Tuesday 29 November 2016

The Bender in the Wood

Very long term readers may recall me writing about a guy who was camping out in the copse that lay near the British Gypsum site at the edge of town off the cycle path; he had a dome tent, a fire, a sort of lean-to comprised of sticks and a campfire.

What he also had were trees festooned with empty cans of Lech and Tyskie, the Polish beers of choice. The police moved him on in the end.

Well I was running along the cycle path, as you saw, on Sunday, an came across evidence of another impromptu living arragement about 50 metres along from the original encampment. There was a ground sheet, a bit more evidence of fires, various bits of kitchen stuff fly tipped around, and this time the trees were bearing Stella Artois fruit, indicating a different nationality of inhabitant.

The centrepiece was a so called bender, an impromptu shelter made out of black plastic sheeting with a couple of plastic chairs sat underneath it. I didn't at all look a comfortable place to live by any stretch of the imagination, heaven knows what drives folk to live out here.

It is commonplace in cities, where EU workers finding themselves out of work choose to live rough, but you wouldn't expect it here.

There's plenty of work too.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 29.11.16






9 comments:

  1. I could care less if they want to camp outdoors - what really fries my tail is they are so rudely messy. Here in the lovely city of Portland Oregon this year our mayor said anybody could camp out overnight on public property as long as they didn't block sidewalks and streets. What a horrible mess! He said it was because of the severe homeless situation because landlords were all in a price war and jacking up rents everywhere. On top of that Oregon now has legal marijuana. People came in DROVES for all over to live the outdoor life in the Portland area!
    Finally the city has come to it senses and getting things cleaned out and up and no longer letting people make camps. All tents etc must be up and stowed during the day - they can only sleep in them at night - No more days long camps set up. But the expense of the city footing the cost of clean-up and now the monitoring! Hey ho!

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    1. Hello Robin, thanks for stopping by. I believe so called "Wild Camping" should be allowed as long as it isn't a nuisance, and on the basis that you arrive at sunset and clear out at first light. Permanent camps is crazy.

      However, I don't deny there is a homeless problem in most cities these days.

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  2. What a mess! I'll bet it's freezing too.

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  3. Your post reminds me of a house I saw in the woods hereabouts that was constructed out of blocks of magazines and papers, and covered with bits of wood and canvas. A woman was living in it. I used to see her riding on the tram, her meagre possessions in supermarket carrier bags, and I wondered where she slept. Then I 'discovered' her house on one of my off-the-beaten-track training runs.

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  4. You're not wrong, especially a -6 night like last night

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  5. How do you know it are from EU!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Educated guess; the folk living rough like this is other parts of the UK tend to be EU folk, and the previous inhabitant definitely was.

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