Getting ready! I slept out in my garden last night.

[richardh1905]

Yes, that sounds like my garden.

I saw this today, if they charge the right price this is what I like, except the one that wants £20 for a pitch. If I plan to go anywhere near I might check if they will expect less if I go there with a one-man tent?

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/mar/27/10-best-pubs-with-campsites-camping-britain-uk

I have in the past asked if we could pitch a tent in a pub beer garden, as we were going to spend the evening there, after a long 17 miles hike up the beautiful Doethie Valley to Llanddewi Brefi in Mid Wales. It was in their interests to say yes, as we drank a lot of beer!

[Slowcoach]

I have in the past asked if we could pitch a tent in a pub beer garden, as we were going to spend the evening there, after a long 17 miles hike up the beautiful Doethie Valley to Llanddewi Brefi in Mid Wales. It was in their interests to say yes, as we drank a lot of beer!
[/quote
A Best Western hotel on the Cotswold Way allowed 3 of us to pitch on their lovely lawn, they opened a spare bedroom and gave us free access to the shower, they left a door open overnight so we could use their loos. All they asked was a donation in one of the charity boxes on the bar. Of course ee used their restaurant and bar. They couldn’t have been nicer

[Slowcoach]

A Best Western hotel on the Cotswold Way allowed 3 of us to pitch on their lovely lawn, they opened a spare bedroom and gave us free access to the shower, they left a door open overnight so we could use their loos. All they asked was a donation in one of the charity boxes on the bar. Of course ee used their restaurant and bar. They couldn’t have been nicer

[gunwharfman]

Kings Terrace, I know it well. Part of my walking circular route from home to sea and back again when I get up early and then feel bored, I did it three days ago.

The actual sea front from the bridge over the moat (near the Square Tower) to the funfair is closed off at the moment, a multi-million-pound sea wall is being built and it will take 5 years to complete.

[gunwharfman]

The landlady at the Morchard Bishop London Inn offered me a free pitch in the pub garden on the Two Moors Way in 2019 and I too have camped in the garden of the pub in Tormarten on the Cotswold Way. I thought the Tormarten garden was really great. I did have a mishap there though, it poured hard in the night and my tent leaked (for the second time on this hike) so I gave it to a member of staff's young son to use as a play tent. I then hiked onto Bath and caught the train home.

[ninthace]

Kings Terrace, I know it well. Part of my walking circular route from home to sea and back again when I get up early and then feel bored, I did it three days ago.

The actual sea front from the bridge over the moat (near the Square Tower) to the funfair is closed off at the moment, a multi-million-pound sea wall is being built and it will take 5 years to complete.

In my day, Kings Terrace was part of “ladies mile” where local female entrepreneurs offered their services.  Parking was an issue so I had to kerb crawl to find a spot which sometimes lead to an interesting conversation when I finally found one.  I had to regretfully decline their hospitality on the grounds my wife was watching for me out of the window.  All part of life’s rich tapestry!

[ninthace]

In the 60s, as part of a Camping Club meet I spent an entire Christmas camped on a pub lawn near Tadlow.  We used their barn for Christmas dinner and the bar saw plenty of custom but my abiding memory was the cold.  I had a hot water bottle that froze in my sleeping bag during the day and when I pulled the pegs out at the end, the tent stayed up, held by frozen condensation.

[fernman]

I spent a long weekend on a pub campsite in Wiltshire. They left the back door unlocked so you could use the gents and ladies but the door beyond them was locked (yes, I tried it). Showers were in a portacabin on the site. As pubs go it didn't have much character but the food was OK, while a big advantage was that the short stroll from and back to the tent, rather than a half mile trek, meant you could spend more time at the bar!

I had feared that it would be noisy at bedtime with jolly patrons leaving late and much slamming of car doors, but in fact it was incredibly peaceful. A pub site to the south of Oswestry I once looked at, but beat a hasty rertreat from, had customers' cars lined up all along the lane by the camping field where the only reasonable pitches were on the other side of the hedge.

As for Ninthace's experiences of "ladies mile", when I was service engineer it was a common experience in some parts of London to be approached when I was sitting in my van and asked if I was "looking for business". They must have been desperate!

[gunwharfman]

When my wife and I first moved to Portsmouth we can still remember the Navy Police walking towards Commercial Road with pickaxe handles in their hands, and we also remember driving through Borden (an Army town 30 miles north) early one Sunday morning and saw the Army Police patrolling up and down the street, again carrying pickaxe handles. I don't think it's allowed now.

[ninthace]

When my wife and I first moved to Portsmouth we can still remember the Navy Police walking towards Commercial Road with pickaxe handles in their hands, and we also remember driving through Borden (an Army town 30 miles north) early one Sunday morning and saw the Army Police patrolling up and down the street, again carrying pickaxe handles. I don't think it's allowed now.

As Officer of the Watch at HMS Collingwood, it was fairly standard, at the request of the local police, to dispatch a minibus of the Duty Watch armed with pick axe handles to Fareham to help our lads home.  There was a rule of minimum force which was often interpreted as "Don't hit then more than once so if you are going to hit them, make sure you hit them hard enough".  I never saw it happen though - the offer was usually enough.

Subsequently, in my first tour in the RAF a lot of my squadron were paid in cash.  This involved collecting the money in a big bag from headquarters and walking along a public road to the barrack block to carry out a pay parade.  My sole defence was two hearty members of the squadron armed with pick axe handles.  Nowadays we don't use pick axe handles but on the other hand, where it matters, we are now properly armed with guns and real bullets.

[gunwharfman]

I chatted to my ex-Navy friend about your reply and he sent me this,

'I remember it well, when we were duty we slept in the sports pavilion on the other side of the road from Collingwood and they were called helves in my day not pick axe handles. Your friend must have been around at the same time as me. We were paid in cash until about 1977 when we all lined up and saluted at a table before being given our money and it was all marked down in a big ledger.'

[gunwharfman]

I'm sleeping in my garden again tonight, but this time I'm going to try to sort myself out as if I was actually on a trail. I've packed my rucksack this afternoon (very enjoyable) and the experience of my first night out recently proved to me that I need to have a large groundsheet (to sleep on under my Tarp) and a smaller groundsheet (or to use my poncho) so I can organise my stuff without having to put it all out on wet grass as I unpack it or put it away.

[richardh1905]

Good grief - all that will weigh more than a tent!


PS - Enjoy your night out, gwm.

[gunwharfman]

Added together, my Tarp, groundsheet, string, and my tarp pole does get near to the weight of my tent and groundsheet weight, As an alternative, I don't really need to bother with my tarp pole I could use both my hiking sticks or even find a stick when I camp for the night? I'm contemplating this, but in the back of my mind, I still remember my 2015 problem when 5 pigs tried to get in my tent with me. I just like to have a hiking stick instantly available to me me 'just in case!' And before that, I remember having to 'punch a dog' on the nose when it went for me, that was the day when I had nothing with me. From then on I chose and still do carry something.

My other option is to just rely on the small whip I carry with me when I run, used normally to tap a route through cows who always seem to be waiting for me at stiles! I bought it originally to have some control over the 'dodgy dogs' I've met but a tap on the rump of a cow can be a useful move as well.

I also expect to be hiking more in the South this year and when I wild camp the possibility of nearby wild boar needs to taken into consideration. I've read that Ashdown Forest is a particular 'hotspot' in my location. I experienced wild boar when I was in France a few years ago and was warned so many times about them by locals, (and by locals between Hawkhurst and Rye) and having seen a couple in action and how fast they move I don't want to walk unprepared.

[wbmkk]

Another garden camper here


Stayed with my 4-year old granddaughter .. her first tent sleep.


Her teddy bear was in the tent too and seemed to take up quite a lot of MY space


We were in a Spectre 200 which I bought about 12 years ago, a great tent which for some reason was discontinued by Vango