Wild Camp a Month 2019 Challenge

Junes update.

Brucews 6/6
Campervanannie 6/6
Herman 6/6
Iqofafish 6/6
Jillygumbo 6/6
Nabsim 6/6
Wheelie 6/6

Well done everybody, roll on July.
 
Hi troops not getting as many pics as we used to get, was always my first place to look, I need a pic fix, please help:bow::bow::bow
 
7 of 7

Got July in early (for a change), another fairly local (50 mile round trip) stopover this month. Life getting in the bloody way atm.
Wish I'd taken my DSLR, as the digital zoom in on the camera phone really doesn't do that sunset justice.

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7/7 1st night was Errwood Reservoir in Derbyshire with a good 5 mile round walk in the morning, followed by a night at the Winking Man pub and a walk up to see the rocks in the morning.
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?/7 Dawdling in Devon

I know I have dropped off the main list but thought I would just put this weekends pics in this thread. First night in a CR in Sticklepath. Nice wooded carpark right next to the river Taw with plenty of shade, we had it all to ourselves until 12.30am when a boy racer turned up did a doughnut and left. The rest of the night was quiet and uneventful. fullsizeoutput_1921.jpgfullsizeoutput_1911.jpgSecond night Was outside Exmouth and 10 minutes from B. Saltherton. We started off at a carpark with amazing views over the Exe estuary, there were a couple of other vans but one came in and parked inches from us and began a very painful process of putting up an awning! fullsizeoutput_190f.jpgfullsizeoutput_190e.jpgIMG_1588.jpg Then had someone park right behind us so We decided to check out a carpark we had seen nearby and spent a completely silent night next to the heath. Woke up late as there were not even any dog walkers to wake us!
 
7/7 Blog

We saw that poor weather was going to hit us from the west when we had a 10 day break coming up, so the plan was to dig out our passports and head into Englandshire towards York to avoid the wind and rain that was forecast in Scotland. On Wednesday 3rd July, we took off when Pat got home from work, for a slow bimble down South; weather was good so we didn't need to rush, and I had planned to try out some W/C POI spots that we had never been to before, so we avoided one of our favourite locations at Loch Leven to go to LR Aberdour/Silversand Bay.

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A busy location but we arrived around 5pm and people were going home, so the prospects looked good, and we went for a walk around to see what was there. A scary headland top but lovely views of the the Forth Road/rail crossings in the distance, we found that a van was nicely parked up by the marker beacon on the point, but we weren't jealous because the small car park beside them was very busy, and we prefer peace and quiet. We were parked near to a friendly full time Motorhomer who confirmed our spot would be quiet now but get busy at the weekend. Settling down for the night was rewarded (not!!) by a German couple who insisted on parking along side us and slightly blocking our sea view, at least they were not too noisy during the night... That was 7/7 clocked up.

Heading further South the next day we took in Drybrough Abbey, Belsay Hall & Castle before parking up for the night at LR Wall(A6079) as the PH stop was crowded; there was parking around the village green but you had to get permission to stop on the green if you were staying over 24hrs, but the layby was fine, and a toilet was nearby.


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The next day took us to Chesters Fort, then Housesteads Roman Fort before we overnighted at Derwent Water Park near Gateshead to allow my better half the opportunity to have an early morning visit at the Metro Centre for the start of the "Next Sale"; a very familiar place for us now, but I caught up with my beauty sleep while she shopped for a few hours. We then got the last grass pitch at Boroughbridge CCC so that we could empty our full cassette; a slow walk into the village to get a meal at The Crown Inn proved disappointing since the pub was temporarily closed, so back to the site for a bottle of wine and fridge scrapings for an evening at "home".

07/07/19 saw us heading to a park & ride at York where we went up the Clifford Tower, and sampled Damson Gin there, and a quick search for the local Cosmo restaurant revealed a new competitor called "Panda Mama" which floated our boats near the river; what a great meal!! Getting out of the magnetic barrier when we returned to the Park & Ride was made slightly difficult due to our 'plastic' bonnet, but luckily the staff had not gone home for the night, and we were able to proceed to Knaresborough for the night at a long stay car park & toilet, that was only slightly disturbed by a few skateboarders, but we were oblivious to that since we found a Wetherspoon Pub in walking distance.

The next day saw us taking in Spofforth Castle, Fountains Abbey (fantastic guided tour), and we overnighted at a layby near Masham. As we were making towards the Lake District slowly, we only did only did Middleham Castle the next day before pitching up at Kendal Cricket Club and overnighting = £5 donation, use of their bar, and watching a game of cricket before hitting the sack; this was fairly popular and 5 vans attended, but local Fish & Chips (100yds away) made it feel like a real holiday.


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Our only day of rain, so our move South had paid off, but we managed to visit Sizergh hall, and the wonderful Stott Park Bobbin Mill (highly recommended), Ambleside Roman Fort, before an overnight at LR Thirlmere(A591) was required, since most other parking was Pay & Display with overnight restrictions. The next day saw us at Castlerigg Stone Circle, with a busy narrow road to access, before ending up at Carisle Castle, buying the Damson Gin we tested at York, and ovenighting at the Castle Car Park, which now has dedicated motorhome/campervan slots, and an overnight barrier which the security staff are happy to lock you into the car park, £45 fee to open if you want to get out before 06:30am; we watched 2 small vehicles escape the lock-in by driving on the grass and squeezing past the barrier, but the CCTV may have caught them to gain £90.

Heading North now to get back home, we had to visit a very busy Gretna Green, before stopping the night at Moffat CCC site, expensive but necessary to empty our cassette again, however our pitch was excellent, and a walk into the town centre gave us the opportunity to discover a wood burning Pizza site, £6 for 12" bake while you watch pizza, bargain, we had two!!

Last day was to travel up to relatives in Bathgate for an overnight in their driveway before heading to Dundee to drop Pat off for a weeks babysitting duty, while I headed home as I was at work the next day; when I got home, it turned out that that day was the only day of sun after a long period of rain since we left, what a shame, our plan worked!! Now looking forward to August for our next trip. Pat had more photos on her iPhone but she is still in Dundee until Friday, so just my poor Android phone examples in this blog.
 
Good weather warning!

The weather is looking good for the the rest of the week!
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7/7 for nabs

Well I am still out from leaving the house on April 11th lol.

Picked son in law up in Hull to have a wander down South and take in a couple of meets. As I had to take my old car back and pick up my new one it was a drive from Hull to Macclesfield then back to Hull even before we started. Ended up not setting off till after 10:30 at night and stopped overnight in a large lay-by not far from Appleby Magna for a few hours kip, no pic of that as it wasn’t really worth taking one :)

First up on 5th was the Wellington meet, not counting against this but a great few days in Summerset:
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After we left Wellington we went over to the stones for a few days as Shane had never been there.

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We arrived in the New Forest for the second of the two meets we were going to, again this doesn’t count but sharing a pic :)
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After leaving Lymington we headed out to Arundel, I have often driven past the castle over the years but never visited so thought I would take this opportunity. We parked up on the road under the castle, what a great spot it was too.

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We took lots of pics in and around the castle and I highly recommend you go if you haven’t already, in fact go again anyway :)

From Arundel we drove along the coast and I parked up down the end of a lane where the hedges scrapped both sides of the cab. Shane still can’t believe I got the van down there even though I keep telling him it goes most anywhere I want lol. If you know the area near Newhaven then you may have seen the spot the surfers park up at Tide Mills.

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After this we carried on along the coast, through Hastings and decided to stay the weekend on a small campsite a few miles outside Rye. Both Hastings and Rye were chock full.

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We left Rye on the Monday and headed back to the stones for a night, was well into the 30’s now so hot lol

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Didn’t leave until 9:30 in the evening as it was so hot and we stopped off for a night on the canal at Stoke Bruer(?) near Towcester

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That was the end of Shane’s pass out so I had to get him back to Chesterfield to say hello to Charlie and wait for his wife to pick him up from the farm later that evening.

To be continued...
 
August has arrived quick.

Campervanannie 7/7
Iqofafish 7/7
Wheelie 7/7
Herman 7/7
Brucews 7/7
Nabsim 7/7

As anybody heard from Jillygumbo

I think we should have an acknowledgements list for people that have fell off the list but take the time to share their latest wildcamps with us.

Only Suneye shared his ?/7 with us this month.
 
August

A couple of days walking the coast path. Found a new spot in Abbotsbury to stay the night. We live in such a beautiful country. (PS Herman her not him ;) )fullsizeoutput_1956.jpg DSC00547.jpg DSC00587.jpg
 
8 / 8 Ceredigion

Where are everyone's August photos? Hopefully there will be a rush next week because we've all had such fantastic weather this weekend!
Sadly, we were in mid Wales 19/8 - 23/8..... when it was decidedly damp and dreary. Here we are at Nant y Moch reservoir on 21/8.
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Wild camp a month 2019

What a brilliant idea. As new members too late for this year but we will look out for next year
 
Aug 2019 Blog

August has been a mixed bag, mainly due to the adverse weather; we eventually ventured out to brave the strong winds and torrential rain on Monday, 12th Aug to view a car we were interested in near Stirling service station, but we were thwarted by problems with it being ready to view. In the end we wildcamped in a relative's driveway near Bathgate on Tuesday night so that we could view the car on our way back home on Wednesday; unfortunately we were disappointed in the car and decided not to purchase it, resulting in another wildcamp at Aberdeen beach that night, and because we like Aberdeen so much, we stayed for another night because the weather was nice. Friday was not so good and we beetled off home to avoid the worsening weather.

This 'Bank Holiday Weekend' 24-26 August, was forecast to be good so we tripped away again to Inverness, again on the hunt for a car, having just missed one at Aberdeen this morning.

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We stopped at Nairn Harbour (CU Nairn (Highland)), which was pretty full, including one idiot that had occupied 2 parking spaces with his van and spread out to put deck chairs and fishing gear. We saw many car drivers and a couple of motorhomes attempt to park there beside him, but he didn't move his gear so they were forced to squeeze in another spot. He went off before I could take a photo of his rig, but I couldn't see the 'W' sticker so luckily he wasn't one of us...

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I did see that a new poster has been put up at the harbour and showed that although motorhomes are allowed to park there, vehicles manufactured or adapted for the purpose of sleeping, are not allowed to stay from 22:00 to 08:00hrs, so I will let our POI experts know about this.

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We decided to wildcamp over at the Cromarty Firth at Kiltearn on the Saturday, and found it nice and quiet (except for the wild geese & frequent dog walkers pulling up to park), early evening was lovely for walks along the Sgitheach river paths to Evanton & back, and our van was nicely secluded near the ruined Kiltearn church & Balconie Castle (as was, now Kiltearn Lodge). So we chalked up 8/8 and we got back home on Sunday, 25th August as we were both at work again on Monday; ohh for full timing!!
 
8/8
We thought we would try the quayside at Glencaple but it was surprisingly over subscribed so we went down to Castle Corner at Caerlaverock Castle. Not strictly free but when they provide all the facilities you need, a tap, get and black waste disposal you don't mind dropping a few quid in the honesty box.
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We then had walk around Dumfries before carrying on to Stranraer and using the carpark on the harbour.

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Sunday, we went to Portpatrick, what a gem of a place, but alas no overnight stop. So we went to Port Logan. Sadly the pub has shut and with no overnighting on the green (even though a local said we would be okay) we moved on ignoring the other carpark as it already have quite a few inhabitants to a road side picnic area at Drumantrae Bay.

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Then to finish off called for Pies for dinner at Kirkcudbright on the way home. All in all a very pleasant weekend.
 

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