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Nature | Mental health

Wild Camping, Our Last Opportunity to be At One With Nature, is Now Banned

A much-loved, healing, and life-affirming recreation is now declared illegal in all England and Wales

Sally Prag

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Ginger the dog on Dartmoor. Author’s photo.

Out of my bedroom window I see the hills of Dartmoor National Park stretching out far into the distance.

It’s one of the last areas in England and Wales where a sense of wilderness truly remains, where planning laws have prevented new building, and much of the land is left to be managed almost entirely by the cycles of nature and the free-grazing animals that roam it.

It’s one of those magical places where you can still walk from north to south or from east to west and see no one in between. And, for as long as anyone who lives here remembers, has had a byelaw allowing recreational activities including wild camping, that has given many an opportunity to walk without a need to reach an official campsite or guesthouse.

It has given many the opportunity to get right away from the light and sound pollution of the towns and cities, and away from electricity, wifi, and mobile signals. A chance to get back to nature.

I have friends who brought their children up with annual wild camping…

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Sally Prag
Sally Prag

Written by Sally Prag

I write creative nonfiction essays and poetry. Rethinking life through my words. Sometimes too seriously, sometimes not seriously enough.

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