source: flickr © jhull - sleeping under the stars

I remember years ago when I was a long-haired student being far too tight to ever pay to go camping. So I slept wherever I could without getting moved on by the police in the middle of the night. One of my favourite spots was a secret location I called The Ledge in Newquay where I used to sleep after a long day of surfing and hiking. It was precipitous and pretty dangerous as we usually negotiated my way down to The Ledge after several pints, carrying our sleeping bags and survival bags. The path to The Ledge had a 20-foot drop onto rocks and the sea from the path, so one false step and I would have been fish food.

Another favourite was a certain car park in the Lake District that has a football pitch right behind it. Again, quite a bit of alcohol would be needed to go camping here as it was usually Winter and it required a bit of inner fire before crashing out for the night in my four-season down sleeping bag with the drawstring pulled so tight only my nose would stick out. I would wake up on a crisp clear morning, looking like a white crispy slug as I cracked the frost and ice off my bag and wriggled out to brave the freezing air and get myself to a cheap café for a fry-up.

And my last reminiscence brings me to the Llanberis Pass up to Snowdonia. I had actually forgotten to pack my tent this time (doh!). I was with my girlfriend and she wasn’t too pleased that we had no shelter. However, we were blessed with a clear night and we drove along the Pass to find a suitable place to park up and go camping. Neither of us had particularly good sleeping bags at that point as I had been burgled recently so had lost my trusty four-season sleeping bag. So we decided to zip both sleeping bags together and keep warm that way. The only downside was the smell of sheep poo and the bleating as sheep stumbled over us in the dark!

I find it very sad that there are only a handful of wild, non-campsite, places that you can go camping without fear of being called a trespasser or being removed by the police. But it is something everyone should experience, at least once in your life.

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