I may take the lad (9) on holiday for a few days. We might take a tent. We will take a small stove and some saucepans and dishes - a "possibly camping" trip.
If we decide to stay somewhere, sleeping in the vehicle, on air-beds - is there anything to watch out for, i.e. things to make sure we do, and things not to do, when overnighting?
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Just make sure you go to to a proper camp site, it is more secure and you have all the facilities such as toilets and showers.
Also make sure you learn the art of speaking scouse, everytime we go camping the mancs always seem to take tents and the Liverploodians take the white Transit they have knicked from Warrington the night before.
Also make sure you put some big subwoofers in the back of the van, this ensures the entire campsite cannot sleep while they try and cope with the torture of drum and bass.
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Rattle, you are a goon.
OP - I'd take a tent if I were you, much more comfortable I would have thought.
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If kipping in the van overnight, ensure you have airflow. Two peoples exhausted air gets the inside pretty humid, damp even, pretty quickly.
Take the tent, it gives you options.
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I'd go with proper sites too to avoid interference. However in Scotland there are loads of places to tuck away for some wild camping.
www.thehappycampers.co.uk/campsites/wildcamping/
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 10 Mar 11 at 13:44
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I slept in a Citroen AX for 4 nights once, en route from Tenerife to Plymouth (via Santander)
but is was August, I wouldn't fancy trying it in Gran Britannia outside of Summer.
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I slept in my Morris Minor on Dartmoor a few times way back when.
I was memorably woken at 3am once by a torch in my eyes. Terrified, I lurched into a half awake sitting position, and a cheery policeman said "Sorry, sir, I thought you was dead", before telling me I shouldn't be overnighting there.
So pick your spot.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 10 Mar 11 at 14:09
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>> So pick your spot.
What sort of spots, in general, might be useful, if anyone has experience of this?
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>>What sort of spots, in general, might be useful<<
In my case, I always tried to bed down for the night in a built up area in between other cars (less conspicuous)
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>> a cheery policeman said (snip) I shouldn't be overnighting there.
Oh dear. Isn't this allowed?
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>> Oh dear. Isn't this allowed?
>>
If you were asking specifically about Dartmoor, FT, then it's very much allowed in the right places. In my case I was in the carpark by the side of the road, probably under a sign that said "no camping".
In case it's of use, this site tells you all about wild camping on Dartmoor.
www.dartmoor.co.uk/site/what-to-do/wild-dartmoor
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If you want to camp outside a proper site, the best thing to do is find a likely place and ask the farmer/landowner if it's OK to camp there. People like being asked, and they may suggest a better place further off the road. It's a matter of approach: if you ask nicely they will know you won't make a horrible mess and leave broken bottles on the site.
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May be worth investing in a pair of levelling ramps, sleeping at an angle is not comfortable, agree with the ventilation comments. Make sure keys are handy in cae you want to go outside for any reason, very easy to lock yourself out having locked yourself in.
Next time get a campervan - an old Commer is beat.
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>> If we decide to stay somewhere, sleeping in the vehicle, on air-beds - is there
>> anything to watch out for, i.e. things to make sure we do, and things not
>> to do, when overnighting?
You may find that a lot of sites won't accept commercial vehicles. Certainly, many will not accept caravans towed by such.
Better that you book first and explain, rather than turn up and be turned away.
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Have you tried sleeping in the vehicle yet? I used to occasionally go fishing with a mate. Tried sleeping in his van once and was very cold with a lot of condensation and generally not very pleasant at all . Used to take a tent which I found much more bearable
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I've slept in a car a few times. Open all four windows a bit, and use a decent sleeping bag. Much warmer than the alternative (closed windows & thin sleeping bag).
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Take a comfort bottle and when it's lashing it down you can stand up and pee in the bottle then screw the cap on and shove it by your feet in the sleeping bag and stick your feet on it like a hot water bottle. :-)
Yes i do it.!!
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Yep, crack the windows open 4-5mm each to aid airflow and demisting. Rain shouldn't get in (unless you're in Wales/Scotland). Lock the doors and keep the key somewhere safe but easy to access. Make sure the handbrake's on!! If it's proper cold you can leave the engine running for warmth - not the most efficient way to do it but highly unlikely to cause any harm.
My friends and I used to kip in our cars at the seaside at weekends when we were 18-19. We'd park them in an overnight carpark near a campsite and head off for a cooked breakfast just after sunrise.
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I can recommend a tent - use C&C registered sites, bit more expensive but facilities and site discipline are better. Don't cook in the back of closed van. Buy proper mattresses - Thermolite are the best by a county mile.
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Get drunk the night before - that way you'll be ignorant of any discomfort in the night.
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drunk in charge of a van
brilliant advice
do you have any words of appeasement for colonel gadafi while your on?
;-)
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Drunk in charge of a child...to add to the other offence !
I've slept in a Morris J4 van...it was awful, sweat dripping off the roof like acid. Mind you, there were 14 of us in it and if you moved a limb, someone else's would ' flow ' into the vacated space. We had no bedding, either !
I know a nice telephone box in Thirlspot and a cave in Millers Dale....both former Tedrooms in my youth. I've slept in whatever recovery vehicle I had, when I needed to.
I like sleeping under canvas. I sleep in the awning when caravanning. I use a blow up single bed, about £20, with a high capacity 12V pump. Like a little hairdryer..it shifts air very quickly and sucks it out when you need to roll the bed up. Don't forget pillows. Camping Gaz do a little stove and a light that clip on the same cylinder. A few bits from the kitchen and a couple of 2 litre bottles of water are handy.
Try packing a motorbike for a fortnight's camping on the Continent...it's an artform !
Have a good time...rough camping is great fun.
Ted
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Don't pee close by in the dark in cold weather - the frozen trail in the morning is a bit embarassing.
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Been trying to learn how to do that (or pee out of the cab window) for the last 30 years but still had to get out and go under the trailer.
Equality, you blokes don't know how luck you are:)
Pat
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Thank you for the replies. This is a Scudo window van, so I can leave the front windows open a crack, and the side doors ajar. Two air-beds fit side-by-side, and there's enough length for them.
Is sleeping in a vehicle at the roadside subject to particular rules? What about the "interference" that Fenlander mentioned? Would a (rural) location near a pub be OK? We most probably would not sleep in a town.
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Why I mentioned Scotland is wild camping is accepted more there... and out in the wilds there are far less folks to mess with you. Lots of folks do this at the edges of beaches in brilliant locations like these folks at Glenuig...
www.flickr.com/photos/niallcorbet/2544900643/
I know it's using canoes but have a look at this blog of a brilliant family wild camping trip...
www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?23824-Loch-Shiel-Circuit-blessed-by-the-weather-Gods!
We always have holiday cottages at nice shore locations in Scotland and every year there are folks in the area quietly having a great time in the tents at much lower costs.
I would be very tempted to buy a tent and use that beside the van. Some locals/landowners see sleeping in vans/cars as a lot less credible than using a tent.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 11 Mar 11 at 10:39
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I'd like to go wild camping with my boy. Where does one, ahem, go for a poo?
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>> Follow the bears.
I see what you're getting at, trouble is there ain't no woods in most of the wilder parts of Scotland.......look at that link to the picture of campers at Glenuig beach.
I'm not bothered by issues of privacy particularly, more concerned about what to do with the poisonous stuff. Don't want to leave it out in the open. So what's the form?
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A secluded grass area (out of sight and downwind of those who paid dearly for their holiday cottages please) and a small shovel is all you need.
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>> a small shovel is all you need.
Oh. Bury it, you mean. Is that OK?
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Where does one, ahem, go for a poo? The posh one have a porta loo.
Wild camp sites it's a shovel or a pub etc, pee anywhere you like. :-)
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...Is sleeping in a vehicle at the roadside subject to particular rules?...
I think the legal position is unclear, or put another way, I can't think of any law you are breaking, but the copper who taps on your window at 3am will not be interested in legal argument.
It's possible bye-laws prohibit camping or overnight stops.
A good solution is to get the permission of a landowner, but that will not always be easy.
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Having kipped in cars in many spots all over the place in the eighties; usually quiet lay-bys or out of the way car parks, I was only investigated by plod once - about 2 a.m. near Snake Pass, with about 3 inches of snow on the car. Even then he didn't bother me, just flashed a torch in the car, presumably established I was not broken down, and left me alone.
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ive slept in many cars over the years and most times we have been up a country lane and tried to
get off the road onto a pull in or similar.
ive had the police at the window a few times but when they've checked we are ok and not drunk then they have left us alone.
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On holiday in the van. - RattleandSmoke
