# Boondocking



## westbay (Oct 2, 2011)

At last a better term for what most people here do.  Let's face it, staying overnight in a carpark behind a pub, or in a rural layby isn't exactly "wild" and parking up isn't camping.

Do a google on Boondocking.  That's the phrase I'll use from now on:lol-061:


----------



## MartianTom (Oct 2, 2011)

westbay said:


> At last a better term for what most people here do.  Let's face it, staying overnight in a carpark behind a pub, or in a rural layby isn't exactly "wild" and parking up isn't camping.
> 
> Do a google on Boondocking.  That's the phrase I'll use from now on:lol-061:


 
It can be 'wild' - depending on who you've got with you, and what substances you're packing!  It can also be as camp as you like!


----------



## vwalan (Oct 2, 2011)

hi, you could stop parking in pub carparks etc and try wild camping. your choice. there are plenty of places you can park away from civilisation. try africa . bit difficult on a weekend jaunt though. its only a name .
sometimes people call it parasite camping . who cares just enjoy it. 
cheers alan.


----------



## MartianTom (Oct 2, 2011)

vwalan said:


> hi, you could stop parking in pub carparks etc and try wild camping. your choice. there are plenty of places you can park away from civilisation. try africa . bit difficult on a weekend jaunt though. its only a name .
> sometimes people call it parasite camping . who cares just enjoy it.
> cheers alan.


 
That's funny - on my last jaunt I was talking to a fellow motorhomer, and she said 'If you enjoy wild-camping, you'd like Africa.'  I didn't ask which part.  She made it sound like the Isle of Wight!


----------



## Deleted member 775 (Oct 2, 2011)

wild camping conjours up a tent on top of a mountain or deep in a remote valley somewhare . but this is wild camping for motor homes  you can hardly backpack a 3.5 ton hymer up  a mountain  (mind you that 4x4 has been found back up snowdon)  .so wild camping for us  (well not for me now at the mo) means down a road somewhare in a secluded spot away from as many people as possible . wild camping is not realy in the back of some boozer or in a car park in the middle of a town or city  although its handy at times and lots like doing it  i did many times .although not many pub car parks . so i suppose we do our form of wild camping . someone mentioned about africa yes that is wild camping after all in england the worst thing you may come accros is a rat sat on your bonnet , not a pride of lions waiting for you to strech your legs and empty the guzunder  and then having there breakfast at your expence . not only that pub carparks are a bit thin on the ground i belive .so we do our version of wild camping .


----------



## MartianTom (Oct 2, 2011)

I've Googled 'boon-docking' and come up with

"An American term that could be winging its way across the Pond, 'boondocking' is the practice of pulling off the highway to stay at free locations in your car, caravan, RV (you're a RoVer if you drive one of these) or Winnebago, in spots that have zero or limited facilities. For this reason it's also known as 'dry camping'."

I've never stopped in a pub car-park - but most pubs I know have zero or limited facilities after closing time.  So that certainly would be 'dry' camping.

The boondocks, or 'boonies' is an American term for the 'backwoods' (a la _Deliverance_).


----------



## Firefox (Oct 2, 2011)

I have come across this term before. Just more American reinvention of something we've already been doing a few hundred years longer then them!

I don't really have a problem with the English terms wild camping or free camping. You say parking up isn't exactly camping, a rural layby isn't exactly wild & I've had friends tell me you have to be in tent for it to be camping.

 But I don't reckon it's a big deal what you call it. If I park in a layby near a forest, during the night, I'm sleeping, so it doesn't matter, and during the day I'm going for walks in the forest. So I'm experiencing the forest environment pretty much the same as if I had been camping in the middle of the forest. 

Also, I don't know how many truly wild places there are left in the UK. Perhaps free camping would be a better description. I won't be using the term boondocking, but like Alan says, whatever you call it the important thing is to enjoy


----------



## maingate (Oct 2, 2011)

I doubt if boondocking will ever catch on for our pastime but I fully agree that what we do has got nothing 'wild' about it. As 'wildcamping' seems to be in general use, I go along with it.

If 'wildcamping' was limited to using a tent in Africa, there would be a lot of members on here who would not stay in that pastime for long. I called a 6 man army tent 'home' for months at a time in Africa and got close up and personal with some scary wildlife in that time. :scared:


----------



## John H (Oct 2, 2011)

MartianTom said:


> I've Googled 'boon-docking' and come up with
> 
> "An American term .......


 
And that's a good enough reason for me to avoid using it!!!!!!!!


----------



## groyne (Oct 2, 2011)

I'd hardly call any of this lot Boondockers:







I was in Whitby this morning and counted seventeen Motorhomes parked up on Westcliffe, some looking as if they had been there a while. Personally I thought the one parked and chocked in the Disabled parking (even though they had a Disabled badge) was taking a bit of a liberty.


----------



## n brown (Oct 2, 2011)

i think the wild camping phrase comes from the french"camping sauvage interdit"where sauvage looks like wild as in savage but just means outside in the open,rather than in a campsite


----------



## kangooroo (Oct 2, 2011)

maingate said:


> I doubt if boondocking will ever catch on for our pastime but I fully agree that what we do has got nothing 'wild' about it. As 'wildcamping' seems to be in general use, I go along with it.



It can be the next best thing though: Parking in a facility-free van overnight eg in the Scottish Highlands, Yorkshire Dales or Brecon Beacons etc, cooking on a portable gas burner (if at all) and living a self-sufficient lifestyle outdoors in the countryside, including showering under waterfalls, isn't too far removed.  My husband uses a backpacking tent or bivvy bag but I prefer the increased security of a tin-tent as my compromise.


----------



## Yorkshirepudding (Oct 2, 2011)

groyne said:


> I'd hardly call any of this lot Boondockers:
> I was in Whitby this morning and counted seventeen Motorhomes parked up on Westcliffe, some looking as if they had been there a while. Personally I thought the one parked and chocked in the Disabled parking (even though they had a Disabled badge) was taking a bit of a liberty.


 
I'd not describe it as wildcamping either. Small wonder we are becoming unwelcome in these places.


----------



## Byronic (Oct 2, 2011)

n brown said:


> i think the wild camping phrase comes from the french"camping sauvage interdit"where sauvage looks like wild as in savage but just means outside in the open,rather than in a campsite


 
It's always the "interdit" bit that's essential to understand!


----------



## Tbear (Oct 2, 2011)

I don't know about you guys but don't Dock a Boon, I Park a Motorhome. Whether its wild on not tends to depend on the neighbours

Richard


----------



## Byronic (Oct 2, 2011)

I rather like the Spanish (applied inconsistently of course) definitions of Parking and Camping when applied to motorcaravans so called Wildcamping.
You are Camping when you let out the awning, put out the chairs etc., and you're not when you don't, you are Parking. And if the cop doesn't see it that way, your best off Driving.


----------



## MartianTom (Oct 2, 2011)

Yorkshirepudding said:


> I'd not describe it as wildcamping either. Small wonder we are becoming unwelcome in these places.


 
It does point to an issue.  I've been moaning about the newly-introduced ban on overnight motorhome parking at Marine Crescent, Tankerton - one of my favourite spots.  But it's only a short piece of road and one night I counted 11 motorhomes there.  It looked like a linear camp-site.  If I lived in one of the nearby houses, would it get on my nerves to keep seeing it?  Maybe.  One of the motorhomes, too, was always there - and it's still there at the moment, despite the ban.  I think someone's living in it full-time.  If I was doing that, I'd want to move around a bit.  I'd probably not want to stay more than one night in one place.  

What are you supposed to do, though?  It's like when you're on holiday and you find a really good beach that's quite remote and hardly anyone goes to.  So you tell everyone about it... and pretty soon, everyone goes there...


----------



## Byronic (Oct 2, 2011)

MartianTom...... don't tell everyone about your remote beach! Incidently does such a beach still exist in England, which is where I presume you mean? 
Seriously though I can't see the Wildcamping situation getting better here or on mainland Europe. Motorcaravanning has become a victim of its own success, just too popular. The old maxim "less popular is more" comes to mind.
Paradoxically this site, and others of course are just adding more encouragement.
If you take France as being the shining example that many of us hope follow, then the tendency there has been to become more restrictive, ie less tolerance of Camping Sauvage, charging for previously free aires, high campsite fees, restrictive access for motorcaravans.
I've been motorhoming since the early 70s to this day (with gaps inbetween) and in that time (at least to me) the changes have been very notable. 
Still best look on the bright side, the 'vans have improved no end, just less places to put them.


----------



## MartianTom (Oct 2, 2011)

Byronic said:


> MartianTom...... don't tell everyone about your remote beach! Incidently does such a beach still exist in England, which is where I presume you mean?



Just a hypothetical one, sadly.

Incidentally... according to Google Translate, 'wild camping' in Polish is 'dziki kemping'.  I like the sound of that.

Better than Armenian, anyway.  վայրի Գեղեցկության մրցույթ anyone?


----------



## Admin (Oct 3, 2011)

I like this definition : A U.K. term to refer to staying overnight without a designated camping area


----------

