Where not to camp.

[Zingmo]

A colleague of mine mentioned today that he had recently come across a bushcraft style encampment in some woods where he was working. He described hammocks strung between trees and a camouflaged tarp. I can't say exactly where he was but it was near Widnes.

The problem: my profile has my occupation as "Toxic avenger", which is shorthand for working in the investigation and remediation of contaminated land. My colleague was collecting soil samples because the area is contaminated with, among other things, radioactive thorium.

If that was you, then my advice is to find a different spot.

Please be careful if you are wild camping without permission. If an area looks wild and uncared for, particularly if it is previously industrial land, it may have been left alone because of soil or water contamination.


Z

 

[Shewie]

Ooh nasty, how does a woodland become radioactive then ?

 

[mattweasel]

Something I'd never really thought about, but sounds like good advice.

 

[Zingmo]

Ooh nasty, how does a woodland become radioactive then ?

I don't know the site in question, but it could either be that since the land became contaminated, it has simply been left to go wild, or it could be that the contamination was dumped in the woods to get rid of it.

Z

 

[Laurentius]

Ooh nasty, how does a woodland become radioactive then ?

Thorium, the legacy of the gas age, I expect all Victorians would have set off alarms at any nuclear facility today, not to mention the popular fad for Radium as a tonic after it was discovered.

And do not drink Volvic, whatever you do, or visit Aberdeen.

We're all doomed I tell you, doomed.