# wildcamping on dartmoor



## skratt

I thought that parking overnight on one of the many little parking spots around dartmoor was ok ..... but I was wrong. 
I got woken at 7.30 this morning by a Ranger. He told me that overnighting was illegal and liable to a £500 fine. 

He was OK but he obviously "likes his job and uniform " if you know what I mean. 

Oh well... another place not to camp in the UK. Im crossing the channel again next week and will exclusively wild camp with no bother whatsoever. No more feeling like a criminal from jobsworths and killjoys. Hoorah ! 

By the way here is the blurb that they have in the bylaws ........................................................................................................................................ "Camping 

(1)	No person shall knowingly use any vehicle, including a caravan 
or any structure other than a tent for the purpose of camping on the 
access land or land set out for the use or parking of vehicles except on 
any area which may be set apart and indicated by notice as a place where 
such camping is permitted." 

Many people are unaware of this byelaw, and Rangers carry out evening 
patrols during the height of the summer to advise people of the byelaw 
which was introduced because of the impact on local camping and 
caravanning sites, the effect on the environment with the disposal of 
waste, and the visual impact. 

....................................................................................................... 
Oh ... we can't wild camp because the campsites want to take money off us ..... yeah right !
The environment issue ! .. when these rule makers go back to theyre carbon producing ugly big houses, they might consider that my beautiful little van runs on vegetable oil and sunshine... I also recycle every scrap of rubbish and dispose of all my chemical free waste responsibly. 
I really hope that the house dwellers of the world could be as environmentaly friendly and visually asthetic as myself. 
Get real !


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## sallytrafic

skratt said:


> I thought that parking overnight on one of the many little parking spots around dartmoor was ok ..... but I was wrong.
> I got woken at 7.30 this morning by a Ranger. He told me that overnighting was illegal and liable to a £500 fine.
> 
> He was OK but he obviously "likes his job and uniform " if you know what I mean.
> 
> Oh well... another place not to camp in the UK. Im crossing the channel again next week and will exclusively wild camp with no bother whatsoever. No more feeling like a criminal from jobsworths and killjoys. Hoorah !
> 
> By the way here is the blurb that they have in the bylaws ........................................................................................................................................ "Camping
> 
> (1)	No person shall knowingly use any vehicle, including a caravan
> or any structure other than a tent for the purpose of camping on the
> access land or land set out for the use or parking of vehicles except on
> any area which may be set apart and indicated by notice as a place where
> such camping is permitted."
> 
> Many people are unaware of this byelaw, and Rangers carry out evening
> patrols during the height of the summer to advise people of the byelaw
> which was introduced because of the impact on local camping and
> caravanning sites, the effect on the environment with the disposal of
> waste, and the visual impact.
> 
> .......................................................................................................
> Oh ... we can't wild camp because the campsites want to take money off us ..... yeah right !
> The environment issue ! .. when these rule makers go back to theyre carbon producing ugly big houses, they might consider that my beautiful little van runs on vegetable oil and sunshine... I also recycle every scrap of rubbish and dispose of all my chemical free waste responsibly.
> I really hope that the house dwellers of the world could be as environmentaly friendly and visually asthetic as myself.
> Get real !


As far as I know it has always been illegal to camp in our National parks. As someone who wild camps elsewhere I have to say I support this, most vans do nothing to enhance the look of the place.


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## klex20

skratt said:


> .......................................................................................................
> Oh ... we can't wild camp because the campsites want to take money off us ..... yeah right !................................................


Yes, it's about the same here in Sweden, an organization of the campsite owners is pressing hard to get the different county's prohibition to sleep over in a parked MH - on signed parking places!
They started out with a "camping" prohibition but have now changed the term to the Swedish equivalent to 'sleep over'.

It all was discovered by a member of a county board that this ill reputed organization of camping site owners was urging the counties to put up signs to make anything but camping sites illegal to stay the night on.

Luckily, there is no law here to forbid certain activities in a MH, as long as nothing else than the wheels of the vehicle are on the ground one can perform a lot of pleasant things in a legally parked MH - including a good nights sleep, it is private territory! And as this is only *parking*, the sign "no camping" can be ignored. 
But remember, only the wheels touching the ground and no property placed outside the MH!

With the booming registration of MH here, the camping sites have noticed a decline in the number of visitors and the camping site owners are obviously trying to compensate by forcing tourists into the camping sites - by all means. Really disgusting behaviour! 8O  
And nearly as bad as the completely unnecessary camping card (issued by SCR) you have to buy to get in on the SCR camping sites here, international camping cards is not good enough.

As an alternative we have the 'F' camping sites, the letter F stands for Freestanding camping sites - not free of charge but not organized by SCR.
A list of all 451 F-camping sites can be found on http://www.husvagnochcamping.se/ovrigt/article155036.ece and now during the winter 07/08 the GPS coordinates will be added to all of them.

Last, some of us - quite many - are trying to avoid the term "wild camping" and will use "free camping" instead:
The wilder form of camping was named by - you guessed it - camping site owners. Of course aimed to give the free camping people a bad feeling.

LOTS of nice places and free space in nature here in Sweden, all are invited!


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## Grizzly

skratt said:


> I By the way here is the blurb that they have in the bylaws
> (1)No person shall knowingly use any vehicle, including a caravan
> or any structure other than a tent for the purpose of camping on the
> access land or land set out for the use or parking of vehicles .........


From this it looks as if you want to stick to the letter of the law you could sleep in a tent pitched next to your MH - provided your MH is parked in a legal place " set out for the use of parking of vehicles" :wink:

Bit chilly in winter though !

Presumably there are MH friendly pub car parks on Dartmoor ?

G


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## johnandcharlie

So how about all camp sites staying open throughout the winter to provide a service? I'm in Wales at the moment and from a quick check there are only a couple of CC sites open all year. The majority of CLs are also closed, and some that are open all year are probably unusable in wet weather. I'll now have to go where I can find an open site, rather than where I want to.

I'm not brave enough to wild camp yet, and have only done it once so far, parked next to a friend who has done it for years!


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## geraldandannie

klex20 said:


> Yes, it's about the same here in Sweden ...


Thanks for that information, Klex. It's now stored in my "Camping - countries" file under S for Sweden.

I note that you've let your subscription lapse. I hope you'll re-subscribe here - information like you posted is great to share. 

Gerald


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## autostratus

klex20 said:


> A list of all 451 F-camping sites can be found on http://www.husvagnochcamping.se/ovrigt/article155036.ece and now during the winter 07/08 the GPS coordinates will be added to all of them.
> 
> !


Thank you for that information.
For the benefit of all, I've added it to the 'sticky' Useful and informative Continental websites  in the forum Continental Touring Info


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