Not so wild - wild camping

Goldie146
Goldie146 Club Member Posts: 2,448 ✭✭✭
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edited May 2018 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

Last night we went into town about 6 pm. We passed a small layby (really just an extension of a wide gateway), as a motorhome was setting up (turning on his gas). 

I went by again this morning at 8 am and it was still there (curtains closed).

Would you really want to park up there for the night, when 300 yards round the corner is a pub with a C&CC CS?

I don't think they would get much of a lie in as the road is quite busy with school and commuter traffic in the morning.

I'm neither for nor against parking by the side of the road - but look at the picture from Google maps to see where this was.

Comments

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited May 2018 #2

    No I wouldn't want to stay in a layby Goldie, it's a different mind set for some about not spending any money. At 6pm there would still have been time to find a site. We often see people parked up in laybys on the A303, to me it would be a night lost away from somewhere a lot more pleasant. perhaps they like traffic? wink

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited May 2018 #3

    Perhaps they are used to traffic but in a layby that small surely the traffic would rock them to sleep?!!  Nowt so strange as folks?  I might be tempted to take a quick snooze on a long journey  but 14 hours? 

  • Goldie146
    Goldie146 Club Member Posts: 2,448 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 2018 #4

    And this is just round the corner  - 

    https://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/campsites/uk/cumbria/kendal/stationinn

     

  • ABM
    ABM Forum Participant Posts: 14,578
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    edited May 2018 #5

    Just  had  a  week  at  Godrevy Park,  Hayle  and  I  was  staggered  to  see  on  the  walk  down  into  the  town,  no  fewer  than  3  ( THREE  !! )  motor vans  parked  up and,  apparently,  camping  in   the  laybays.  There  are several  Holiday  chalet  sites  as  well as  the  C&MC  site  there  -  it  really  beggars  belief  especially  considering  there  are  at  least  two  car parks  on  the  Dunes  just  past  the  Club  site  which  could  well  cater  for  the  Surfing  Brigade  --  not  that  I  Know  the  parked  ones  were  surfers

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,142 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 2018 #6

    One of the MHs (a Hobby) has been in the lay-by down towards the town for at least 3 years, ABM. It’s lived in. Take a drive up over the cliffs towards Portreath and you’ll see the same vans in the parking areas day after day.

  • Kennine
    Kennine Forum Participant Posts: 3,472
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    edited May 2018 #7

    Have you ever considered the fact that those people staying overnight in their motorhomes in inappropriate places, may be members of the Travelling Community. ?.They do not get a welcome on any club sites. 

    K wink

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
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    edited May 2018 #8

    laybys and rest stops are usually a little less attractive in the uk than in some other places...

    this was one we stumbled across on our way south through France  when pausing for a spot of lunch.

    only a few hundred yards on the way out (or in) to a small village, we just spotted the blue MH sign and turned in....

    delightful, we definitely would have been happy (and comfortably quiet) overnighting there....again, only 50-100m from the road but makes all the difference....from our 'rest stops'..

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 2018 #9

    When I’m on a long journey and by myself I often park up for a few hours in lay-bys but usually the are well back from the road.  Has nothing to do with saving money, more to do with the convenience of arriving and departing when I want to.

  • KENNYG
    KENNYG Forum Participant Posts: 215
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    edited May 2018 #10

    Come down to Lytham st Anne's at a weekend up to 20 to 30 motor homes at any one time on the road usually over a grid.

  • redface
    redface Forum Participant Posts: 1,701
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    edited May 2018 #11

    Perhaps they were not members of a camping club?

    Thanks for letting me know where I might park up, should the day ever come that I live in my caravan.  Cheaper than club sites but not so abundant with services etc.

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited May 2018 #12

    Looks a delightful spot DD. Whereabouts is it?

  • wallacebob
    wallacebob Forum Participant Posts: 89
    edited May 2018 #13

    We have an enlightened view in Scotland, but it does have some rules. https://www.outdooraccess-scotland.scot/sites/soac/files/docs/camping_poster_-_tent.pdf

    I see Forestry Scotland car parks have signs indicating sleeping in you car (or M/H I assume) isn't wild camping. "Camping" is seen as tents in wild places, not M/H in lay-by. I see no attraction in sleeping in Ikea/Tesco car parks or at my local P&R. I know the Spanish are increasingly irritated by M/H who park everywhere and contribute very little to the local economy. 

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
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    edited May 2018 #14

    CY, I assume you meant BB and not DD?smile

    if so, according to the GPS tag on the photo, 'twas on the D962 south east of Orléons, just as we were leaving the town of Les Bordes' an aire on the right...probably room for 3 vans tops....a tap and a drive over waste, just in the right of the photo...

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited May 2018 #15

    Sorry about that. Slip of the keyboard. Thanks for the info.

  • cody
    cody Forum Participant Posts: 123
    edited May 2018 #16

    So what ? let the free spirits roam, made me envious last summer  seeing them parked up in forest clearings on the Biscarrosse Archaeon road just a short stroll from the surf. 

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