Halli's trip report

[hallii]

6 Weeks March/April 2013.

 

France Aires remain much the same, I feel that the prices for the pay Aires are creeping up, and that €12 is a bit steep for a tap and bit of tarmac. Diesel is about €1.20 to €1.45 a litre and food is definitely more expensive than in previous years even allowing for the exchange rate.Motorway tolls are not worth it, I paid a couple of times and the peage motorways were almost empty.

 

Spain is cheaper overall, diesel is still about the same price as France but food etc is noticeably cheaper.

I felt that the police presence was much lower than previous years and had no reports of robberies or break ins all the way down the Costas, maybe the missing Police are diverted to investigative duties, who knows?

There are some new Aires to a good standard at some of the old wildcamping spots, and they are cheap, some even with electricity, I suspect that more and more will eventually open as local communities realise that they can make a few bob and keep the motorhomes in a controlled area.

 

Portugal is about the same price wise as Spain, and again there are some nice new Aires at reasonable prices, many of the old spots are still available, and in conversation with a Doctor resident at one such wildcamping spot he told me that locals regarded the motorhomes as tourist visitors in the same way as those in apartments. He told me that motorhomes were welcome and that the village needed every tourist € it could get, times are tough he said. Nice to hear that! Then he got a donation out of me for the local orphanage which was suffering from a lack of funds :-D

 

So all in all things are looking good for wildcamping, not so wild now perhaps, but the changes are for the better.

 

I made a point of doing a walkabout at every wild spot we stayed at, on maybe 50% of those evidence of toilet dumping could be found in the bushes, ditches and even on the dunes in one case. I actually witnessed one wildcamper do it at night, he was not British, and why he did it when there was a perfectly good Esgotos (sewer cover) to lift and use boggles my mind.It is that sort of thing that gets the locals really annoyed and will result in the dreaded "No Campers" signs if it continuous.

 

All just my opinions, I won't be specific on which wild sites I used or which ones are now pay Aires, they are all in the books or as POI's and if I list the pay ones some people might decide to avoid them, I did see some arriving late and leaving very early to avoid the collection lady/man. I won't mention the nationality of them but they were driving large French manufactured motorhomes and liked Pastis before a meal ;-)

 

So I am confident that my style of holiday will continue for many years yet, changed, to be sure, but still wildcamping in essence.

 

This was inspired by Zydeco Joe's report, perhaps we could have more reports? I find them interesting.

 

H

 

 

[gwyn]

Thank you, as mentioned before these sort of postings are extremely useful and informative, more of them please

[Guest JudgeMental]

factual and informative...7/10 (for a higher rating photos required plse) :-D

 

But did you enjoy yourselves as its hard to tell :D

[sambukashot]

Hi Halli,

Great report! would like to see more off them...

You said "if I list the pay ones some people might decide to avoid them" I think this is a good thing you list them if you have the time or if you have 5 mins can you send them to me?

I have a website which maps French aires so this would be handy for me to keep things up to date, i would want to know which ones are now charging before i decide to visit that area, having the latest information is important to me and others i can imagine

You can contact me here: http://www.camperstops.co.uk/index.php/en/contact-us

Thanks again

[snowie]

Good report Halili; and I agree with your comments. As far as not naming Aires that charge; I agree, let us each come across them and pay or move on. They represent income for the locality, cover costs and we should support that. When all Aires make a charge it will be a level playingfield. I have to agree that 12euro is steep; and wonder if campsites/ACSI charges are rising significantly?

 

regards

alan b

[flicka]

snowie - 2013-04-23 2:26 PM

 

Good report Halili; and I agree with your comments. As far as not naming Aires that charge; I agree, let us each come across them and pay or move on. They represent income for the locality, cover costs and we should support that. When all Aires make a charge it will be a level playingfield. I have to agree that 12euro is steep; and wonder if campsites/ACSI charges are rising significantly?

 

regards

alan b

 

Nice to see the reports coming in, hopefully it will encourage more to do likewise (including me)

 

Regarding price rises for some Aires, maybe they got hold of a CC or CC&C handbook to see what CL & CS charges are in the UK & felt "what's go for the goose is good for the gander" >:-)

[sambukashot]

I prefer to know in advance how much an aire is likely tocost me and what i am getting for my money before i waste the cost of fuel andmy time visiting some of these places, i have stayed on some aires that arejust not worth the money and seem like a rip off, and other aires i havevisited that are provided free of charge or at a reasonable cost and are littlegems to stay at, a common trend in France is to place barriers up and start chargingbut the cost of the bourne service still remains in place so you have to thenpay twice, first for entrance and then again for the service point making thecost a lot closer to staying at a local municipal campsite!

Whether the local municipality decide to charge or not istheir prerogative but it is also my prerogative to know what the charge andservices on offer will be in advance of my travels?

[Guest JudgeMental]

Why would you choose an aire when around the corner there is a municipal where you can sit out and camp.....we use aires on route as a sleepover not a destination in themselves. The most worrying aspect in Halliis report is the widespread and disgusting dumping......

[Caroline]

That was an interesting report thanks, I can appreciate not listing the places you stopped, but it would have been nice to know what route you took and perhaps some highlights of your trip.

 

It is most upsetting to see that the minority are trying to spoil it for the majority, I bet those would be the first to complain as well.

 

B-)

[crinklystarfish]

For me it brings up what the term 'wildcamping' means to different people.

 

The description of the places described doesn't conjure 'wildcamping' in my mind but more of transient travellers' communities.

 

As many will know we very rarely use formal sites and we wouldn't have it any other way. By the same token there's no way I'd ever want to stay on or be associated with such a 'community'. To my mind it's the worst of every world. Asphyxiated alongside others just like on a formal site, but without the benefit of facilities or legitimacy.

 

The social and environmental impacts are clear, even if a few businesses not necessarily adjacent do benefit from redistributed wealth. Apart from that they look and sound like absolutely dreadful places to actually stay as a motorhomer. Each to their own of course, and I realise that some people will thoroughly enjoy the social aspects being part of such a community.

 

At what price though. Socially and environmentally they are, on balance, heavily exploitative and are surely damaging to our reputation as a user group.

 

It is absurdly easy to camp off formal sites in the countries Halli visited without impacting on residents or the wider environment.

 

Little wonder we are increasingly marginalised.

[hallii]

My route was through France to the Med. Coast and then down the Costas to Portugal Algarve and the West Coast then back up via the well known and well trodden route.

 

I should also mention I have been wild camping for some 35 years, VW air cooled pop top etc. back in my surfing days.

 

We rarely use formal sites and I have an excellent knowledge of informal sites in France and Spain.

 

The illegal dumping is a problem regardless of whether there is one camper or many. We stayed on beaches on our own on two occasions, on both there were signs of illegal dumping.

 

To assume that just because a particular site is not visited by a "community" that it is not subject to the problems I have outlined is just plain wrong, it happens at any sort of place where Campervans or Motorhomes visit.

 

None of us are responsible for this kind of behaviour, I hope we are all better than that. The fact is that someone dumps, someone leaves empty bottles, litter, and all sorts of rubbish at these sites. Regardless of who has actually done it the local community will always blame the obvious target, motor homes.

 

I would like to think that some of my favourite "wild" places are know only unto me, but that is wishful thinking, anyone with a good map and a sat nav can find these places and they do.

 

The ever increasing numbers of motorhomes on the road, and the sheer size of some of them will result in increasing pressure on local and national authorities to place stringent controls on our activities. I can see the reasons why, and welcome the provision of more formal arrangements where all visitors are made to comply with the basic hygiene rules.

 

My route was through France to the Med. down to the Spanish Costas and then to the Algave Portugal.

 

Sorry, I am not going to name sites wild or not, we all know where to buy the books or surf for POIs, photos would be good but my hard drive is full of photos and so I rarely take any nowadays.

 

Hallii's last word on this subject B-)

[starvin marvin]

My recent trip (3 months, got home last Fri) was very similar in most respects. What I didn't see anywhere was any dumping of toilet waste. Travelling around Spain and Portugal we were never on our own for even a single night, hence we never refer to "wild camping" its "free camping" to us. We also have our special places and these are clearly known to many vanners, but I won't say where we parked either! We love free camping, but also use Aires, free or payment, and also campsites.

[crinklystarfish]

I honestly believe that associating with the 'communes' described, even if demonstrating exemplary behaviour whilst there, is damaging to our reputation.

 

Camping off formal sites, absolutely - it gets no better.

 

Recreational pikey; arguably not cool...

 

Point taken about irresponsible types who are contemptuous of social / environmental factors even when alone, and shame on them too.