Earlier this month for my birthday I was lucky enough to receive a  membership with the  Nearly Wild Camping Club from   my partner Catherine. Nearly Wild Camping is   a growing network of locations willing to host campers who are looking for a 'wilder' camping experience, whilst still maintaining some of the benefits of a regular campsite experience - most importantly, permission to be on the land! I'd been looking at getting a membership for a while at this point, because since I'd found wild camping, it had made most regular sites seem too busy and commercialised, but I still wanted to be able to go camping with more than what can be carried on my back - so Nearly Wild Camping seemed like a perfect fit! The site has a great system where locations are rated 1-5 on how 'wild' they are, with 5 being just a location, and 1 being more or less a regular campsite with all the amenities that you'd expect.  I already had a trip planned for later in the month with ...

For my third wild camping trip of 2023 myself and my number one wild camping companion, with whom I started wild camping with in 2021 and have continued to do multiple trips with every year since, decided to try a new location, which we usually call an 'away trip'. We started using the terms 'home' or 'away' trip as we had gotten into the habit of rotating between wild camps in the Wyre Forest, right on our hometown doorstep (home trip), or going further afield such as the Peak District, Forest of Dean, or Lake District (away trip). Anyway... For this 'away' trip we had decided on the new location - the Long Mynd, in the Shropshire Hills. Despite living only an hour away from the Long Mynd it's actually somewhere that I've never been before, and now after going, I can't believe that it's taken me so long! The Shropshire Hills are described as an Area of Natural Beauty (AONB), and when you're stood on the top of the Mynd, it's not ...

Since I went on my first wild camp in June 2021, I have had fairly mixed reactions from people when it comes up in conversation. The most common queries/responses that I get are maybe what you might expect, and are along the lines of "is that legal?" or "where do you go to the toilet?" and in the later months of the year "you must be mad - it's freezing!". Of course, if you've never been wild camping before and maybe aren't what some would describe as an "outdoorsy" person, then these are all completely valid concerns. But every now and then, I'll get a different response entirely, leading more down the lines of "how could I do that?". This is always really refreshing, and of course like most people, I always find it fun to start a conversation about one of my number one passions. I recently had this conversation with someone at work, discussing the basics of what you need and how much some basic kit is etc. and that is ...

 Part Four - Glencoe After two amazing days in the Cairngorms, we were unsure if anything else on our trip would hold a candle to the beauty of Glenmore... That was until we arrived in Glencoe. Looking like it's straight out of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, with its mist covered mountains, green valleys and crisp rivers, we began to realise that we had never been so wrong. The campsite that we had booked for our one night in Glencoe (please note that one night here is not enough!) was the Red Squirrel Campsite and it was as easy to find as it was aesthetically pleasing. We arrived at the site around early evening, and chose a pitch to set up away from other campers, because after all, what is camping about if not getting away from people! Red Squirrel has lots of space, and feels fairly wild compared to some large sites, with pitches amongst the trees and by the streams that run through it. There is a small shop on site with some basic items, including firewood, as well as ample toi...

Part Three - The Cairngorms As we left the lowlands behind and headed up the A9, we started to see and feel the true wilderness that Scotland has to offer. So many beautiful valleys, mountainsides, and forests that appear to be completely devoid of human activity - this is what I had come here for! We arrived at Glenmore Campsite, near Aviemore, early in the evening, and I was initially struck by this site - it was definitely the biggest site we'd been on during this trip, and also the most wild feeling, as it's set right in the woodland. After a brief visit to reception to check in, we found ourselves a pitching spot away from other campers, and right on the edge of the woods, which gave our pitch a relatively private feel, however, it did make us easy access for all the flying insects of the forest! Our first evening was spent grilling some steaks that we had bought earlier in the day, and then, in an attempt to find some Wi-Fi to download maps and plan the next few days, we ...

Part Two - Edinburgh & Stirling After two nights in the Galloway forest it was time to move on to the next leg of our journey - starting with Edinburgh! To avoid the hassle of driving and parking in the city itself, whilst planning the trip we found several park and ride locations surrounding the city, so we chose the most convenient one for us, and headed there Monday morning. With traffic around the built up areas the journey took us just over two and a half hours. We had booked tickets for Edinburgh castle at 11:30, which we did end up being a little late for, but we still got into the castle, to get some great views over the city and to learn more of it's history.   Being the UK school summer holidays, and also festival season it should have been no surprise that the castle and city were both very busy with tourists from all over the world. After being in the forest for two days in a comparatively much less busy area, this was quite a shock to the system, and as I'm no...

As described in my introduction post, I have loved camping and outdoor activities since I was young, and living in the UK, the absolute pinnacle for such activities is without a doubt Scotland! It is a place that I have wanted to visit for a long time, and this year with my better half Catherine, I finally planned a trip that would allow us to visit some of the places that we wanted to see the most.  Over the course of many evenings after work we sat at the laptop, and over a large ' Touring Map of Scotland ' (thank you Amazon ) endeavouring to decide upon a route which would enable us to visit some beautiful natural areas such as Galloway Forest, the Cairngorms, and Glencoe, whilst also giving us the opportunity to see more touristy areas like Edinburgh and Stirling. Some of the places that we had initially planned to visit had to be cut from this trip, to allow us more time to explore others, leaving the planned route to resemble that below: Galloway Forest - camping for two...