At the Stanfords Travel Writers Festival, Phoebe Smith featured on an expert panel sharing travellers’ wisdom and offering advise on safe travel (listen to the podcast here). Phoebe’s writing and personal experiences have her firmly established as the oracle of wild camping so you’ve probably heard her on the radio recently defending it as two national parks have introduced by-laws restricting camping .
We are so happy that she has written this blog post for us. Phoebe, over to you:
5 Reasons Wild Camping is better than staying in a campsite By Phoebe Smith
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No noisy neighbours
Wild camping means no ‘proper’ campsite. Now I’m not going to lie to you, that means no hot running water, no shower block and no toilets (you will have to dig your own). But that also means no campsite politics and – more crucially – no noisy neighbours keeping you up late, waking you early and generally listening in on every conversation you have. Unless you count a curious rabbit or two…
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You get to choose where you pitch – for free
Sure you can’t know for certain that the spot you picked out on your OS map before you left will be rock-free, level ground, or of a comfortable size for your tent when you get there – but you will get to choose it yourself. From a mountain summit, to a pretty river or facing west for the perfect sunset vista, the choice is literally yours. And best yet – it won’t cost you a penny.
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There’s an element of the clandestine in it
Technically, without gaining permission, it’s only allowed in Scotland and Dartmoor National Park, but do it responsibly (that’s arriving late, leaving early, and taking out all rubbish with you) you can get away with it in most wild places. And due to the fact that you don’t want to be seen scoping out your camp, nine times out of ten you will be heading into the wilds while others are returning to their cars/rushing home to watch prime time TV. There’s something quite thrilling about doing the opposite of everyone else – heading in when they think you should be heading out – it feels gloriously mischievous. And in a way, it kinda is…
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Even if done for just one night it feels like a proper adventure
Heading out to wild camp doesn’t take too much planning. My top tip is to always keep what I call my ‘Go Bag’ packed and ready to go (with everything you need inside it for an impromptu wild camp) so that if the weather window presents itself or you feel you want an escape from the everyday, you have no excuses, you can grab your rucksack and go and have a serendipitous adventure and be back in time for work the next day.
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The reveal moment…
If I’m honest this is a huge part of the reason I do this. Often when I head into the wilds I’m night-walking and it’s not until the following dawn that I finally get a glimpse of the place I’ve decided to make my bedroom for the night. That moment, when I open my tent flap for the first time and get my initial glorious glimpse of my surrounds never fails to take my breath away. It can be an orange blur of sunrise, the early morning mist steadily lifting like steam above the moorland or the raw beauty of the cracked rocks of a mountain ridge bathed in half-light. I call it my ‘reveal moment’ and it’s what keeps me coming back time and time again.
Phoebe Smith is author of Extreme Sleeps: Adventures of a Wild Camper (Summersdale) out now. See what she’s up to at www.phoebe-smith.com or follow her on Twitter @PhoebeRSmith