I have to agree and say it has very little to do with saving money on campsite fees, although sometimes that has it's obvious benefits and rewards too. But for us, it is the complete freedom of doing what you want, when you want and not having to rely on a campsite to provide you with the ideal setting for your overnight stay! Obviously, campsites have their parts to play in motorhoming and sometimes, especially if you fancy staying put for a few days or more, than a campsite certainly has it's advantages - but I must confess, I much prefer deciding on the spur of the moment where we fancy staying for the night and not having to rely on finding a suitable campsite in the locality. I find most campsites to be quite uninteresting places and although I am not knocking anyone who prefers them - for me personally, they just are somewhere practical to stay and very rarely do they offer anything that gives me any kind of joy or pleasure.
You just cannot beat the excitement of finding some fabulous location and making that spot all yours for the night and providing you are not upsetting or disturbing others by your presence, then all is wonderful with the world isn't it?
There was one campsite in the Dordogne that we absolutely loved and I have never stayed on a campsite like it before ever but it was set in an absolutely stunning and peaceful location and we stayed there for almost a week!
When wildcamping, safety is paramount and so with that in mind, we are always careful about where we stop and if it doesn't look or feel right then we just wouldn't stay. We also never put our silver screens on when we wildcamp and choose to use our internal blinds for privacy. At least that way, in the event of having to make a quick escape for any reason, we can just pull back the blinds and be off in a few seconds. We also have a Strikeback Alarm fitted that we can leave on even when we are asleep in the van and we can do this by disabling the internal motion detectors. However, if anyone attempted to open the cab or habitation doors, the outside lockers, garage or engine bonnet, then it would activate an extra loud alarm immediately and hopfeully have them running for the hills.
We also have the extra security of a panic button that allows us to set off the alarm if we suspect anyone is hanging around outside our motorhome.
To be honest we have never experienced any problems whilst wildcamping and we have wildcamped both here in the UK, Morocco, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal and we once even wildcamped with the gypies in France! We did not realise we were in the middle of a gypsy camp until the next morning because we arrived in the rain and the dark. We were tired and keen to find a spot for the night, so when we came across a load of caravans and motorhomes parked up in a field, we pulled up amongst them and settled down for the night. The next morning we realised we had encroached into their territory but when we stepped outside several of them waved and smiled at us from across the field and didn't appear to mind our presence. When we left a little later, they waved us off with a cheery smile and we happily waved back in recognition of our respect for their acceptance.
It all adds to the adventures of wild camping doesn't it and we have met so many interesting people and even been invited to local people's homes plus taken to visit a witch doctor's stall in Morocco! All this was due to wildcamping outside the medina walls in the middle of a Moroccan town! Now that just wouldn't happen on a campsite would it?
Sue
