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Camping

Our UK Camping forum has all the information you need on finding the right equipment for your tent or caravan.

Original poster

What's the most basic campsite you've ever been to?

26 replies

kathyis6incheshigh · 01/07/2009 14:48

This is to correct the balance after the glamping thread.

I'll start:
Facilities consist of:

two toilets (real, but v spidery, no sinks)
stone sink with tap on side of barn with broken bit of mirror stuck next to it.

Can anyone beat that?

OP posts:
supersalstrawberry · 01/07/2009 15:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

expatinscotland · 01/07/2009 15:11

well, seeing as that i used to camp in places where you carried a shovel for the toilet and a water purifier (on your back in a rucksack along with all food you planned to eat and your sleeping back, Karrimat, etc.), yep, I'd say I could beat that.

Original poster
kathyis6incheshigh · 01/07/2009 15:17

sorry Expat, wild camping doesn't count. Also you need to take your children [makes up arbitrary rules]

OP posts:
sarah293 · 01/07/2009 15:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Fennel · 01/07/2009 15:22

well, just fields with no facilities, just a tap. don't you count those?

or, campsite that's basically a field with one compost loo and a water tap.

we camp a lot on very minimal sites as well as wild camping, with the dc.

Original poster
kathyis6incheshigh · 01/07/2009 15:22

Concrete toilets?
Think I would rather have Expat's shovel!

OP posts:
Original poster
kathyis6incheshigh · 01/07/2009 15:23

Compost loo?

(See, I thought I was hard but it turns out I must be very soft....)

OP posts:
Fennel · 01/07/2009 15:24

It's all compost loos round here these days. organic farms and campsites, nothing plastic or chemically or Built.

expatinscotland · 01/07/2009 15:24

have taken the DDs 'wild camping'. why doesn't it count?

expatinscotland · 01/07/2009 15:24

have taken the DDs 'wild camping'. why doesn't it count?

Original poster
kathyis6incheshigh · 01/07/2009 15:25

oh well maybe if you've taken your children....

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 01/07/2009 15:27

Overmydeadbody takes her son 'wild camping' and nothing but, IIRC.

Slubberdegullion · 01/07/2009 15:28

aw why can't we play with wild camping.

spoil sports.

I can't beat any of you with proper sites, although the site in France we went to as children for 12 years only had 2 English loos. The rest were hole in the floor French jobbies that gave me an ooey.

You could only have a hot shower with a jeton that lasted for 3 mins so my mother (the Methodist) used to wash herself, me and my sister all with one jeton. I have never had my hair washed so aggressively in my life.

Original poster
kathyis6incheshigh · 01/07/2009 15:30

It's ok Slubber I've changed the rules - wild camping counts if you take dcs. (It's just otherwise it would just be everyone's student backpacking stories and I get enough of that from dh and his friends.)

OP posts:
Slubberdegullion · 01/07/2009 15:34

Haven't done it with the dds YET. I am camping 1 night this weekend in PILs field with sheep. Will not have to dig a hole though.

Where is QS? QS has camped with a reindeer and taken only a fish hook or something.

FouFoucault · 01/07/2009 15:41

When I was a child my dad used to go to canoeing competitions and we would camp. Loo was a huge hole in the ground with a tent around it. I was terrified that I would fall into hole. Turns out my mum was too (for herself rather than for DC).
No washing facilities that I remember.

Fennel · 01/07/2009 16:02

Showers? you have showers? and hot water? that's luxury...

We have camped wild on Dartmoor a couple of times with 3 small dc, it's been surprisingly easy.

we do camp a lot just on fields or bits of woodland with them too.

nikkid21 · 01/07/2009 16:12

1 compost loo and 1 cold tap. Plus you park your car and then have to cart everything 10 mins walk through the woods in the wheelbarrows they supply.

We're off there as soon as the kids break up from school. It will be interesting trying to get our new Florida 6 to the camping field, I can't even lift the pole bag

Milliways · 01/07/2009 16:23

A field with a tap & Portaloos.

Actually, if you walk there are identical facilities to the OP site - Britchcombe Farm??

But, as they allow open fires and free pitching we keep going back.

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 01/07/2009 16:25

side of a river, barn with running water 10 minutes walk away, no loo's. Fantastic!!!

happywomble · 01/07/2009 16:57

went on an archeological dig in france many years ago. The "loo" was a large hole in the ground. When it filled up they covered it with earth and dug another. It was revolting.

I have also camped at very basic campsites in Canada (algonquin park). You canoe across a lake and carry your canoe to the next lake. Can't remember there being any facilities other than ground to pitch ones tent on and possibly a place to light a fire. We saw a black bear and it was very exciting. It was in the back of beyond so at night it got properly dark. It was a real adventure.

3rdnparty · 01/07/2009 19:58

where are these sites with just loos and a tap...not hugely fussed about showers in the main only when camping of course and have decided am allergic to sites with marked out pitches.... but not very good at finding sites either and too nervous to just hope we'll find something on the fly so names/locations please

pooter · 01/07/2009 20:06

i took a party of 9 fifteen year old girls on a 5 day trek in thailand. We had to carry all our own supplies and didnt even have tents !!

Actually it was great - we had hammocks we strung up between trees and although it was a bit far for us really we had a good time.

surely this wins???

(ps i have never camped since - and it was 5 yrs ago )

Original poster
kathyis6incheshigh · 01/07/2009 20:35

they are secret 3rdnparty
Ours is in the Lake District, dh found it on the Ordnance Survey map as it's not in any guides. Happy to tell you where if you send me a CAT but I'm not going to post it on the internet in case it stops being secret & wonderful!

OP posts:
Fennel · 01/07/2009 21:05

The sites with few facilities tend not to spend much on advertising, they aren't on the UK camping sites. We sometimes find them by looking for little camping signs on OS maps. I know a couple in Pembrokeshire, a few in Devon, a few around the Lakes and North wales.