Covert ops

Whilst out walking in Brinken Wood this morning I came across something you shouldn't, clear signs of someone wild camping/having a fire.  It's something that frustrates me, folk leaving signs of their activity, it's just not the thing, it brings the rest of us on top. To their credit, not a single piece of rubbish, and the fire had been properly extinguished which suggests good practice, and maybe the visible remains were a result of a lack of bushcraft knowledge. It took me only five minutes to disperse the remains, camouflage the site and leave no trace that there had been a fire.  That's all it takes, and it makes all the difference. If people see the site of a fire they report it, the rangers or landowners check that area out more, and another wild camping opportunity is lost.  We wild camped a site on Dartmoor (on Dartmoor you can wild camp, though can't have a fire) up to 10 times a year for ten years before being rumbled by a ranger.  Even then we were only caught because we'd hung about too long in the morning.  The ranger told us that for years they'd regularly had reports of fires in the woodland beyond the river at night, although every time they went to investigate they could see or find no evidence, no trace of fire nor camp. That's how it should be.  He went on to commend us, before casually reminding us that fires were prohibited. Through good practice we'd got away with it. Even afterwards we continued to use the site, less though still regularly, and were never bothered again. The lack of bushcraft knowledge is a consequence of our culture in which increasingly folk aren't socialized to the outside and nature, nor are they encouraged to practice wild camping skills. To contrary, there are few areas where wild camping, and fewer still where wild camping with fires, is even permitted. Our countryside and wild places are all sown up, owned or controlled, with camping legislated against.  Lost to our detriment are the basic and fundamental survival skills of the ancestors.