What Is Wild Camping?

The essence of wild camping is simple. Spend nights on your own without facilities, camp site or pre-arranged assistance. Even tents are optional and wild campers can use bivvy bags, convenient caves or simple sleeping bags under the stars. It’s an awe-inspiring antidote for the complexity of modern life. Stay outdoors where you’re free to experience nature on its own terms and discover a simplicity of living, back to nature you’ll be close to nature’s complex interactions.

Patagonia in Argentina

Camping is an excellent way to find such freedoms but modern camping (known as mild camping to wild camping initiates) can be very unsatisfying. Not only do you run the risk of coming across the very things you hoped to leave; the perpetual compromise of dealing with neighbours, vehicle exhaust, the incessant sounds of electronic devices and even TVs, but you’ll leave a significant environmental footprint too. Wild camping is a much better option for embedding yourself in nature and leaving the complexity of civilization far behind.

There are many names and variations of the practice depending on where you’re based and the amount of drama and romance you want to imply. The Spainish ‘acampada libre’ is a direct translation, but variations mean much more. Guerilla camping and stealth camping imply a potentially illegal disregard for the niceties of obtaining permission and being sufficient courteous to make sure property owners are aware of your presence. Free camping might  give the impression that you’re too stingy to pay for a camp  site so it’s  best to go with the phrase wild camping if you have a choice.

There are plenty of places where it’s not necessary to get permission to camp outdoors. The whole of Scotland, for instance, provided you don’t set up camp in an agricultural field or in the middle of a right of way. Latin America has no prohibitions against free camping, although there are practical and  safety  considerations that you should bear in mind. The strategies involved in staying alive, comfortable and leaving the smallest footprint possible are the same regardless. They improve your self reliance and give you the opportunity – and silence – to do some thinking and find yourself. While the motivation for remaining undetected is perhaps stronger in certain circumstances, the skills involved in remaining undetected and undetectable are an undeniable part of wild camping’s low-impact wild principles.

Each wild camping choice has an impact on  your investment in terms of equipment and preparedness. It brings you into contact with different types of nature and outdoor changes too. Variations include involving bicycles or hiking, whether to stay near water or carry it, the extent to which cooking kits are necessary and whether to remain entirely or partially eco-friendly. Boondocking involves a recreational vehicle and blacktop boondocking is the American practice of wild camping in car parks!

To read more about the best wild camping places in the world, try:

Extreme Environmental Experiences for the experience of the UK’s extremes,  Short Wilderness Breaks for short camping and hiking breaks in great places,  Suntastic Sensations for camping in places with guaranteed sun,  Bivouacking  Biggies for camping where regular tents aren’t appropriate.