Supporting the Campaign to Protect the Right to Wild Camp

Before I get into the story and photographs from my recent wild camp on Steeperton Tor, I just want to highlight the issue of wild camping rights on Dartmoor National Park. People have been enjoying wild camping (backpack camping) on Dartmoor for decades, but a recent legal challenge puts all that at risk.

I’m not going to go into the well documented history of this legal case and what it means for those who enjoy wild camping responsibly, other than the loss of the right to wild camp responsibly would have a dramatic impact to the way many of us like to enjoy Dartmoor. It’s a critical issue regardless of if you wild camp or not. It’s an issue that could eventually impact how any of us access and use our countries wild spaces.

I recently saw a request from the Dartmoor Preservation Association for people to share their positive stories of backpack camping and what it means to them. While I am just one voice in a chorus of voices, I thought it was important to add my voice to that chorus, if only to make it a little louder. Here is the 30 second video I made while I was wild camping at Steeperton Tor.

As I said in the video, you can simply show your support by liking and sharing the video. However, if you can, please donate to one of the funds that are providing direct support to Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) to battle this case in the Supreme Court on 8th October 2024. I personally have chosen to donate to the Dartmoor Preservation Association who will use the funds to support the DNPAs legal case. You can find out more about their campaign and how to donate here.

Thank you.

Sunset Camp at Steeperton Tor

I had been looking for the right weather conditions for a photography wild camp on Dartmoor National Park for a few weeks. For me, wild camping gives me the opportunity to photograph some of Dartmoor’s most remote locations both at sunset and sunrise, without having to make a difficult or potentially dangerous walk to or from the car in the dark. To make a wild camp worthwhile for photography I therefore need good conditions at sunset and sunrise the following day.

This isn’t as easy as it might first sound. More often than not, you’ll get a good sunrise but not a good sunset, and vice versa. However, with summer coming to an end and September marking the start of Autumn, I decided to soften my requirements a little. i.e. As long as the sunset or sunrise would be good, I’d take a chance on the other.

**Sunset at Steeperton Tor #1, Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/13, 0.5 sec at ISO 64.

For the last camp of summer, I really wanted to go to Fur Tor, Dartmoor’s most remote tor, but for that to work, and to make the effort of getting there really worth it, the conditions would need to be pretty special. As it wasn’t looking that way, I decided to settle for Steeperton Tor. It’s a location I’ve wanted to shoot at both sunrise and sunset, and it was remote enough to make a camp worthwhile.

**Sunset at Steeperton Tor #2, Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/13, 0.5 sec at ISO 64.

The route I chose was to walk in from Belstone village along the western bank of the river Taw. It’s a flat and easy going. That is until you reach the base of Steeperton Tor and then it’s an uphill slog (with camera and camping gear) for around 150m of ascent! This wouldn’t have been so bad if I could have found the path up! But I made it eventually. Just a little hot and tired.

**Sunset at Steeperton Tor #3, Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 16mm, f/13, 0.8 sec at ISO 64.

After some refreshments I then spent a fair bit of time trying to work out where I would pitch my tent. Not normally a difficult thing for most wild campers, but I was trying to think ahead and not pitch my tent in a way that could compromise my sunset or sunrise compositions. I finally picked a nice flat area beside the military lookout point. The lookout huts ruin the viewpoint anyway, so might as well stick my tent there as well!

The great thing about wild camping on Dartmoor is that I never feel the temptation to leave early if I don’t think I’m going to get good conditions. You might as well hang about and see what happens because you are already at the place where you’ll be spending the night. Just as well, because about 15 mins after I would have normally gone home, I got the light I was hoping for.

**Sunset at Steeperton Tor #4, Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 17mm, f/11, 3 sec at ISO 64.

Stargazing at Dartmoor National Park

With my sunset photographs captured I decided to retire to my tent. Despite Steeperton Tor being fairly remote, internet access isn’t an issue, and with around 10 hours to sunrise, I decided to settle down to watch a film on Netflix.

**The Night Sky at Steeperton #1, Dartmoor National Park** - Google Pixel 6 Pro

At around 11pm I decided to pop my head out of the tent to see if there were any clear skies and to my delight there were! Though I have captured photographs of the night sky before, I would never consider myself a night sky photographer, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to give it a go.

**The Night Sky at Steeperton #2, Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/14, 20 sec at ISO 6400.

My efforts aren’t going to win me any competitions, but that’s not the point. Not only was I having fun capturing photographs of the night sky, but I deny anyone to look at the night sky and see all those stars and not do so without a sense of wonder and awe. It was breath taking!

**The Night Sky at Steeperton #3, Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/14, 20 sec at ISO 3200.

Sunrise at Steeperton Tor

The wind picked up during the night and was still blowing when my alarm went off. I cautiously opened the tent but was pleasantly surprised to see blue sky. My optimism was short lived though. To the east, where the sun was going to rise, there was a large bank of hazy cloud that would be sure to block any soft light from the rising sun.

I thought if I gave it an hour though, the sun would eventually rise above the cloud and I would get some light on the landscape, but a bank of fast-moving low cloud from the southeast came in and covered the sky. That was the end of any chance of getting some good sunrise photos. There was a little gap in the distance which gave me a little light to work with, so I have a least one picture from the morning.

**Sunrise at Steeperton Tor, Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 120mm, f/8, 1/100 sec at ISO 500.

As I wasn’t in a hurry, I slowly packed away hoping that the conditions will change but unfortunately this wasn’t to be the case. Just to give myself some options should the conditions unexpectedly change, I decided to walk back via Oke Tor and Belstone Tor. As it turns out, leaving was the right decision because by the time I got to Oke Tor, Steeperton Tor has disappeared into cloud!

While the conditions for sunrise were disappointing (but not unexpected), I still walked home feeling great. I got some nice photographs at sunset, I’d camped under the Milky Way and most importantly I’d had an adventure. An adventure that I was free to do and didn’t require me to gain any permission or buy any permits. It was true freedom.