I've been mulling this over for some time now and have been actively looking for the last 3 or 4 months but the last two trips have convinced me that I need to get a van - two trips in August have gone a bit pear shaped due to being unable to wild camp.
The first was supposed to be two nights up at Holme Fell but it was incredibly busy and I had to resort to sleeping in the car - it was horrendous, due to the heat, and I think I managed to doze for about an hour in total!
However, the pain and discomfort was more than worth it for the pics I got - the plan had been to get some sunset/sunrise shots of the heather at Holme Fell but I was a week too early and the heather wasn't in full bloom, which left me with a bit of a dilemma as I didn't have a Plan B (a bit of a schoolboy error!).
I ummed and aahed all evening before deciding that, depending on what conditions I woke up to, the River Brathay at Skelwith might be an option. When I rolled out of the car at 4am on the Friday morning, it was completely uninspiring, so I set off to Skelwith and, as I was getting closer, I spotted that there was some mist in the valley.
Fortunately for me, my choice had proved to be spot on and, surprisingly, there was only one other photographer there - the mist kept coming and going over the next hour and I was able to get some cracking shots.
The following week, I decided to attempt another wild camp, this time trying to get pics of the heather in the Peak District - as it turned out, the heather had gone past it's best and the wild camp didn't happen because I spotted that the 'rangers' were out in force and blocking car parks to prevent overnight parking along with moving people on.
Once again though the day turned into a good one, although I spent a whole day wandering around looking for pics before finding a composition that I was happy with.
Having parked up near Higger Tor when I arrived, I moved down to the Surprise View car park before making my way up the Mother Cap well before sunset.
The area was busy, with lots of other photographers picking their spots early, and I feared that someone else would have beaten me to the place I wanted to set up at - I was lucky enough to grab it just before a couple of guys turned up at the same place.
I immediately set up the camera before sitting down with a drink and a biscuit,
as I'd got an hour to wait for the sun to go down - the choice proved to be a good one as I managed to get a number of pics before the sun dropped behind the distant hills.
It had been a long day but I made my way back down to the car before driving home - a six hour round trip, plus 10+ miles of walking in the day made sure I slept well that night!
Now it's back to the search for that elusive campervan.
