Campsites without toilets…what do you do?

[4fingerKitKat]

I’m looking at some “campsites” which are basically farmers’ fields with no facilities.

What do you do for a toilet in such situations? Most advice I seem to see about camping toilets seem to be people using it as an emergency night time option that they then empty down a toilet.

How do you manage if there are no toilets? Or do we just admit defeat and find a campsite with toilets!

However I’d be more concerned that other campers would rock up without making adequate provision themselves and what the overall state of the campsite would end up being like.

You certainly wouldn't want to be moving any large stones.

I was surprised to see several tent campers at Budle Bay Farm last week, although most (not all) seemed to be equipped with a loo tent and portable toilet. It's a site that has a chemical loo disposal point and freshwater tap, but no other facilities.

I can't imagine any pop-up campsite would be allowed to function without an ELSAN - a chemical toilet disposal point. Cassette camping loos are really much less grim to empty than a kids potty.

@AppleKatie

If there is truly nothing then it isn’t a campsite it’s a field full of human waste. Don’t go.

This.

I happily wild camp in genuine wilderness locations and bury my poo etc., but sharing a field with a lot of other tents and no facilities would be rank. Not everyone will be responsible and take a portable loo, and then take the sewage waste home to empty it.

To the irresponsible poster who said "bush" - what do you think the field would be like after a few weeks if everyone did that? Wee is fine, but in reality there would be faeces everywhere.

Just rank.

I stayed a campsite with eco loos last summer and they were absolutely vile.

I can't imagine any pop-up campsite would be allowed to function without an ELSAN - a chemical toilet disposal point.

All that has to be provided is a source of safe drinking water. Nothing else.

@ArchbishopOfBanterbury

Composting loos are an option, rather than a chemical loo. We stayed at a back-to-basics site this week with a "simploo" in a little tent. Topped up with sawdust, and emptied it around every 48 hours. No problem.

Did the site have somewhere to dispose of the compost?

I like this idea. When I have stayed in sites with sawdust/composting loos I have always been impressed with how clean they are.

Did the site have somewhere to dispose of the compost?

It wouldn’t be compost. It would be a revolting mixture of poo, wee, and sawdust.

We have a sophisticated solid/liquid separating composting loo, not just a bucket of sawdust, and it takes six months minimum for the contents to turn into compost.

As Girl Guides back in the day (and our Scout packs still do it - TG Cubs like proper facilities!!), there were toilet tents with blue stuff in the buckets, which were emptied daily (or more frequently if necessary) into pits dug in the edge of the field and another layer covered over after each donation. Guides managed on 1 pit per camp, but as there are a LOT in our 2 Scout packs, they usually need 2 pits per camp. Top layer is at last 18 inches below surface level, and then remainder of soil filled in.

But our Scouts like to camp in farmers' fields, and it is agreed in advance with the farmers (some have machinery with a backhoe and have been very kind and dug it out in advance for the Scouts so it's nice and deep - in other locations, it depends on the energy of Scouts digging with shovels hence often the need for a 2nd or more pits).

I usually stay on sites with compost toilets and they have only once been unpleasant.

One problem is that people who are not used to camping or non flushing toilets do all sorts of daft things: put cat litter etc down the flushing toilets or down the Elsan, put Elsan type chemicals down the compost toilets, etc.

I’ve no issue with going for a wild wee, but there is no way I would camp in a field it’s no toilets. I’ve been on scout camp with a trench and thunder box, which I didn’t really like but it was pretty hygienic. There is no way everyone in a basic farmers field is disposing of their waste hygenically or taking it home with them. The outskirts of the field will be full of wee and poo and that is rank. Especially if it gets a bit warm, it will reek.

Oh good god no, end off, doesn’t happen.

We looked at camping last summer but gave up as all the camp sites we looked at had closed their loo blocks or reduced the number meaning queues. We had a newly toilet trained toddler so couldn't queue for ages. Maybe campers this year were also expecting facilities to be closed?

It's greedy and lazy for someone to be charging money for that.

Caravan and motorhome club do rallies which are basically renting a farmers field for caravanners to meet up and there is always a tap for drinking water and a hole dug for Waste from chemical loos.

I spent my childhood weekends in a caravan in various fields.

There will be a tap and a hole dug for waste.

I’m a hotel person myself, never shared my parents penchant for caravans.