Scotroutes gives good advice, but seeing as the UK is a fairly tame place to camp, you need to enhance the experience.

I suggest you come up to the Highlands, and camp in the forests around a full moon so you can appreciate the beauty of the scenery in its silvery fulgent rays.

Oh, I forgot – the important thing is to take some visual entertainment on your iPad to watch in the evening – the recommended film is “Dog Soldiers”

🙂

I’ve just ordered a sawyer mini, waiting on it arriving. I know some people say that drinking water, particularly in Scotland, is fine but I still have it in the back of my mind I’d rather be safe that sorry plus I’d rather filter out sediment as well even if there are no nasties. So eagerly awaiting the sawyers arrival it’ll be a revelation not having to cart a few litres of water about. Means more space for rum!

Btw cougar, great post made me smile!

One other tip I’d give beyond what’s already been posted is camp somewhere there are dark skies and hopefully a clear sky and make sure you are up at half 2 in the morning and just look up in awe! Takes a few hours for the stars to come out properly.

Both Grylls and Mears do have-a-go weekends 🙂

Think it’s the current Trail with a writeup on the Grylls one, mostly involved ex-army types shouting “what would Bear Do ! “

Might put you off a bit 🙂

Cheap tent
sleeping bag
foam mat (cheap)
small cooker, gas or meths or solid tablets all can be had cheap
Spoon
Tin mug or mess tin, or a camping kettle
Pot noodles or instant pasta just add water food

Don’t go to far from car or home, if tent burns down, gets blown away, or leaks in rain and you hate it, walk or drive home.

Or even better find a nice little campsite nearby, and use that to practice in with a few safe nights, then go wild.

Just reading the posts since i started mine.

The sawyer mini filter is new out and £30 with a water bag, get that.
Going to look at one in cotswold outdoor next time i vist one.

I bought an Aqua mira frontier pro which isn’t as good as the Sawyer but over a year ago it was one of the cheaper more compact choices.

Both can attach to some water bottles and used inline on bladder hoses.

Although to start with, and a gentle over nighter, take a 2ltr bottle of mineral water, filters come into it when your off for a multiday trip and don’t want to use fuel for boiling and don’t want the squits in the middle of Knoydart 🙂

Having said that I find Vango tents quite reasonable and good value for what they are.

We had a car camping one, it was ok but not designed that well. The side door was in a panel that had the tension of pitching across it, so when you opened it everything went floppy and then you couldn’t close it again. Also a few of the peg eyes fell off.

TWO knives? You know those Bear Grylls shows are all made up, right?

Anyway – the navigation is more important than the rest of it, so I suggest going out for day walks with someone a few times to get the hang of it (pref with someone else). I’d love to help but I’m not likely to be up there until September or so. If you don’t do that, practice first on nice days. You don’t want to be trying it out for the first time in a difficult situation, as I’m sure you will realise 🙂

Re the water – pumps may be better, I never used one because they were always so expensive. Puritabs don’t taste of anything, being silver based, and work fine for the UK. You have to read up on what the filter will remove or the pills will kill, and then find out if it exists in the UK. Some of the expensive pumping systems are suitable for use in tropical countries where they have far worse nasties than we do.

Btw for a sleeping matt I’d recommend this, seems as if it’ll be flimsy but I’m 17.5 stone and have been using it for over a year now. Comfy as hell, keeps you warm(air insulation from the ground), weighs nothing(well 300g) and packs very small.. I’d just be careful where you put it out side your tent.

http://www.multimat.uk.com/store/products/superlite-air

Oh, I forgot – the important thing is to take some visual entertainment on your iPad to watch in the evening – the recommended film is “Dog Soldiers”

You’d better be trolling you heretic. Ipad on a wild camping trip indeed. 👿

Anyway, we all know Dog Soldiers is a documentary.

I know some people say that drinking water, particularly in Scotland, is fine

I’ve never, ever filtered or treated water in Scotland. Companies sell the stuff I drink out of streams. It’s about as good as water gets.

Provided you use even a tiny bit of common sense, you (like the hundreds/thousands of generations before us) will be fine drinking it 🙂

And that H&K MP5 need silver bullets as lead won’t work, or a silver letter opener 🙂

Personally i don’t bother with a stove on an overnighter, saves an awful lot of faffing around. The meal amounts to minutes out of a day.

I’d go for a foam filled Thermarest style. Too much air is bouncy and I don’t care for it. That’s another area I’d take extra weight.

Personally i don’t bother with a stove on an overnighter, saves an awful lot of faffing around. The meal amounts to minutes out of a day.

Not as big a deal in summer…but the psychological boost of warm coffee and a hot meal is worth more to me in winter than my jacket! 🙂

Wimp 😛

Too much air isn’t bouncy, it’s almost rock hard. Too little air is bouncy.

Still prefer foam.

Yeah, I’m with Mr Grips on this, I’ve spent too many terrible nights on open-cell mattresses.

I recently tossed out my Fat Airics only to find that Alpkit have stopped doing mats. Grr, argh.

As for cooking,

Necessary or no, I’d want to do it. A warm meal before bed even if it’s just rice will be luxury, and a lack of coffee in the morning would be a dealbreaker for me sleeping at my own house let alone up a hill.

You’ll be after a Neoair….

I always take a stove if I’m going to be stopped for a decent overnighter. Hot food/drink at night and a coffee in the morning always go down well (plus see the porage thread). if it’s for a quick 3/4 hour bivvy then I’ll likely not bother though.

I’ll be the bastard lovechild of Bear Grylls and Ray Mears

So you’ll need a 5 star hotel with an adjacent McDonalds for the full experience!

Like this?

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/therm-a-rest-neoair-venture-sleeping-mat-p292551

Dimensions: 20″ x 72″ x 2″

That sort of mat, yes. But a smaller one that is tapered and just does from the shoulders to the hips. Put the rucksac under your legs and use your footware with a waterproof folded on top for your head.

I’ve never, ever filtered or treated water in Scotland. Companies sell the stuff I drink out of streams. It’s about as good as water gets.

don’t get me wrong the higher up you are the better. Water above 5/6/700m tastes amazing, gets a bit more funky the lower down you get though! And with the popularity and our more liberal camping laws these days well who the heck knows what people have been up to before ye.

Plus the sawyer weighs bugger all so no point not having it IMO.

But a smaller one that is tapered

They seem to be twice the price, which makes no sense to me. Minefield, innit.

I bivi about 2 nights a month, every month, using an army goretex bag. I take a poncho with me that can be rigged as a tarp in case it pisses down. The reality is that a rainy night in a bivi bag makes for some pretty basic living.

For anything longer or for crappy weather, I run a zephyros 2 (the zeph 1 is pretty cramped and not a massive weight saving on the 2).

tips:

– headtorch is essential, as are lighters (note the s, carry more than one… even if they’re cheap shit petrol station jobbies).

– you dont need more than one knife and frankly it doesnt need to be big & butch.

– plan your layers so you can reuse (my merino base forms part of my night time insulation).

The main thing is to cut down to basics and not haul the kitchen sink. You can always start with a simple ovenighter to just test things out.

This is suddenly getting expensive. Shopping list:

Cougar–another alternative: just put the amount you’d spend on gear into an airline ticket and fly here to New Mexico—I can loan you the gear, drop you off in the Gila Wilderness and pick you up when you are finished—I can guarantee you plenty of solitude, far from the madding crowd, so to speak 😆
If you timed it right, you could wave at the Tour Divide gang as they ride through this summer.

Knives, is a SAK multitool going to be of more value than something I can hack up kindling with?

Kindling?

I never carry a knife to be honest. There always shedloads of stuff lying around that will burn easily enough.

Although thinking of getting one just for playing around with stuff carving wood and the likes, but that’s just for entertainment value.

drop you off in the Gila Wilderness

I refer you to my OP where I mentioned not pissing my pants dying. (-:

In seriousness, that’s a very kind offer, thank you. Though I doubt I’d get that to fly past my better half. “I’m going to get away from it all for an evening” – oh, where? “New Mexico.”

Kindling?

I have to make a fire. How would I keep the bears away?

Whitendale Hanging Stones (on molgrips’ map) is the geographic centre of Britain (see – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_points_of_the_United_Kingdom ).

I’ve been meaning to bivi there myself for a bit.

Theres some solid advice here, but read it all and you will never get through the door if you’re not careful. You really need **** all expensive for a couple of summer nights in britain, the worst that will happen is you will get a bit wet (bears notwithstanding)
When I started out I had cheap heavy shite cos thats all I could afford and had the time of my life. Over time i worked out what I needed, what I wanted, where it was worth spending money and where I just wanted to spend recreationally.

Yeah, you might have a very good point there. Perspective.

I thought the centre of Britain was Dunsop Bridge?

It’s Dunsop Bridge for the M&S beige carcoat brigade. And roadies. 😉

Depends how you measure ir

On the fire thing. A kelly kettle is a rewarding bit of kit to use.

All the old bikers used to tell me it was Meridan. They were addled on cheap speed tho.

Talking about sleeping pads, I noticed a Thermarest cot the other day.

At 900gms, I think I’d sooner carry that than a pad – I’m getting a bit old to lie on the ground.

piemonster – Member
You’d better be trolling you heretic. Ipad on a wild camping trip indeed.

What? Don’t you load all your OS maps and aerial views on an iPad?

No, me neither 🙂

But a silver bladed knife can be definitely handy…

How to catch small crocs on that Bear Grylls island right now, could be handy for the lake district when the tea shops shut 🙂