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Subject Topic: Wildcamping Post Reply Post New Topic
14/1/2024 at 8:48pm
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View Lunarbri's Profile View Profile   Reply to Lunarbri Reply   Quote Lunarbri Quote  
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When I first purchased our motorhome in 2013 we decided on Wildcamping over Campsites the vast majority in Wales. Slowly but surely over time these ideal sites mostly by a beach have been banned to tourers due to the antics of irresponsible owners who left leaving all their rubbish and even the contents of their toilet. I discovered that Portugal did the same for similar reasons while planning a trip there recently. I'm sure every MH has the same facilities, or better, than my old Lunar but we have left sites without so much as a sweet wrapper behind but as usual the few just have to spoilt it for the majority. What is it with these people?
Having been forced to mostly use Campsites what I have witnessed even on them suggests where the guilty idiots now reside. Anyone else had the same experiences, it can't be just Wales!


15/1/2024 at 12:36am
 Location: London
 Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Joined: 17/9/2015

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Forum Posts:   2328

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Sadly you will find that selfish inconsiderate attitude almost everywhere you will go these days. Both wild places and formal campsites.

I believe the legal 'Right to roam' and camp in Scotland has had to be restricted in a number of areas mostly because of the abuse of the land by a minority of campers who did as you described with littering and fouling.

I've found the detritus of wild campers on the Lake District fells and Devon moors, and no matter how remote an area, you'll likely find litter!

I've noticed a general falling of 'standards' on camp sites, there used to be a camping etiquette, mostly unwritten rules, more or less just good manners, that could be assumed on camp sites, sadly not so any more, disturbing noise, inconsiderate behaviour etc. are often to be expected now. Last trip away in Nov last year, there were so many truly selfish campers, I struggled to believe it, such a contrast to how it used to be.

I organise an annual camping long w/e for a dog rescue charity's dog adopters, been going for around 10 years now, but year-on-year we have to add more event 'rules' to try and counter bad behaviour by a minority, we ban those that act inconsiderately from attending further events, but each year someone new comes along and brings yet another form of inconsiderate behaviour, these are not boisterous youngsters who just get a bit carried away, these are mature people with a bad attitude and no consideration!

I have noticed more and more parking areas at beaches and woodland areas now have height restriction barriers to prevent campervan/MH sized vehicles gaining access, sometimes accompanied by a notice explaining why the restrictions have been introduced, inevitably it's the littering and fouling!

For the life of me I can't understand it, you go to a beautiful place BECAUSE it's beautiful, then destroy that beauty!

Can't help but tie the deteriorating standards with the mass uptake of 'camping' from the Covid years, when foreign holidays were all but impossible and masses took to camping in the UK.


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15/1/2024 at 12:28pm
 Location: Devizes Wiltshire
 Outfit: MWB VW Crafter PVC
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I suspect SOME (not all) of the wild campers have the same mentality as those who attended big outdoor music events, as can be witnessed by the amount of camping gears and rubbish they left had left behind after the events such as Glasto.

DK



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* Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest And Play! *
- 2025 - inc. FR & DE
- 2024 - 10/56 inc. FR & NL
- 2023 - 48 inc. FR
- 2022 - 49
- 2021 - 34
* Ex-tenter & solo female camper *
* Treat life events like a dog: If you can't eat it, play with it, or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away! *


15/1/2024 at 3:19pm
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View Lunarbri's Profile View Profile   Reply to Lunarbri Reply   Quote Lunarbri Quote  
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I can't think of a solution because there probably isn't one.
Several campsites in the past we left a day or 2 early because of drinken behaviour and kids/teenagers running riot. Not just our lifestyle either I think society as a whole finds any rules only there to be broken and zero pride in their own communities or anyone else for that matter.
I watched a TV programme recently called Motorhoming Gone Drasticaly Wrong where an elderly couple had a house brick thrown through their windsreen at 1am parked up in a 'stopover' by local louts.
Not all campsites of course are unruly but many contain a few who are best avoided especially late at night when less likely to see a warden (if there is one) I really miss Wildcamping but we both feel safer in a campsite.


via mobile 15/1/2024 at 6:45pm
 Location: Ayrshire
 Outfit: Auto-Sleeper MHs
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“I believe the legal 'Right to roam' and camp in Scotland has had to be restricted in a number of areas mostly because of the abuse of the land by a minority of campers who did as you described with littering and fouling.”
Not quite.
It’s not “a legal right to roam”, it’s the “right of responsible access” and the word “responsible” covers our behaviour as walkers or campers etc.
The legal bit is that “wild camping”, by the letter of the access legislation, does not cover vehicle access. It covers people walking, cycling, kayaking etc, carrying all their gear with them. And it’s limited to 3 nights in any one place. It’s just unglamorous “overnight parking” for MHs up here (and some MHs stay for a week).
The Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park has a voucher system for all campers, tents & MHs, due to that lack of being responsible by the minority (eg people leave tents behind).
The most extreme result of bad behaviour has been the Applecross area of the North Coast 500 where MHs parked all along the verge by the sea & drove into the fragile machair. (Not responsible.) So a ditch had to be dug (and fences put up elsewhere on the NC500) to stop people driving off into the dunes.
What I’m saying is, MH folk can take away all the rubbish and the toilet contents but still do long lasting damage with a heavy vehicle on wheels. And they can spoil visitors & locals’ enjoyment by blocking the view from the road & filling the car park so others can’t enjoy a walk: hence the gantries over the coastal car parks in my area. I was mighty cross to go to my favourite spot near home for my picnic lunch & find 2 MHs side by side, with 2 parking spaces between them & their awnings over those spaces with their chairs set out: 4 spaces taken up.
Yes, I have a MH. Personally, I think much of the bad behaviour is in hired vehicles, they don’t have the ethos, don’t care, have a sense of entitlement because of the false perception (as someone said to us) - “oh it must be lovely, you can stop wherever you want for the night”.


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2024 = 20 sites / 41 nights. 2023 = 9/23. 2022 = 13/35. 2021 = 11/29. 2020 = 4/20. 2019 = 13/35. 2018 = 20/33. 2017 = 10/22. 2016 = 19/33. 2015 = 15 sites / 27 nights. Didn't count 1976 to 2014.


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16/1/2024 at 11:49am
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View Lunarbri's Profile View Profile   Reply to Lunarbri Reply   Quote Lunarbri Quote  
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I think the phrase 'Own worst enemy' comes to mind.
We have toured much of France & Spain over the years and always try to pitch away from other brits onsite because we know what to expect and never disappointed. On reflection it has to be a culture thing, if you don't get totally drunk then you have not had a good time according to our fellow countrymen, the old 'Brits abroad syndrome' Speaking to a campsite owner in Spain he often declares his site as full when he gets enquiries from british tourists, we only got on as we turned up on spec and being a pair of Old Codgers and polite deemed as suitable. Someone is not going to change their behaviour just because they are abroad, cans,bottles and litter left on the pitch and it's on to the next unsuspecting campsite.


via mobile 16/1/2024 at 7:32pm
 Location: North Wales
 Outfit: Campervan
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Being a North Wales dweller we experience some similarities to Scotland.

It's not just mess, its row after row of moho on the promenades for 3 plus days at a time. Its carparks where moho set up with awnings out, chairs and a bbq at the ready.

On Anglesey car parks were packed full for the weekends of moho having a free weekend away (pre Covid) so council's started putting up height barriers. It wasn't rubbish left, it was numbers.

In Snowdonia laybys and passing spaces are used for overnighting and that's now being clamped down on.

The rubbish and mess is a problem but the sheer numbers are just as much of a problem.



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