.............not all those that wander are lost..............

Monday 11 April 2011

I'm having a rant............

about irresponsible wild campers!

I was walking from Auchallater back to Braemar after a spectacularly good walk up to Loch Phadruig. I'll post a report on this walk later - but for now I'm just horrified at what I saw!

The area beside the river on the A93 just out of Braemar on the way to Glenshee has been used as long as I can remember for wild camping. Not generally by backpackers but more often by car campers and motor caravans. I'm sure the litter was left by only a minority of these but it makes quite a big impact on the area.

I had only just been reading about the recent camping ban beside Loch Lomond and wondering how long it would be before other areas of Scotland were included. The right to responsible wild camping is enshrined in the Scottish Access Laws. It would be terrible if these rights were taken away because of the actions of a selfish minority.

The key to this is obviously the word 'responsible' and leaving any trace of your stay is contrary to this.


{Floating in the ditch....}

{A pile of rubbish}

Some of the rubbish I saw was too dreadful to describe but as you can see from the photos there was also more mundane stuff left behind. All along the river bank and in the water itself were plastic bottles, bags, tubs, boxes, and several old camping chairs.

6 comments:

QDanT said...

every time I click on one of your posts usually linked from Northern Pies' my AVG anti-virus says
Accessed file is infected :- Exploit Blackhat SEO type 1703

Laura said...

I've looked this up - mostly seems to be about AVG misinterpreting something? - I have no problems here......

Thanks anyway! I'll keep an eye on it.

AlanR said...

Hi Laura,
I hate seeing a mess like this. I just don't understand why they cant take it with them and put it in the first bin they come to.
It is so frustrating, rant approved here.

Alan Sloman said...

The only way to deal with it is for the local lads to beat the Ess Aightch One Tea out of the perpetrators. They won't come back again. I'm sure Mr Plod would turn a blind eye....?

Or is that not allowed these days of hugging hoodies?

afootinthehills said...

Awful. I just can't understand the mentality, but I'm afraid there are some appalling people out there.

Greg said...

You're not alone. We face the same problem over here as well. I can't understand why people can't carry their crap out after taking it somewhere. What gets me is a lot of it is left in areas over here by 'hikers' who should know better...