harold1066

Actually, wild camping's allowed on dartmoor without asking prior permission - as long as "you choose your spot sensibly and don't pitch your tent on farmland, on moorland enclosed by walls, within 100 metres of a road, on flood plains or on archaeological sites" - according to the byelaws! Edited to add - I was typing that as Spannerman posted...!!! That's is true: I forget about Dartmoor. So if it is O.K on Dartmoor and there isn't hoards of people that want a party, but doesn't want to tidy up afterwards -and all the travellers camping on Dartmoor then surely a move to allow the same access to other areas like snowdonia, exmoor is not going to be a problem either. What we are looking for is similar access to what Scotland has. This is part of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (PDF Link) Responsible behaviour by the public Access rights extend to wild camping. This type of camping is lightweight, done in small numbers and only for two or three nights in any one place. You can camp in this way wherever access rights apply but help to avoid causing problems for local people and land managers by not camping in enclosed fields of crops or farm animals and by keeping well away from buildings, roads or historic structures. Take extra care to avoid disturbing deer stalking or grouse shooting. If you wish to camp close to a house or building, seek the owner’s permission. Leave no trace by: * taking away all your litter; * removing all traces of your tent pitch and of any open fire (follow the guidance for lighting fires); * not causing any pollution Responsible behaviour by land managers If you are experiencing large numbers of roadside campers or have well-used wild camping areas, you could work with your local authority and with recreational bodies to assist the management of such camping. Where and when you can exercise access rights 2.2 Everyone, whatever their age or ability, can exercise access rights over most land and inland water in Scotland, at any time of day or night, providing they do so responsibly. These rights do not extend to all places or to all activities (see paragraphs 2.11 to 2.15). Provided you do so responsibly (see Parts 3 and 5 of the Code), you can exercise access rights in places such as: * hills, mountains and moorland; * woods and forests; * most urban parks, country parks and other managed open spaces; * rivers, lochs, canals and reservoirs; * riverbanks, loch shores, beaches and the coastline; * land in which crops have not been sown; * on the margins of fields where crops are growing or have been sown; * grassland, including grass being grown for hay or silage (except when it is at such a late stage of growth that it is likely to be damaged); * fields where there are horses, cattle and other farm animals; * on all core paths agreed by the local authority; * on all other paths and tracks where these cross land on which access rights can be exercised; * on grass sports or playing fields, when not in use, and on land or inland water developed or set out for a recreational purpose, unless the exercise of access rights would interfere with the carrying on of that recreational use; * golf courses, but only for crossing them and providing that you do not take access across greens or interfere with any games of golf; * on, through or over bridges, tunnels, causeways, launching sites, groynes, weirs, boulder weirs, embankments of canals and similar waterways, fences, walls or anything designed to facilitate access (such as gates or stiles). Where do access rights not apply? 2.11 Access rights do not apply in the following places. ...and there's a big long list ... including nearby houses (privacy), sport grounds, land excluded by byelaws What activities are excluded from access rights? 2.12 Access rights must be exercised in ways that are lawful and reasonable. By definition this excludes any unlawful or criminal activity from the time at which it occurs. Furthermore, being on or crossing land for the purpose of doing anything which is an offence or a breach of an interdict or other order of a court is excluded from access rights. This means that a person intent on such a purpose is excluded from access rights at the time they seek to enter the land. This is also taken to include the carrying of any firearm, except where the person is crossing land or water to immediately access land or water, or return from such, where shooting rights are granted, held or held in trust or by any person authorised to exercise such rights. 2.13 A list of the more obvious statutory offences relating to people’s behaviour is provided at Annex 1. This list includes poaching, vandalism, not clearing up after your dog has fouled in a public place, being responsible for a dog worrying livestock, dropping litter, polluting water, and disturbing wild birds, animals and plants. There are also common law of such as breach of the peace.

This is an argument that has been aired a fair bit. There are a few websites that will help to address the limitation and status of the petition. http://www.cameronmcneish.co.uk/blogs/212#comments http://whitespider1066.com/?p=1557 http://blog.outdoorsmanning.com/2008/01/30...riving-me-wild/ John Manning blog entry gives a good response to these questions. This is one of the problems; people believe that they allow to wild camp in England & Wales, you can't. Technical you need to ask the landowners permission. Another one of our group has posted this article on the subject. Nailing my colours to the mast Sorry to be posting links but this has been running since February and there is a lot of information out there. Thanks for taking the time to look and reponse. Harold1066

For those unaware but interested in getting involved there's an E-Petition currently seeking support on the 10 Downing Street website: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/wildcamp/#detail "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to legalise wild camping in England and Wales Currently without the landowners consent it is illegal to wild camp on the moors, mountains, National Parks and MOD land. It is time to give people the same rights as those given North of the Border in Scotland to allow them to wild camp in these places without threat of legal action" It was listed earlier in Feb and will need all the votes it can if it is to get any serious credence. Deadline to sign up is 24 May 2008, and you must be a British citizen or resident to sign (It's quite quick and simple to do) Please spread the word if you wish - it will need all the support it can get if it's to at least get those in power interested Whatever your view on UK Gov's E-Democracy ideas - if its not used then nothing will happen. Thanks for reading this

I go on holiday and my bug clocks up 7000 miles TBH02A note to self; go on holiday more often

Depending on the date I`m up for a walk; 5-12 miles is normally my limit. Geo

I showed interest in the original discussion; are there going to be enough to go round Geo

The Biggin Hill Flyers have left McVities pens in some of their caches, I know I`ve got one.

Woo-hoo That`s rather appropriate for me Cheers Bob; you`re doing a great job Geo

The Glowing Gecko is on it`s way to Bob Geo

Can you please add me:) I nominate Hampden`s Monument as the returning cache. TB Info: Name: The Glowing Gecko Reference No: TBH02A Cheers George

Tivo Set

I`m still on the injury list but my hip is getting better should be out again for March Geo

A BIG fat ZERO for me this month

I`d be interested in a Uk Geocoin or 2 Geo

4808 Geo

I try to log them in order but sometimes I forget the order but as they are all logged on the same day, it doesn`t really matter that much. Geo

I like gadgets (don`t we all ) and thought that a GPSr would be great when out backpacking so bought a magellan 315. After using on a couple of trips I wondered what else it could be used for; so searched the `net, the two main sites that came up were The degree Conflunce and GC.com as there weren`t too many conflunces close to me I looked more closely at GC. At the time there were only a hand of cache in the Country 15/20? So I did the closest one to me Project APE and then waited 2 1/2 years before looking for my second one. Geo

Most modern Digital cameras don`t have an external power source so when downloading the pictures from the camera; the camera needs to be on and drains the batteries. A card reader plugs into a USB port and the card from the camer goes into it and you download the pictures from there, a bit like an external mini HD. Geo

. Double post

I have the A40 the one before the A60 A great range of cameras, I take the A40 on all my caching trips. The A75 this is a 3.2 MP 3x zoom and ICD have it for £145 or the A95, 5MP 3x zoom for 238. I paid 320 for the A40 3 year ago so 238 for a 5MP is a good price. I`ve printed picture up to A4 size with the A40 and no problems with the look of them. The good thing I found with the A40 is that you can use it just as a P&S but when you get use to it you can use the maunal features on it. A card reader is a good accessory, saves running down the batteries in the camera. I normally take my pictures into Boots, at present they are doing 50 prints for £5 Torch - I use one of the new LED headtorches by Petzl either the Tikka, Tikka+, or Zipka, Zipka+, keeps your hands free prices are between £25-30, they take AAA and last for about 100 hrs. Goretex is well overrated I`ve had two Gortex jacket and both leaked at some stage, Paramo jackets are the bees wotsits only need a quick reproof once a year and good to go.

I too have been think about getting a bike, mainly for use to work but also the occassionally caching trips and also maybe cycle-backpacking. I heard that the cheaper one in Halfords ain`t up to the strain put on them. I only trouble this, this there to so many to chose from I`ve looked at the Hybird one which seen to give a choice of use of different terrains. I found a place that sells off ex-hike bikes here seems as those there are some reasonable prices there. Geo

I forget about las month :DOH!: lucky to wasn't a good month September`s sent Cheers George

[Rant] Can`t stand the man wouldn`t watch or listen to anything he is in or on [Rant over] Geo

Wow I finally had a reply to an email the cacher said that they will try to release the TB soon. Geo

Wow, this has moved on a bit while I`ve been on holiday I used my 'old' technology (wap) to access Gc while on the Isle of Wight, and it worked O.K a bit slow typing in the log but at least I could log the TB straight away. By the way if anyone is looking for a Yellow Jeep there is one here Geo