Experiences Camping in Scotland (and a rant about poo)

One of my favourite things about "van life" is waking up in the morning, sliding open the van door and letting the outside in. This is especially exciting when we park up at a spot under dark skies, wondering what the view will be like in the morning.

A lovely view... until I looked by my feet 

And so last weekend we experienced this near Braemar. We parked up under a cold starry sky, able to see the faint outline of some rounded Cairngorm peaks. In the morning, I slid the door open to a frosty landscape of a pale green valley and dusted mountain tops. The air was winter fresh... however the picture was soon soiled (and I mean literally). We had managed to park so the door opened to a patch of frozen ground covered in the contents of a previous motorhome's chemical toilet waste, with a lump of toilet tissue perched nearby, just to add insult to injury.

My lovely van life moment was ruined, and my blood boiled as I stood in the freezing air. What is wrong with people? I suddenly felt the urge to get Ben to drive us away - I didn't want to be blamed for that, to be associated with that behaviour. 

How can we get people to care? Ben and I wrote an article years ago called Freedom, on Ben's blog thebigbluetree.com. We had experienced the frustrations of changing views regarding van camping in New Zealand. We wrote the article in 2012 after we returned from travelling around New Zealand in a Mazda van called Bubba, and the treatment of our wild areas since then only seems to have deteriorated as more and more people flock to the countryside - and why shouldn't they? I say this now but admit I don't feel that way in the summertime in North Wales when the roads are busy, the beaches buried in people and the mountains crawling with bodies, but everyone has a right to access our beautiful rural places. But more people means more problems. In Scotland, Loch Lomond's wild camping bylaw, now in place on both the east and west sides of the bonnie banks, has only moved problems further north. For instance to Glen Etive, now frequently damaged by fire pits, dismantled tents and litter. You can follow Glen Etive The Dirty Truth on facebook for daily updates on the, at times quite bizarre, ways people fail to "leave no trace".

Winter in the Cairngorms

We had an entirely different experience in Tiree, yet the system in place there still leaves me pondering. A small island in the Inner Hebrides (or a giant sand dune, depending on your perspective), wild camping with vans, motorhomes or caravans is not permitted. Instead, there are some private campsites, or for £12 a pitch there are "Croft Campsites". Initially we thought this sounded great, as it was fairly cheap and provided local crofters with some income. However, these are unserviced sites; no toilets, no water, literally just a place to park. Therefore, it does not solve the issues of peoples' waste in the countryside, aside from the fact that people are less likely to poo in a field next to someone's house. Or maybe they would - I'm becoming more and more pessimistic about humanity. 

Enjoying some quiet time in Tiree. 

Caught in a whirlpool of thoughts, I do not know what the answer is. Regulation, or freedom? I long for freedom but there is a minority (I think?) of people who are wrecking it for the rest of us. The thought of more camping bylaws makes me sad, as the Scottish Outdoor Access Code is fantastic. We can try to educate people (are we doing enough of this?), but they actually have to care too. 

I'm looking for a miracle, because I don't want to step out the van into a pile of poo again.

Disclaimer: the examples in this post are specifically about Scotland, but of course this problem is not just present in Scotland.  I have seen plenty of messes left behind in Wales too, sadly.