As you might have guessed, it’s not my quote. So let me take you back to five minutes before those words were spoken. I was on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and towards me came a thirty-something woman. She stops and smiles and asks me if I was walking the whole path, my reply;

‘No just doing a couple of days’.

Her next question was how far was I going that day, my reply;

‘I don’t know, it would depend on whether I could find a suitable camping spot’.

The question that followed was the pivotal point of our conversation, the answer, in hindsight, dictated the tone of the rest of our intercourse. The question was are you in a b&b or staying on a campsite, my reply;

‘Neither, I’m wild camping’.

The smile disappeared and she went into lecture mode. She explained that she was an ‘adventure leader’ and that wild camping was frowned upon on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path (I will say, in her defense, that wild camping is not a legal right in England and Wales as it is in Scotland, but is generally tolerated if done sympathetically) as:

Firstly – It damages the environment, the only example she gave for this was the leaving of buried excrement, however, I’m sure there are many other examples where wild campers have damaged the environment in a far more damaging way, but she stopped at that one example.

Secondly – It’s difficult to find a good place to camp as the path is generally very narrow, hemmed in on one side by the fences put up by the landowners and steep or precipitous edge leading to the sea. This, again, is a very valid point on this particular section of the path.

And Finally – That it disturbs nesting birds, therefore I should not be wild camping, which was said with some vigor. Again a valid point and something to be aware of when finding a place to pitch your tent.

Remember… ‘Wild Campers Are Scum’

As I’ve indicated her argument had some validity. I personally don’t know the woman or why she, quite obviously had such strong views. I don’t know exactly what an ‘adventure leader’ is, but from her tone and veracity, I assumed she dealt mainly with young adults, but my assumption could be very wrong. She had no idea who I was, what experience and knowledge I have of the countryside, mountains, camping, trekking, wildlife, etc. The fact that I’ve ‘wild camped’ in some of the most hostile environments in the world and left no trace or disturbed any local wildlife or that in the Antarctic I had to carry out all my solid excrement and other people’s as well, was knowledge she hadn’t got access to. Yet she still presumed to lecture me as if I was a novice in all outdoor situations. The only sentence I managed to get out during this lecture was:

‘I don’t agree with you’

Maybe that wasn’t the answer she was looking for and immediately after she walked off saying;

‘Wild Campers Are Scum’.

I’m a pathetic arguer and always have been. I have, over the years, because of my inability to put over a good argument, annoy many people by listening to their argument then, either agreeing and doing whatever it was how I wanted to anyway or saying ‘we’ll have to agree to disagree’ and finishing the discussion. However, by this time the thirty-something lady had walked off leaving me a little perplexed, which turned into annoyance. You know how sometimes something gets under your skin and clever one-liners, come to mind… but always too late, this is what happened here. The thirty-something or should I say Millennial had disappeared round the corner and so had the moment. As you can probably gather her statement annoyed me for some considerable time and even now, after a couple of days it winds me up just thinking about her comment. A comment that was a gross generalisation, but aimed, at the time, particularly at me, on assumptions based on four words ‘Neither, I’m wild camping’.

I, of course, am not going to make any assumptions about her.

Let me make it very clear, I am fully aware that wild camping is not legal in England and Wales, and in doing it I am trespassing, which although is not illegal in itself. Trespass does become a criminal offense if I refuse to move when asked to do so by the landowner. And there are many people out there that would say that I’m being irresponsible and not respecting other people’s property, therefore ultimately I have no defense and won’t pretend that I have. But the legality of wild camping didn’t in any way form part of her argument. Her argument seemed to assume that I had no idea of the implications that wild camping might have on the surrounding environment, which is definitely not the case. Rant over!