Go wild camping

Expert guide to living in the wild

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home,” wrote John Muir in 1901. Today, where most of us live in large cities, breathe in car fumes and have a hard time finding privacy, these words are still spot-on. Wild camping is a perfect stress buster. For once, we can trade our daily problems for a much more primitive if temporary solution.

The legal issues

Every year about 20,000 Britons pack their bags and head for the wilderness, but wild camping in the UK is not always easy. As Mike Rhodes from the Peak District National Park Authority points out, unlike Scotland, all land in England and Wales is under the ownership of a person or organisation, and to camp legally, you must seek permission.

“If you fail to do so, you will be committing a trespass and will effectively forego your right of access,” says Rhodes.

An Internet petition to legalise wild camping in England and Wales gathered 2,022 signatures before it was sent to the Prime Minister's office. The government responded diplomatically – the introduction of wild camping in England would be a controversial issue, which would require both significant consultation and legislative change.

“The Government has no plans to allocate the necessary resources to consider proposals for such legislation at present,” was the official announcement.

Simon Carter, the Assistant Director of The Scout Association, is not a little bit surprised. “Today when we have so many more important things to worry about it's very unlikely this law will get changed. Everything that's not based around government, elections, education or financial crisis is very unlikely to get any airtime.” Carter raises an important point: does the law need to get changed?

“The law doesn't stop anybody from camping. Let's face it. Most of the people who plan to go camping on the weekend have no clue about this law and if they knew they would go anyway.”

How to wild camp

Despite the difficulties, wild camping has never been more popular. Carter says that in the course of 25 years the biggest increase in....

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