Tell us about your experience
The title of this camp space is, in my opinion, extremely deceiving when it comes to what kind of experience to expect. 2 ha of forest without facilities hints what would be a great wild camping-like experience, isolated, surrounded by nature, and its animals sounds. Forget about it. 10 meters away from the camp space spot there’s a paved road -where you will encounter people strolling or walking the dog/s- and at the other side of the paved road there’s a fenced terrain with a huge house in the middle. During the night, instead of the silence of the forest and the exceptional sound of a bird or another wild animal, the voices of people singing/dancing and hanging out around the hotel -less than 250m away- will fill the atmosphere. Because of such environment, the idea of having no facilities at all, no running water, having to discharge in the middle of "nature" (that patch of forest the camp space is at the verge of), etc. feels utterly preposterous.
Regarding the activities around it… the camp space is literally inside a village, Budel-Dorplein, and therefore it’s surrounded by fenced plots with huge houses and a big portion of garden/forestry land each. To reach some sort of nature area, one needs to walk for about 10 minutes -which is not much, but still far from a wild camping experience- and then some small patches of what seem human managed/created forest are available for a short walk. Short in time and in distance, as it’s virtually impossible to walk more than 10 min without finding a private plot fence. This scenario completely kills the vibe of being in a forest or a natural area. As I was walking and crossing paved roads and turning at the sight of another fence, I started to feel like Jim Carrey in the movie The Truman show. One starts to notice a certain stench of fakeness that makes one feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Besides these patches of forest there are two small lakes that one can walk around about 200m away… however to reach them one needs to walk for more than 10 minutes because the lake shore close to the camp space (at least one of them for what I could see) is occupied by the backyard of some of the plots/houses, which are of course fenced properties. That said, the lakes are kind of beautiful and, on a sunny day, one can go for an enjoyable stroll around them.
All in all, if you are looking for a wild camping like experience, this is not a camp space for you.
On the other hand, if you just happen to pass by -for instance as part of a backpacking trip through the country or similar- and you want to pitch your tent somewhere without the risk of being fined, then this might be a good camp space for you.
Although I couldn’t meet the host, he was nice and responsive through the app.
July
2021
