I am new to this forum, glad I found it though, some cool people and information here. I will post some brief information on my experiences. In brief, I have travelled around mostly Europe, on an off, for several weeks at a time, over a period of 20 plus years, either backpacking, cycling, hitchhiking or more recently motor-homing in a variety of vans, such as a Peugeot Partner, Peugeot Expert, Renault Master type vans and hopefully soon to acquite Fiat Ducato van or similar wide bodied vehicle.
What I look for when "wild camping" is firstly : safety : can I park up somewhere without being either 1) arrested, 2) robbed or 3) hassled. Second on my list comes water, ie access to clean drinking water. Is there a source of nearby water from which I can fill up water containers ? In France it is easy with camping aires and the like, that country is superbly set up for the Camping-Caravanner-Motorhomer. However, in the U.K., it is not set up like this at all. So, water access is way more complicated, but not impossible. In my view, large motorhomes/vans in U.K. cities is a nightmare. Parking risks/clamping/fines. I can't be bothered with cities. OK, one can use the Camping and Caravanning Club's sites, (which are well equipped), but this is going way off-topic as this website is I believe all about "wild camping" ie off the grid, and since I have a lot of experience "off-grid" or "wild-camping", I shall stick to this.
Water can be got from rivers and streams : since it rains so much in the U.K., obtaining decent freshwater should never be a problem. Think of places like Dartmoor, Exmoor, Brecon Beacons, Peak District, Lake District, Forestof Bowland etc etc.......all these places have myriad opportunities for copious quantities of fresh water. Obviously one needs to make sure it is drinkable ie no sheep have pissed in it. Boil it if in doubt, or use iodine.........How can one fill up the massive water tanks in a van quickly from a river or stream. Think of a cyphon system. Length of long hose needed. Not everyone can carry 20 litre plus jerry cans hundreds of meters from river or stream back to your van. Given industrial quantities of U.K. rainfall, you could try capturing rainwater ! I think either Wales or Scotland are probably the best places for wild camping in the U.K. as there are less people there.
In France, water is available on camping aires (sometimes you must pay a small amount ie € 5). I have also found public water taps in normal car parks. Any village, town or city that was Roman would normally have a public fountain. Sometimes these are hard to find. I had to search hard in Lyon in France to find one this summer (it was by the river). I had to ask locals where there was one. In Spain, water is easily obtained pretty much everywhere. Because of the former massive presence of Romans in Spain, pretty much every city without exception has a public water supply meaning fountain ("fuente de agua (potable)")
Safety wise, I actually feel most safe wild camping in France, the countryside and mountains have a calm and safe feeling about them. The beaches, from the border with Spain up to the north, are starting to have some restrictions placed on them viz a viz moter homes. I was down south of Bordeaux this summer and upon reading the local paper discovered that the local police were starting to clamp down on wild camping in none "camping-aire" locations.
Here is a secret bit of information which I shall reveal to this community : apparently, if you park up your vehicle on the car park of a shop/supermarket overnight, the police cannot touch you because it is private property. Example : car park of "Carrefour" supermarket. They are a large private company. The French police have no jurisdiction on their car parks. Same applies to Auchan, Decathlon, Lidl, Aldi........Ikea......some places have HUGE car parks........and I have seen some places have a dozen large motorhomes parked up overnight. Nobody bats an eyelid. It is normal over there !! La vida bella !! I can't imagine being able to do this in the U.K., let alone feeling safe doing so.
Regarding electricity, best to have
solar/wind/large batteries..........sometimes difficult to get power unless you pasy for it.
Regarding weather, and after having talked about safety and water a fair bit, weather is something I could go on about for years. I will cut straight to the chase. The weather in the British winter is just horribly DEPRESSING. Why ? Well, I think that the absence of decent amounts of sunshine, too much wind pretty much all the time, grey skies, too much rain. But the absolutely worst thing is NO SUNSHINE. For this reason, U.K. wild camping between October and March is a big no no. I would consider only really south of Bordeaux for some sunshine, Pyreness can have some nice snowy and sunny weather if you like skiing. Wild camping in Spain in the winter is OK, pretty much all the way from Valencia down to Tarifa is good. The warmest spot being the coastline between Denia and Alicante with Calpe of particular note. The west coast of Portugal is going to be windier and greyer with the sea colder. If you don't like rain you might consider Europes only desert. This is the area around Almeria. If you are a person that likes skiing like me and sunshine, I would recommend the Italian Dolomites where they have 300 days a year of sunshine which is probably where I will be in early 2016.
Reference water in the mountains, now we are talking........How about the purest, best water possible, naturally filtered by rocks and vegetation, absolutely pure. Just make sure no sheep have pissed in it higher up the slope. Think snow melt-water etc. Where there is snow, there can always be water as snow is just a colder version of water !!
That's me done for the moment. Would appreciate any feedback or questions.
