How did you?.............

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How did you start wildcamping?

I was just sitting here wondering how our members found wildcamping.

Whats your story?
 
Playing in various Bridge Congresses, the bridge, food and travel is expensive, and the prize money is not very good. So I stayed in the car in hotel car parks or a local forest etc if I could find one. Hotel public toilets available for a wash and brush up in the morning.

I soon worked out what a huge rip off hotels are. £50-£100 a night and if you are playing bridge, you're probably only in the room from midnight till 8am.

I can't imagine why people seem to like paying big money for hotels. They just haven't thought it through.
 
Started off in the 60's with just a sleeping bag, a change of clothes and my trusty thumbs.

It was a different world back then. Lots of motorists gave hitch hikers a lift. Nowadays they would think you were a psycho.

It was much easier to find an overnighter when you did not have a motorhome. :D
 
well i suppose our wilding started off sleeping in a car and then an old scout tent,in the early 70s then we got a a vw splity camper .we went all over the country in that and never used a site
 
Started with an A35 Van and never thought about doing anything else
 
Hi All
Same as Mainbrace-- and Mandrake--sleeping in a car--in the 60's me and two friends traveled around the U.k. for five months in a mini van and a tent--started in Norfolk up the east coast to Grimsby---Worked at the Laporte factory for a couple of weeks living in a farmers field. We got our post sent to the local main post office (no problems) but you will have now!! Then went up to Bedlington (a girl thing):eek: then to Scotland camping by Loch Lomond at Luss--I even Swam in Loch Lomond Bloody Freezing--Ah a miss spent youth!! Then back to Glasgow and saw a bloke get mugged before it was fashionable!! then down the west coast -
Bye for now
Freddie:D
 
Happy Days

Started in 1969 with a Ford escort van moved to a VWT2/T1 and did a small conversion sold that moved to VW T2/T2 Combi Devon toured North and West coast of Scotland in early 70's not a soul in site everybody came to look at the Devon crowds wherever we went met John Hunt several times you could stop and chat through the drivers window blocking road no traffic in sight there were few sites mainly camping sites called for water at police houses asked in local shops and were told who had an outside tap :rolleyes:
still lucky enough to be wildcamping now.
:D those were the day's
 
The Job

I would think mine all started with the job..HGV driver for too many years..Found that many places to park back in the day.That it was the natural thing to do with a motorhome..I just like nice veiws and waterside places NOT industrial estates these days..

Chris
 
After 'A' levels I bought my first car and took myself off youth hostelling all over the country then, with a lower budget following graduation, downgraded to a tent but loved the freedom and flexibility. This continued until the early 1990's when it became harder to find discreet spots and unseen corners of farmers' fields. There were too many safety issues, wet summers (and unreliable tumble driers at public laundrettes!) so I did a little car-camping in a Fiat Panda then Seat Marbella before progressing to my partially adapted Kangoo van and now my Kangoo Roo.

I'm not sure what my camping style will be this year and for the next few years, either tin or GRP, but I have no intention of giving up my life 'in the gutters'!
 
October 1961, Luxembourg, crashed out in my Datsun 260C when I couldn't find a cheap B&B. Freezing cold. Parked up by an old Camper. Within 3 months I sold my car and got my very first Bedford doormobile camper van, (Bullnose type) Never paid for a campsite ever. I dream always of the good old days. Tough but wonderful.
 
patricia

started after campsites prices went up and everything else due to exchange rates 2009. got together with friends and went to portugal from spain got moved on in spain at tafira we were ok in portugal. we have heard you can.t wild camp at tavira now or milfontes.
 
Started in 1960 sleeping in the back of a Ford Consul Farnham Estate car while potholing and scouting. I had used a tent and a Ford Thames 5 cwt van before that.

Later graduated to Volvo Estate cars. I then got a Caranex so had more space.

I had a caravan on a site but preferred to go off in the car alone than tow it about.

Bought a Bedford CF autosleeper and got the bug for Motorhomes. Read widely about it and decided that I wanted a 1990s Hymer S700. I eventually got one and have now gone full time in it.

John
 
;)
Ive been camping for many years now '& love the outdoors! me and the girlfreind like the campsites that allow campfires but only a few around & i allways wanted to try out getting a camper/motorhome and so i did!
Now i look at campers in tents as peasants !! lol :D
 
my first wilding experiance started when i was about 22,i had been out with some freinds drinking who were more experianced drinkers than me and a lot bigger and older than i,so i had too much to drink and hence spent a night wilding in a shops doorway.It took many many years of trial and error before i realised that doorways and indeed the local parks were not very comfortable hence i stopped throwing my money away and decided to get a motorhome..the rest as they they say is history .................................
 
after using cars and various tents to sleep in I decided to go the full hogg and buy a Bedford CF petrol ambulance and with the help of a friend converted it into a campervan (never looked back) toured all over Europe with my small family infact my 2 kids were in their mid teens before having a holiday in the UK!.
Now we travel in style in our Dethleffs German made motorhome = Luxery, mostly to Germany the headquarters of wildcamping.
 
I've always camped with tents/trailer tents, even caravanned for a short time. Then had a VW type 2 camper & occasionally wild camped & used campsites. When we got our first motorhome (a KonTiki) in 1991 & started going over to France we realised that we didn't need campsites so have used very few since then :D.
 
Seems that sleeping in a car is a pretty common way to start.

I guess after a few years of condensation, finding creative ways to go the toilet hygenically, being cold, and trying to to get dressed horizontal, most look for a trasnsition to a proper van.

We had a dormobile when I was young but it was little better than a car. And I never did wild camping with my parents. That was thought "illegal" and inconsiderate by them. It's only when I went off on my own I started wilding.
 
As a student, travelling around with a rucksack and a sleeping bag I slept in some pretty strange places - including railway stations and disused garages. As I got older, got a job, got married and had kids, I followed a more conventional path of staying on official campsites (with both tents and caravans). Along the way, I saw motorhomes parked up in some interesting places and began to yearn for the freedom again, so when the kids left home and when my income took a major drop on retirement I (fortunately with a similarly-thinking wife) decided that it was time to swap the caravan for a motorhome and wander beyond those campsites that provide things we don't want for exhorbitant prices and sample the wider world. The wonderful aire system in France gave us confidence and it grew from there. Travel has always been our passion and we have been travelling virtually full time for the past nine years - we don't regret a single day.
 
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patricia said:
started after campsites prices went up and everything else due to exchange rates 2009. got together with friends and went to portugal from spain got moved on in spain at tafira we were ok in portugal. we have heard you can.t wild camp at tavira now or milfontes.
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Hi Patricia, Tarifa is one of our favourite haunts. There are still spots along the beach you can park up for days on end. Behind the Bullring on a piece of land adjacent to the parking area is fine until 21:00 hrs. We then move a few hundred yards inland where there are 2 waste land spots where we crash out for the night. Of course you cannot roll out the awning & put your table & chairs out. If you manage to find a spot in theproper parking bay, you will not be moved on as long as you dont have anything outside. Very pretty town with it's maze of narrow cobbled streets. Beautiful blue shallow waters. We would always get the ship to Tangiers on a day trip from here.
 
I think I have to side with AllrightNow for a bit of it. HGV driving up and down and around
you tend to look for nicer places to park for the night. Fast forward a few years of camping (Tent,Trailer tent,Caravan.) I came across something called stealth camping. I got interested in the choice and way of lifestyle they had and got the bug from there, found this fantastic site and part converted my toyota estima into a mini camper. And the rest, as they say, is a mystery!!!
 
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