How I overcame my wild camping worries

Three outdoor enthusiasts tell us how they got over their initial qualms about wild camping.

Eleanor Marshall, 25, PhD student from Rotterdam

“My biggest fear is my imagination, as the dark and solitude play tricks on my mind. Was that sound a murderer? A wild boar? A primordial beast? It’s easy to think something terrible or paranormal is about to happen. I once woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of alien ray guns (it turned out to be ice cracking on a frozen lake) and was convinced extra-terrestrials were about to abduct me for probing experiments. But I managed to overcome these nightmarish imaginings by calling it my ‘two brains’. The illogical brain swoops in first conjuring up the madness, but then the logical one takes over and calmly explains the reality. I let logic win and then sleep like a baby.”

Bekah Cork, 31, orchestral tour manager from Glasgow

“I’ve always been petrified of bad weather while wild camping. I worry about being freezing cold, getting soaking wet or just feeling utterly miserable on a rainy mountainside. But these fears have always proved much worse in my head than in reality. In general I’ve always enjoyed wild camping, despite being negative and believing that I’d hate it. Having good kit, such as a waterproof tent and warm sleeping bag, helped keep me happy – and then it was just about staying positive. Another issue that only affects women is dealing with periods. There’s no easy solution to this, and I’ve cancelled some trips because of it, but I like to think it’s not an insurmountable problem.”

Harry Smith, 26, a trainee solicitor from Kent

“On my very first few wild camps, and still now, my biggest fear is getting in trouble for where I am and what I’m doing. It’s always a concern for me and there’s no magic wand to make it go away. But I manage and mitigate the worry by picking sensible camp spots, setting up late and packing away early. If I’m particularly concerned, I’ll sit around for an hour or two without fully unpacking to assess how frequently, if at all, people pass the area. I’ve never actually been caught or told to move on, so I always try to remind myself of that fact too.”