I’m writing this a good 4 months after we actually went camping, but it was an important moment in the planning towards my plodding so I’ve added some words about it.
We set off mid afternoon and drove to Belstone via a few electric car chargers (as you do). The car was unceremoniously dumped in the car park and we headed off to the Tors Inn to order a few jolly nice Notorious P.I.G. burgers and munch them in the garden, which is… well, basically Dartmoor.
After eating, we walked a couple of miles onto the moor. We spotted some lovely places to camp, but had left it too late and others had already nabbed those.
We settled on a spot, and set up the tent for the lads and I set up my tarp over the bivvy.
Like a genius, I set mine up on a slope. My head was at the bottom. This did not work well, and taught me to not lie on a slope with your head towards the bottom end!
The evening was beautiful, and as the sun set the clouds lit up orange. I put my phone on the ground and captured this, frankly epic, timelapse.
There wasn’t much around in the area other than a few cows in the distance. We were almost at the highest point on the whole of Dartmoor, so it was a little cooler than the day had been but not uncomfortable.
As I mentioned, I was on a slippery sleeping mat in a bivvy that was pointing down, so I didn’t get much sleep as I was constantly sliding out the damn thing. But the sky was amazing, and I spent some time trying to capture a few images with my phone.
Here’s one of the Milky Way above my tarp (pushed to the limit on the phone, but it gives you an idea of how clear the sky was!):
An hour later at 4am, the moon rose above the far hills.
And at 5:40am, the sun poked it’s head up too.
It was an amazing experience, one which we all want to do again lots of times.
Wild camping is so simple, and with the light tent and bivvy+tarp combo housing 3 people was easy and comfortable (for them at least!).
In the bivvy, you’re exposed to the night air and as long as it’s not freezing or raining it’s an absolutely wonderful experience, highly recommended.
And, of course, I learnt (again) the lesson of picking your ground properly. It’s worth checking, double checking and then checking again that it’s as flat as can be, and if not then make sure you put your head at the top!