit with people walking by.

Just about everything here in my district is wild.
There are no constructions whatsoever older than the railroad, so that's about 100 years.
50km east, there's some sketchy evidence of a seasonal First Nations fish camp on the Fraser river but that's it!

We have one last patch of climax cedar forest 100km west which has not been burned over in the past 4,500 years.
It's now a vast reserve of 11,190 ha with wheel-chair accessible board walk trails. Soil compression is a life-killer so nobody walks in there.
The ceremonial opening of Chun T'oh Whudujut (The Ancient Forest) is early September.

 

[Janne]

Extremely few decently large wild areas left in Europe, not even in Russia.
Tiny patches, of mainly unusable forest, bogs and such.

Areas where you are unlikely to meet a fellow human - yes.
Want to do wild camping but you live in Stockholm? Take the local train a few stops, walk for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Human contact - not likely.

In England it is a bit worse. When I lived in East Sussex, I had to buy a piece of land ( derelict field with a piece of attached forest with a stream) to be able to do what I wanted snd to teach my young son some nature skills.