"Wild with Consent"

[nicholsong]

Has anyone seen this article in the Sunday Times?

Campervanning without the crowds in Northumberland

Standing on a plain of purple thistles and swaying grass high on the Northumbrian coast I feel ten years old. The wind has just parted the haar over distant san

www.thetimes.co.uk

Apologies if you cannot read it, as I am a subscriber.

To paraphrase it offers parking only one(or two if friends) MH in a farmer's field, without any facilities but with nice views. All sounds great till you get down to the prices which range from £25 to £100. They do not say what the farmer will charge to tow you off his grass.

I looked at the availability and some have 2 bookings in the next 6 weeks, some have none. Surprise?

The lady's name is Grace - Grace and Favour springs to mind. Not!

Geoff

 

[chaser]

There was a thread about this a while ago, they had no bookings then and doesn't look as if they have many now.
They appear to be upper crust folks and looking for similar people to take them up on it.

 

[DBK]

Has anyone seen this article in the Sunday Times?

Campervanning without the crowds in Northumberland

Standing on a plain of purple thistles and swaying grass high on the Northumbrian coast I feel ten years old. The wind has just parted the haar over distant san

www.thetimes.co.uk

Apologies if you cannot read it, as I am a subscriber.

To paraphrase it offers parking only one(or two if friends) MH in a farmer's field, without any facilities but with nice views. All sounds great till you get down to the prices which range from £25 to £100. They do not say what the farmer will charge to tow you off his grass.

I looked at the availability and some have 2 bookings in the next 6 weeks, some have none. Surprise?

The lady's name is Grace - Grace and Favour springs to mind. Not!

Geoff

Aren't you on a Greek island? If so, just enjoy it.

 

[Langtoftlad]

There was a thread about this a while ago, they had no bookings then and doesn't look as if they have many now.
They appear to be upper crust folks and looking for similar people to take them up on it.

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/wild-with-consent.241071/

May, 5 pages.

 

[Littlewheels]

Interestingly on TV a couple of nights back it referred to Glamping but not simple Glamping no, upmarket Glamping and it may surprise a few to know that £7000/£10000 was not unusual and fully booked.
it goes to show that people will pay for exclusivity.
l can see that £1000.00 plus per week for a few facilities and privacy would fit the needs of quite a lot and £1000.00 would be a cheap holiday for a great many people.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[nicholsong]

Aren't you on a Greek island? If so, just enjoy it.

We were and MH still is there, parked up in the boatyard.

We flew back a couple of weeks ago to give Basia's Mother some company. She is with us this w/e. This has been our 'Modus Operandi' for some years - 4-5 weeks away, park MH (mostly with friends, once commercially), back for a few weeks and then fly back and tour for another 4-5 weeks.

We shall fly back on 10th Sept, spend 16 days on the island then ferry to Peloponnese, 2 weeks there and ferry to Italy and drive back to Poland.

That is if I do not decide to leave the MH in Greece and buy another one for use in Northern Europe - well lots on here have properties/statics in Europe which are a lot more value than £25K MH.

Geoff

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/wild-with-consent.241071/

May, 5 pages.

Stephen

Thanks, sorry missed those posts.

Well my post was an update on bookings.

Well maybe there are some cows in those fields, whether they are called 'Grace' is your guess

Geoff

 

[alex n]

That is if I do not decide to leave the MH in Greece and buy another one for use in Northern Europe - well lots on here have properties/statics in Europe which are a lot more value than £25K MH.

What about your van mot?

 

[pandas]

Aren't you on a Greek island? If so, just enjoy it.

Getting quite warm no doubt

 

[pandas]

There was a thread about this a while ago, they had no bookings then and doesn't look as if they have many now.
They appear to be upper crust folks and looking for similar people to take them up on it.

Good for them, great that some are prepared to pay for an exclusive pitch/view, some prefer a car park as it’s cheap but not me

 

[Spriddler]

l can see that £1000.00 plus per week for a few facilities and privacy would fit the needs of quite a lot and £1000.00 would be a cheap holiday for a great many people.

On the other hand you could save yer £1000 a week til 'later' and enjoy spending it on a week with full board in a Bognor care home.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[mikebeaches]

As has been mentioned, it was discussed a while back and most wrote off the idea. Personally, it holds some appeal although I'd be somewhat reluctant to part with £100 per night.

But interesting that the women who has come up with the idea has managed to get the project featured in The Sunday Times.

I wonder if that will give it legs?

Standing on a plain of purple thistles and swaying grass high on the Northumbrian coast I feel ten years old. The wind has just parted the haar over distant sand dunes and sea to reveal the ruins of 14th-century Dunstanburgh Castle, like a colossal jaw with only the molars intact. Swallows — little red-throated birds in black dinner jackets — are playing in the warm breeze, swooping and loop-the-looping so closely overhead that they make my fiancé, Martin, and me giggle.

I’m staying on Dunstan Hill courtesy of Wild With Consent, a new company that gives self-contained camper vans access to remote pitches on private land. Only one van is allowed at each spot a night, meaning you have the place entirely to yourself, and exclusive access to a patch of British countryside. With campsites crowded and campervanning booming in the past 18 months — ownership jumped by 71 per cent last year — it’s a brilliantly canny idea.

So far there are 12 Wild With Consent pitches in Northumberland (UK-wide expansion is imminent), each chosen by its founder, Grace Fell, for its beauty and lack of noise or light pollution — in a copse beside the River Till, for instance, or overlooking the Cheviot Hills. She got the idea from driving her camper van, Tubs, through Scotland, where right-to-roam rules mean you can park pretty much anywhere. Doing so south of the border would be illegal unless, like us, you have permission.

Our home for the weekend is Flo, a converted Ford Transit from Quirky Campers — done up with Moroccan tiles, warm pine panelling and terracotta-coloured cushions, with a fridge, gas hob, hammered copper sink and solar panels for electricity. We park her beside an old hay barn and stomp off to capture the castle.

When we reach the tussocked dunes we’re directed by a pair of golfers — there’s been a links course at the castle since 1900 — to a sandy beach, pitted like honeycomb by raindrops. Martin immediately starts searching through the fringe of black seaweed for mermaid’s purses. Gulls cleave the white caps of the waves and there’s a tang of mussels to the air; the only sounds are the thump and hiss of the tide breaking on the shore and the occasional thwack of a golf ball.

We pass through a stile into a scrubby field of black-faced sheep, their bleats drowned out by the thundrous waves against the cliff on which Dunstanburgh sits. One by one they open their mouths, as do we — the sight of the castle is dizzying; the angle of the incline so steep that looking up at it gives you vertigo. Heaving ourselves uphill to the gates we find the swallows barrelling through its empty window frames and swooping over what is left of the battlements. The sight of it tugs at my feet; I’m desperate to take a look around. But alas, it’s closed, and we head back to our camper just as the sun kisses the horizon, making the dunes blush.

Reunited with Flo, we share a chilled beer and a steaming bowl of black dal over the centre table. The kettle whistles merrily on the stove, the flame beneath it warming our faces; it’s July but we still need to embrace hygge. A barn owl emerges silently behind the window, its white wings flashing in the gloaming, and my heart sings — we’re the only ones around to witness it.

No more noise, no more neighbours, and no more restrictions and rules, apart from to leave no trace. It’s just us, a landscape that’s ours to explore and the promise of the open road the next morning. Of course it’s not all romance — living the #vanlife means being self-contained, and we have a portable loo and a shower that involves standing stark naked in a plastic tub on a Northumberland cliff. But it’s worth it for that taste of Nomadland.

The next day we’re booked into Elwick, another Wild With Consent site, 30 minutes’ drive north on the edge of the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve. Driving Flo down Northumberland’s narrow roads feels like trying to navigate an oil tanker along the Thames. We reward our efforts by stopping for crab-topped fries in Seahouses, a busy harbour town that is the gateway to the Farne Islands, where you can still find puffins in August.

The craggy and inhospitable archipelago, about three miles offshore, has been home to monks, saints and hermits since at least AD651; now it’s owned by the National Trust and better known as a haven for seabirds, among them gannets, kittiwakes, shags, razorbills and eider ducks. We make the trip to Inner Farne with Billy Shiel’s Boat Trips.

There were about 40,000 pairs of puffins here at the height of the breeding season between May and June, but we watch the last of them bumbling between their burrows. They heave themselves airborne to fish (they’re not the most aerodynamic), returning with their colourful beaks stuffed with sand eels.

When we make it to Elwick it’s golden hour — the sun is setting over wheat fields that roll as far as the horizon and whisper softly in the breeze. We rumble past them in Flo, her pots and pans clattering, through one gate, then another, after waiting for a herd of cows to move on. Ahead of us Farmer Tom is patrolling the boundaries of his land by quad bike, with two russet labradors — mother and daughter — loping happily after him. “I take all this for granted really,” he had told me earlier.

Our spot, indicated by a patch of mown grass, is high on a hill overlooking a flat expanse of water, blazing silver to a castle-topped isle flanked by a pair of obelisk-like lighthouses. It’s Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, across the causeway — centre of Celtic Christianity and the scene of Viking invasions. Ordinarily I’d be itching to explore, but with a view that only Farmer Tom and a few others get to enjoy, I’m happy to stay exactly where I am.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Georgia Stephens was a guest of Wild With Consent, Quirky Campers Campervan Hire and Billy Shiel’s Boat Trips. Pitches from £25 per night (wildwithconsent.com). Three nights in Flo from £370 (quirkycampers.com). Inner Farne trip from £30pp plus £8pp National Trust fee (farne-islands.com)

 

[Langtoftlad]

Elwick - £50/nt with 50% launch discount
https://wildwithconsent.com/locations/elwick/
[suggests they'd take £50 if late availability]

Of course, if you don't want an entire field to yourself, you can always share one on their pop up campsite for a much more reasonable £20/nt
https://www.pitchup.com/campsites/England/North_East/Northumberland/elwick/elwick-campsite/

Not sure what the extra £30 [or £70 post offer] gets you... except a longer walk to the Elsan & water fill

 

[Peter and Julie]

I'm feeling nauseous from the poetic licence

As has been mentioned, it was discussed a while back and most wrote off the idea. Personally, it holds some appeal although I'd be somewhat reluctant to part with £100 per night.

But interesting that the women who has come up with the idea has managed to get the project featured in The Sunday Times.

I wonder if that will give it legs?

View attachment 525286

Standing on a plain of purple thistles and swaying grass high on the Northumbrian coast I feel ten years old. The wind has just parted the haar over distant sand dunes and sea to reveal the ruins of 14th-century Dunstanburgh Castle, like a colossal jaw with only the molars intact. Swallows — little red-throated birds in black dinner jackets — are playing in the warm breeze, swooping and loop-the-looping so closely overhead that they make my fiancé, Martin, and me giggle.

I’m staying on Dunstan Hill courtesy of Wild With Consent, a new company that gives self-contained camper vans access to remote pitches on private land. Only one van is allowed at each spot a night, meaning you have the place entirely to yourself, and exclusive access to a patch of British countryside. With campsites crowded and campervanning booming in the past 18 months — ownership jumped by 71 per cent last year — it’s a brilliantly canny idea.

So far there are 12 Wild With Consent pitches in Northumberland (UK-wide expansion is imminent), each chosen by its founder, Grace Fell, for its beauty and lack of noise or light pollution — in a copse beside the River Till, for instance, or overlooking the Cheviot Hills. She got the idea from driving her camper van, Tubs, through Scotland, where right-to-roam rules mean you can park pretty much anywhere. Doing so south of the border would be illegal unless, like us, you have permission.

Our home for the weekend is Flo, a converted Ford Transit from Quirky Campers — done up with Moroccan tiles, warm pine panelling and terracotta-coloured cushions, with a fridge, gas hob, hammered copper sink and solar panels for electricity. We park her beside an old hay barn and stomp off to capture the castle.

When we reach the tussocked dunes we’re directed by a pair of golfers — there’s been a links course at the castle since 1900 — to a sandy beach, pitted like honeycomb by raindrops. Martin immediately starts searching through the fringe of black seaweed for mermaid’s purses. Gulls cleave the white caps of the waves and there’s a tang of mussels to the air; the only sounds are the thump and hiss of the tide breaking on the shore and the occasional thwack of a golf ball.

We pass through a stile into a scrubby field of black-faced sheep, their bleats drowned out by the thundrous waves against the cliff on which Dunstanburgh sits. One by one they open their mouths, as do we — the sight of the castle is dizzying; the angle of the incline so steep that looking up at it gives you vertigo. Heaving ourselves uphill to the gates we find the swallows barrelling through its empty window frames and swooping over what is left of the battlements. The sight of it tugs at my feet; I’m desperate to take a look around. But alas, it’s closed, and we head back to our camper just as the sun kisses the horizon, making the dunes blush.

Reunited with Flo, we share a chilled beer and a steaming bowl of black dal over the centre table. The kettle whistles merrily on the stove, the flame beneath it warming our faces; it’s July but we still need to embrace hygge. A barn owl emerges silently behind the window, its white wings flashing in the gloaming, and my heart sings — we’re the only ones around to witness it.

No more noise, no more neighbours, and no more restrictions and rules, apart from to leave no trace. It’s just us, a landscape that’s ours to explore and the promise of the open road the next morning. Of course it’s not all romance — living the #vanlife means being self-contained, and we have a portable loo and a shower that involves standing stark naked in a plastic tub on a Northumberland cliff. But it’s worth it for that taste of Nomadland.

The next day we’re booked into Elwick, another Wild With Consent site, 30 minutes’ drive north on the edge of the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve. Driving Flo down Northumberland’s narrow roads feels like trying to navigate an oil tanker along the Thames. We reward our efforts by stopping for crab-topped fries in Seahouses, a busy harbour town that is the gateway to the Farne Islands, where you can still find puffins in August.

The craggy and inhospitable archipelago, about three miles offshore, has been home to monks, saints and hermits since at least AD651; now it’s owned by the National Trust and better known as a haven for seabirds, among them gannets, kittiwakes, shags, razorbills and eider ducks. We make the trip to Inner Farne with Billy Shiel’s Boat Trips.

There were about 40,000 pairs of puffins here at the height of the breeding season between May and June, but we watch the last of them bumbling between their burrows. They heave themselves airborne to fish (they’re not the most aerodynamic), returning with their colourful beaks stuffed with sand eels.

When we make it to Elwick it’s golden hour — the sun is setting over wheat fields that roll as far as the horizon and whisper softly in the breeze. We rumble past them in Flo, her pots and pans clattering, through one gate, then another, after waiting for a herd of cows to move on. Ahead of us Farmer Tom is patrolling the boundaries of his land by quad bike, with two russet labradors — mother and daughter — loping happily after him. “I take all this for granted really,” he had told me earlier.

Our spot, indicated by a patch of mown grass, is high on a hill overlooking a flat expanse of water, blazing silver to a castle-topped isle flanked by a pair of obelisk-like lighthouses. It’s Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, across the causeway — centre of Celtic Christianity and the scene of Viking invasions. Ordinarily I’d be itching to explore, but with a view that only Farmer Tom and a few others get to enjoy, I’m happy to stay exactly where I am.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Georgia Stephens was a guest of Wild With Consent, Quirky Campers Campervan Hire and Billy Shiel’s Boat Trips. Pitches from £25 per night (wildwithconsent.com). Three nights in Flo from £370 (quirkycampers.com). Inner Farne trip from £30pp plus £8pp National Trust fee (farne-islands.com)

I'm feeling nauseous from the poetic license! Never mind the ludicrous pricing.

 

[nicholsong]

What about your van mot?

I would use a friend's address to register it in Greece.

As for Greek 'MOT' it is not mandatory if there is no test facility within 50km - and I know where they are. I once suggested setting one up where there was not one - response was "It will burn down the first w/e"

Geoff