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Hiking is something we do regularly. But unfortunately due to UK laws, you can't just put a tent anywhere. It has to be proper campsites and they charge you. Plus to get anywhere worth hiking from where I am, you need to drive to the decent places, so there's fuel cost and then parking costs. There's always hidden costs, nothing is free. The UK has found a way to charge you for anything they can these days. Doesn't make it impossible ofcourse, just more difficult. But we do go hiking often.
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That's a powerful message. He speaks a lot of hard truths.
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due to UK laws, you can't just put a tent anywhere
omg.... and you just like that obey the laws. Impressive how much obedient are people nowadays. If tomorrow a gov will say in a paper that people must walk in 4 legs, people will just obey.
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The issue is the land is owned by someone. It's private land, there may be permissive routes but fundamentally, by setting up your tent you'd be trespassing. Do I agree? No, not at all, do I obey? Yeah, because the consequences of not following that law unfortunately cost quite a bit. I don't believe you get jail time, but the fines are pretty shite. There is a movement to bring in the "right to roam" similar to Scotland but of course you'd need to have protections in place for the owners of the land, farmers etc to protect them if the law of trespass were to be abolished. Litter, waste, damage etc are all massive problems to those land owners. They'd need legal protection from incurring losses due to other people using their land. It's a surprisingly complex arguement that's been ongoing for ages. But I am hoping we get the right to roam eventually.
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It's private land,
Ask for permission. Is simple and it works.
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Yeah, I have "wild camped" before but like you said, you need to get permission. Sometimes that's hard to do as it's hard to identify who the land owner is ahead of time.
Normally though, if you ask ahead of time, most land owners are ok with it, so long as you don't leave a trace you were there. Which I think is fair.
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