POI info - a new thought

Canalsman

Guest
There are various threads on this site that worry about wild camping spots becoming over-used and abused.

This is a real concern because it may force unwelcome controls to be imposed.

How's this for an alternative view?

The more places that are known about and used, the more the load is spread.

Take this scenario - you're looking for a spot to wild overnight, and you arrive and find it's beautiful and perfect in all regards ... except there are already two vans there.

What to do?

Make the numbers up to three, have a convivial evening, bother the locals, and leave nowhere for the locals to park up and enjoy the view ...

Or move on to another spot nearby that's a couple or three miles away - and in the POI database?

Thoughts and comments?
 
Excellent idea - we could argue over the number of vans that constitute too many and it will vary according to the particular spot but there is no doubt that some spots are being over-used by any standards. I would also urge that we avoid banning notices put up by the regulating authority because to ignore them is to encourage those who want to stop us overnighting anywhere. It's like "Caeser's wife" - we have to be totally above suspicion if we want to be able to continue to enjoy our lifestyle. I think most of it is common sense but there are clearly others who don't see it that way.
 
This was the problem at Aldeburgh! One Saturday night in the summer there were 40 motorhomes and 2 caravans (one with a jenny running all Saturday afternoon) that I think was the final straw. Ditto the chainlink ferry road at Poole - here a cheeky git even left an old caravan on the side of the road to 'bag' his spot!

Obviously it would depend on the size of the carpark, the above would easily hold 5 to 10 units without it looking busy, but the layby at the Corfe Castle end was full with only 4 or 5!
 
Depends on how long you stay for as well. Don't think many locals would have a problem if you park at 10pm and are gone at 8am the next day but if you are there for a month, then their opinion may be very different.
 
I have wild camped a lot over the years (living in Scotland) but I have changed my van for something a bit bigger (8.4m). Is it taking liberties to expect to wild camp in something that size?
 
scotchjock said:
I have wild camped a lot over the years (living in Scotland) but I have changed my van for something a bit bigger (8.4m). Is it taking liberties to expect to wild camp in something that size?
Click to expand...

As stressed earlier in this thread, I thinks it's a case of being considerate to others.

Self-evidently a larger van takes up more space, so it makes sense to rule out small capacity wilding spots.

That's my take on it - others may differ!
 
Hi Jock,

We have had two trips to Scotland last year and our van is 8.2 metres long. It was no problem at all.

We missed Lunan out as I believe you have to pay to stay in the car park there now. If you know a good spot, we will pop in for a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit next time. :D
 
Spot on Canalsman. Its really just some commonsense when choosing an OVERNIGHT parking spot, big problem for local ratepayers seems to come when people park up for months (and get the Tinker/Traveller label) with all the subsequent problems of rubbish and sewage disposal. I remember pulling into some fantastic spots only to leave minutes later when the stench of urine/excrement came wafting in from the nearby trees.

Maybe a subset of the POI files could be location of dump points which were/are always incredibly hard to find in the UK.
 
Roger said:
Maybe a subset of the POI files could be location of dump points which were/are always incredibly hard to find in the UK.
Click to expand...

Happy to work on this, and perhaps water points too ...

How/where to start though ... you can't see them on Streetview!
 
Google Maps well if you are doing a place where you can empty loos ,there is one here in the brecons .in the car park there is a chemical porta loo ,we used it last summer but if anyone needs a place to empty loos then you can use any public loo ,just so long as you do not use the blue chemicals as for water refilling just use filling stations ,most have them
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The way i see it is,no mater how big the camper if you can park sensibly then its ok ( i own a small van myself ),just remember to give others a chance,2 nights max maybe.
The problem these days is you do your best to respect others but they don't give a s*it about respecting you,happens all too often these days all take and no give,Shawbags.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top