While cycle touring or multi day hiking, wild camping is our preferred method of spending the night. It offers greater independence and options for you to choose where and when to set up tent for the night. It can also be the only way to spend the night when remoteness or lack of facilities means you have to lay your head where your hat falls!
However simply pitching your tent where you feel like it isn’t always a good idea. On a previous cycle tour in Poland we unknowingly ended up camping next to a badger’s set that came alive at night once we were inside the tent! So a little planning, preparation and forethought will greatly improve your enjoyment of wild camping.
There are a number of factors to take into consideration when wild camping.
Legality
Wild camping isn’t always legal. Different laws apply in different parts of the world. In countries like Scotland and Norway you are allowed to wild camp in most unenclosed land. Here in Ireland, where we are from, a lot of the land is privately owned so wild camping is a little bit trickier. In Irish law, trespassing is a civil matter not a criminal offence. It becomes a matter for the cops only when you refuse to leave when asked. If in doubt (or desperation!) you could ask the land owners for permission to camp. Discretion and common sense will hopefully guide you away from setting up camp in someone’s back garden.
Tent
Wild camping is all about blending in to your surroundings. Therefore a tent’s colour is paramount to not being spotted. Choose a tent with an earthy colour that’s similar to the area you are camping. For us in the west of Ireland with an abundance of ochre bracken, green moss fields and olive grey of the bogs, we chose a muted green tent.
There are very few natural angular, sharp edges and corners in the outdoors so to ‘fit in’ to your surroundings I prefer a dome shaped tent that has more curves and softer angles than a more angular rigid tent.
Reflective markings on the tent are obviously great for returning to the tent after your sleep interrupting pee but not great if you want to be unseen by others. So consider removing these or covering up the reflective labels with some tape.
There may be occasions when you need to quickly pack everything up and get the hell out of there! So you need to be able to take down your tent for quick get aways!
Wild camping on the edge of the woods. Try and keep your gear compact and together and ready for a quick get away, not strewn all over the place like the above photo!
Gear
Inflatable and self-inflatable mattresses can be a pain to pack away, so maybe consider a simple roll sleeping mat instead that can be quickly rolled up, strapped to a pannier or bike rack. What you sacrifice in comfort you make up in speed and weight.
Also, make sure your sleeping bag is easy to pack. Some bags come with a small stuff sack the size of an ankle sock that stuffs and shrinks the bag down to a tight compactible size. Great for saving space but sometimes difficult and time consuming to get your sleeping bag back into the sac. To save time, consider getting a bigger stuff sac with a draw string that allows you to quickly pack your bag away.
We use an MSR Dragon Fly stove which is great for cooking but is a lot louder than other stoves. An option to consider for stealthy outdoor cooking is an alcohol stove, like a Trangia or a tin can hobo stove which are practically silent.
Security
As much as you may love your bike you’re not going to be sharing your tent with it. We lock our bikes together close to the tent using a seven foot long kryptonite lock. We’d attach a little bell to the lock so if anyone started tampering with it in the middle of the night Laura would elbow me and demand I get out to look!
If you are concerned about unwanted guests in the middle of the night you could always strategically place dry twigs and branches in approach paths to the tent. When stepped on, the noise of broken branches should alert you.. or fuel your paranoia further!
Keep the need for using your head torch to a minimum also.
Try and aim to have your tent pitched an hour or two before sunset.
Best Locations
We’ve camped in some questionable locations to say the least! From spending a night on the floor of a Japanese public toilet to old Romanian graveyards! Planning before hand helps determine where a suitable location would be to set up tent in evening time. While travelling we use Maps.me, which is an offline mapping system for mobile devices. Usually, we would check the map in the morning to estimate where we will be an hour or two before sunset and we would pinpoint potential wild camping spots.
On the maps.me app we generally look for minor tracks that either take us into wooded areas or upland where there is more chance of commonage land away from towns, villages and settlements. When you arrive at your selected location examine tracks to see how frequently they are used. Certain tracks may be used by farmers in the evenings and early mornings to move their animals to and fro for milking, herding etc. So finding a place out of sight from people who may use the track is important.
Try and stay clear of fields that contain farm animals, you could either spook them which could alert a passerby or intrigue their natural curiosity and penchant for nibbling on tent fabric and leather saddles (I’m looking at you Mongolian goats!). Also, in certain countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey there are fierce shepherd dogs in some fields guarding the farm animals, that would only love the chance to chew on a well toned cyclist’s leg!
Keep away from my fxxxing tent! Goats love to have a nibble!
A church, mosque, temple or graveyard are options worth considering if you are stuck and don’t mind spending the night with the dead! There’s usually running water in graveyards. The utmost respect must of course be taken as these are places of worship, and are important places in the community, so discretion must be exercised.
Most large single crop forests are state owned and should be fine to wild camp. The trouble is finding a flat clearing between trees that’s big enough to lay your tent. The ground in most state owned forests tends to be pretty rough although there may be clearing set aside for the public.
If you do find yourself stuck in a city looking for a place to camp, consider public amenity areas by rivers, lakes and parks. These are obviously not ideal but maybe passersby will ignore the crazies who decided to set up tent and hurry along! And hopefully the cops will have bigger fish to fry. When we were living in Japan we hosted a cycle tourer for a night. He told us that when he was looking for a place to camp in the evenings he would try and find a multi story car park! He said he felt safer, because of the security, it was usually quiet at night, there was sufficient light and he used a free standing tent so didn’t have to worry about getting his tent pegs into the ground. Different folk different strokes I suppose!
Finally
Try and avoid setting up tent in the darkness. Aim to have your tent pitched at least an hour before sunset.
Wild camping can be fun, scary, thrilling, serene, exciting and rewarding. You should never outstay your stay. Try to move on after a night, to avoid detection and upsetting the natural equilibrium of the area.
These wild camping tips work for us but you’ll find that you’ll fall into your own rhythm of what works best for you.
Crank and Cog 
thanks
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No problem Kelly!
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Hey my wife and I cycled from Navan to Kenmare last year and it was FANTASTIC!!!. We took 2 days to get there but it was really great memories from google maps sending us up a mountain between Killarney and Kenmare to sleeping in fields along the shore and my panniers being washed away by a raging river.I highly recommend cycle touring for anyone looking to experience Ireland,the roads are long and winding but the scenery is worth every kilometre.
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Two days from Navan to Kenmare! That’s good going! I couldn’t agree with you more, Ireland is a great country for cycle touring!
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Can I say I truly adore your blog? Truly an inspiration for want i want to do on summer! Also, I want to know more about that goat!!
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Ah that’s great you like the blog, thanks so much! The less you know about the goat the better!!
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How fun! Love the idea of forests…graveyards, not so much.
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Yup, spending a night in a graveyard can be a little unnerving!
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What are your thoughts/recommendations when “spending a penny” (or potentially a pound) while wild camping?
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Hmm, yes, it’s a delicate matter, particularly when wild camping! Everyone is different, yet the same. What goes in must come out! There isn’t much science to it. Find a bush, large rock, ditch, dig a little hole, do your business, cover it up and hope to god no one saw you! On a side note, bog/peat moss is a good alternative to toilet paper. The acidity kills germs and is..ahem, soft on your bum!..
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Hi! Your tips are most welcome for campers and people who are thinking of camping. I’ve been camping twice in my lifetime, and I loved it. I would love to do it again, but I think I am passed all that now but I thoroughly enjoyed your post, I felt I was there with you. Great post. Keep on camping and sharing your thoughtful posts with us. Veronica.
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Thanks so much Veronica! I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
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I would like you to follow me on my website WriteInK veronicagilkeswriter.com
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It’s been a long time since I’ve gone wild camping, but I really do miss it. Last chance I got was actually on a little island on a big lake, but had to leave after a huge storm wrecked some of my equipment. Think I might give it another go now that the weather is getting nice.
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Yep, the weather really can be the difference.
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Pingback: Wild Camping | OBs World
! Yup, spending a night in a graveyard can be a little unnerving!
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Although saying that, the living frighten me more!
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Once had to camp wild as the camp site was closed, I found an abandoned children’s play area and decided to take advantage of the broken slide platform for shelter. One of the most memorable wild camps I have had. Great post, keep it up!
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Good stuff! The unconventional camp spots tend to live longer in the memory alright!
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! It’s been a long time since I’ve gone wild camping, but I really do miss it.
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It’s hard to beat a night under the stars!
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! […] via Tips for Wild Camping — Crank and Cog […]
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Great tips for a traveller like me! Good thing there’s roadeavour products to help me get ready and pack my things well!
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Great tips for a traveller like me! Good thing there’s roadeavour products to help me get ready pack my things well!
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I’m glad you find it!
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Some great tips. I love to wild camp as I live in Canada and only ever tend to wild camp. I noticed that you recommended some stoves to use such as the MSR dragon fly. I have never heard of it, why is it louder? I came across this other blog post here https://outdoorsenergy.com/2017/09/07/affordable-camping-gear-guidetips/ that recommended an inexpensive pocket stove that doesn’t require any butane. Any experience with it?
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Hi there! The msr is louder than other stoves, I’m not 100% sure why really, it could be because the pressurised gas is released through a tiny valve. There are silencers available but they’re pretty pricey. I’ve no experience of pocket stoves. When travelling light I use alcohol stoves. I’d be interested in hearing how you got on with the pocket stove though.
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