What everybody ought to know about Wild Camping

Wild camping is something we get asked about a fair bit here at Webtogs, and is one of our passions. The feeling of freedom and being able to camp on the hills is incredibly liberating, but some people are a little overwhelmed when thinking about heading out for the first time. We’ve been around the office to put together our top tips if you are thinking of heading out  for the first time.

1. Leave no trace – We think this is the most important guideline to follow, take everything away with you and leave nothing behind. That means no fire’s, take your litter home, and take sanitary products such as tampons and towels away with you too as animals will dig them up.  Toilet duties should always be done at least 30 metres away from any water source, and make sure you take a lightweight trowel to bury any number 2′s! Don’t be tempted to move rocks or logs for the perfect pitch, leave the place where you camp as you found it.
2. Where to camp and legal stuff – Wild Camping is legal on Dartmoor and in Scotland provided you follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. It is not legal in England or Wales unless you ask the landowners permission – which is usually impractical. Generally speaking though, wild camping is tolerated so long as you follow a few simple guidelines. Camp as high as possible. Don’t camp in fields with animals, camp away from human habitation and out of sight of roads, houses, farms or dwellings.  Finally, be prepared to move on if asked and always be friendly and polite.
3. Pitch Late and leave early – Part of leaving no trace means spending as little time actually pitched as you can. The only side note we would say is take note of sunset times late or early in the year as popping a tent up on a mountainside in the pitch dark is no fun. Don’t camp in the same spot for more than 2 days at a time to lessen your impact on the environment.
4. Blend in – That means don’t take a bright tent and camp as unobtrusively as possible. This has side benefits in that it  helps you avoid being spotted by anyone who might move you on, and lets others share in the natural beauty of the area you are camping in.
5. Don’t take the gang – A couple of tents at most is what you want, share a shelter if a few of you are going.
6. Take less stuff – Wild Camping is not about taking the kitchen sink, you are much better off taking as little as possible as you are going to have to carry it to your campsite. It’s also why you are wild camping as well, keep things simple and enjoy being away from the distractions and stuff of everyday life.
7. Sort the water -  Camp near a water source if you can, or remember to take enough drinking water with you. If you are going to pick up water on your trip, make sure you have a water filter with you, you won’t want to be getting ill away from civilisation.
8. Get the right gear –  Wild camping usually means being that much more inaccessible from civilisation so you need to make sure your gear is up to the task. The last thing you want to do is have a tent fail on you with the wind and rain coming down hard. Checkout our range of quality tents and sleeping bags to make sure you have a good time. Focus on lightweight gear where possible and ensure you have everything you need so if you do have any problems, you can sort them out yourself.
9. Small steps – For your first wild camp, consider finding a spot that you can get back from easily, that way if your gear fails or if you have any problems, a retreat won’t take you hours!

Follow these and we reckon you will have a great time, fire away in the comments with any questions, or, what are your top tips for a great wild camp?

 

 

 

The Dangers of Bush (or wild or stealth) Camping

On my journey through Africa, I was often asked by friends and strangers back home whether it isn’t dangerous to just pitch your tent in the bush or by the roadside? And I was often told by locals that it really is dangerous to camp in the wild.

What about deadly snakes and poisonous spiders? What about lions and hippos?

What about being robbed or attacked.

The reality is, of course, bush camping can be dangerous. So can crossing the road. But in the same way that you always look left and right before stepping off the pavement, it’s only common sense to be selective with your camp spot.

Road to Booue, Gabon, Central Africa

I always look for a secluded spot where I shouldn’t be seen by people and certainly not from the road. If I know there are ‘dangerous’ animals around, then I either don’t camp in the bush or I do what I can to minimize the risks. For example, always zipping up the tent inner to keep out snakes, spiders, scorpions etc. If there could be lions, I make sure I’m inside my tent well before sunset and don’t get out again until the sun is high in the sky (no matter how desperate for the toilet!). If there could be hippos, then I don’t camp where they may choose a route down to the river…

The Niger River, Guinea, West Africa

Well that was all in Africa. Now I’m in Canada, but the same rules apply. Only now I have to be careful about bears, rather than lions. That means carrying bear repellent spray everywhere in case of a chance encounter and keeping the camp spot spotless from food. Bears love the smell of food. So that means cooking away from the tent and storing food at a distance too. That’s not good when I wake in the middle of the night with food cravings, but it’s small price to pay.

The Chicotin Plateau, BC, Canada

In, 20 months of bush camping between the UK and Cape Town and now a month under canvas in Canada, I had no serious encounters.

As chance would have it, my closest encounter came just a couple of days ago, ironically, when I was in town.

Walking to the shop, a sudden gust of wind sent unsecured items flying. I had to dodge a piece of flying sheet metal by jumping into the road before continuing down the pavement, when a tree fell down just a few feet from me. I emerged, slightly surprised, with nothing more than a lot of dirt and leaf debris in my right ear. The parked car wasn’t quite so lucky!

You see, there are risks in all walks of life. Of we were scared of every potential threat or danger, then we’d procrastinate in bed all day. But that’s no way to live. Better to get out there and take a chance. You never know when fate will deal the fatal blow, but it’ll probably be when you least expect it.

Top 10 tips to stop your camping trip becoming a nightmare in canvas.

We’re all fairly avid campers here at Webtogs, camping year round in some fairly gnarly conditions. We’ve been round the block a few times, so for those of you dusting off your tent for your first spot of camping for the year, we asked everyone in the office for their top tip for camping. This isn’t a guide to tents – we’ll cover that in another post, but this is our holy grail of must do’s and don’ts that have been learnt the hard way when heading under canvas.

Keith – “Make sure you know how to put your tent up. Pitching before you head off is a great idea to ensure you don’t struggle when you get to the campsite or out in the wilds. Read the instructions, despite my experience, I always read new tent pitching instructions as they all differ very slightly”

Charlie – “If you have used your tent previously, make sure you check it to ensure it has all it’s pegs, guylines and any repairs have been made. You don’t want to get to the campsite to remember that you have the rip in your tent from last year where someone trod on it nipping to the loo.”

Gareth – “Have a list of everything you need to take camping with you and make sure you check it off. We’ve got a list of basics that we make sure we have for each trip”  We’ve included it here as a text file, and is based on a spot of family car camping (basics only), so feel free to do with it as you will and tweak it based on whats important for you for a good time.

Matt – “Don’t crack out the beers straight away, pitch your tent fully and make sure someone hangs on the tent at all times when windy! Don’t be tempted to leave the guy lines as when the wind hits, you’ll be the guy chasing his tent down the campsite”

Sue – “Don’t pitch on a slope or in a hollow, if you pitch on a slope be prepared to roll on top of one another, or get a headache if your head is downhill. If you pitch in a hollow, you could be paddling in your tent, as that’s where the water will collect.

Ross – “If you are sleeping anywhere near me, you’ll need ear plugs to get to sleep with my snoring. Keep a pair handy for noisy campsites / neighbours / freinds”

Mike “Get organised in your tent, the last thing you want to do is try and find your teddy bear with no light and you can’t remember where your torch is. Have a place for everything and keep it vaguely tidy”

Lucy – “Make sure nothing is touching the outside of the tent as that will bring water in through the flysheet, keep your inner tent away from the fly as well.”

Jon – “Aim to pitch two hours before you think you should, trust me, those to hours will dissapear.”

These are just our top tips for camping, we would love to hear what yours are in the comments below, have we missed anything? What would you have as your one critical tip when camping?

Camping on our doorstep – Batcombe Vale

The summer seems to have finally arrived here in Dorset and each weekend recently has seen the team heading out to do something outdoorsy. Last weekend Lucy, Lee and Charlie headed off to do some wakeboarding, and I headed out for my Birthday (say ah everyone). We went off for a little local camping to a campsite that continually gets rave reviews, both online, and in the guidebooks such as cool camping. It’s the campsite at Batcombe Vale, just outside Shepton Mallet. We pootled along on Thursday evening and the campsite already had a huge plus heading it’s way, the sun was shining, and was due to shine for the entire weekend. Whatever you say about a campsite, a bit of sunshine on it makes a huge amount of difference. The real test of a campsite is how it fares without the sunshine, and it’s here I think that Batcombe has a serious advantage.

We crested the entrance to the campsite and were faced with what has to be one of the best vistas in Somerset. You have a long, steep sloping road down in to the vale and campsite itself with views of both the site below, and out towards the hills opposite. The welcome was warm and genuine from Gary & Barbara who run the site, Garry setting off at a brisk pace, leading us up the winding road to the top of the campsite. The site itself is beautifully laid out, each pitch separated discretely with some tactful planting in most cases. It’s not the largest of campsites, so booking is pretty much essential on the weekends, but it also means that it’s quieter and more natural than a few others out there.

Click to make me bigger

We had the top end of the site to share with just a few other canvas dwellers. Having preached about stealth camping recently, we were travelling light. The tent went up quickly, enabling us to bask in the late evening sunshine.

We had found out from Gary that he brewed his own Scrumpy, and so headed down to grab a bit. I love the West Country and it’s Cider. The home made scrumpy you get on the farms and campsites is a world away from the stuff you get in the supermarkets and in pubs though. Usually it is sold in 5 litre plastic Jerry Cans, that get strapped to the back of battered 4 x 4′s. The taste is also akin to rocket fuel with a percentage that would put some vodkas to shame. Garrys brew was a lot more mellow however, and tasted beautiful with a golden silky brown colour and texture, so we supped back and looked around at our home for the next couple of days.

The campsite was just as stunning as our initial view had led us to believe, with a boating lake at the bottom of the site. Multi Coloured boats gave it a feel of English summers gone past, paths wandering in and out of reeds by the side of the lake, and secret paths leading to hidden picnic tables. For the walkers & cavers out there the site is on the eastern edge of the Mendips, so you have access to some stunning walks and caves. In particular, the East Mendip way runs close to the campsite. They had several lakes for fishing and there were plenty of paths leading to the local villages as well, so the weekend saw lots of wanders.

I love my wild camping, but Batcombe is as close a site as I have found that generates those same feelings. It’s an utterly perfect example of a campsite where nature does the talking. If you’re down this neck of the woods, stop in and make it your base. You won’t want to go home.

 

 

Stealth Camping

Lightweight. It’s not a new mantra, but it has become an increasingly loud one within the outdoor community over the last few years. Whether you class yourself as someone who is looking to reduce their packweight, a lightweight backpacker, ultralightweight backpacker or supreme ultralight lightfantastic godlike backpacker, more and more people are gradually realising that the lighter your pack is, the further and longer you can walk for.

I’m not sure about you, but whereas my pack was getting lighter when solo backpacking, I found that when I was heading off with the family, I was actually taking more and more stuff. Two burner stoves with a grill that could just about cook a marshmallow. A full set of table and chairs. The solid, niche, canvas frame tent that are legends to longevity and stability. A box of toys that would put a small nursery to shame. Whereas at work I would gaze in rapt admiration of the Nemo Obi tents, at home I was looking at the portable kitchen station with space for a washing up bowl.

The end result of this was that I simply could not be bothered to go camping en famille. It meant getting together a load of stuff, putting a load of stuff up, taking a load of stuff down and finally putting a load of stuff away again afterwards. So last August, me and the better half sat down and had the following plan which we called stealth camping.

Our aim was simple. Make camping as a family easier and lighter. Our new mantra was to just leave it all behind. Not to go and buy a load of lightweight gear, but instead just focus on the basics. So unless something was utterly critical, it got binned. We decided that we were not allowed to camp for a long time (weekends only) and could only decided to camp on a Thursday night, to leave Friday night. This, more than any other choice,  has had the trick of really making us focus on the gear that was important.

In the end this is what we got down to, it’s not an exhaustive list, but it pretty much sums it up.

Lightweight family tent. – We’re currently having fun with the Limestone 6P, but we also have a Robbens Double Dreamer.
Trangia Stove – nothing big or fancy thanks very much
4 bowls and 4 spoons, a sharp knife and a spare plate
Cool Box
4 x sleeping bags, 3 sleeping mats and a cot.
1 outside toy for each boy.
Child Carrier for Ellis
Torches, duct tape, penknife, first aid kit
Clothes
Maps, compass and map case

Erm thats it I think.

We tried it out for several weekends at the end of last summer, and just had some of the best outdoor weekends we have ever had. The boys ended up going nuts outside and playing with natural stuff they found, rather than the toys they brought. We no longer stressed about what we had forgotten or not having stuff, and instead just got out and about and enjoyed ourselves. We felt free. We felt liberated. We fell in love with camping again as a family.

This does have it’s limitations, we are limited to camping realistically within a 3 hour radius of home, but hey that means we don’t cream cracker the environment. Occasionally, you may suffer the pitying looks of people who gaze at you from their portable decking with the BBQ and camping chairs, but it’s a small price to pay.

It’s a Thursday today. Nobody has said anything yet. We’re not allowed to you see, but the diary tells me I haven’t got anything on this weekend. Game on?

 

 

Bubble tent anyone?

Loving the look of this article from the Daily Mail about the appearance in France of Bubble tents.

Am slightly concerned that if you did not peg them down properly, you would end up zorbing about the campsite however! Perhaps a little more glamping rather than camping…..