Bivvying

[teethgrinder]

I've slept rough a few times without a bivvy bag.
I usualy go for woodded areas, away from footpaths and out of sight of the road. I've never been bothered yet. I have been seen. Once when I slept at Prees Heath after a Mersey 24, but dog walkers don't really bother you. They just want to walk their dog.
I also slept in a field behind a hedge and about 5 meters away from the A41. While I spelt, roadworks were erected. I woke up, then climbed over the gate, to find myself in the middle of some traffic light controlled roadworks.

Be carefull about fields though. Especially in late summer when farmers are harvesting, which is often done at night. Corn fields and the like offer excelent cover, but you really don't want to get tangled up in some agricultural machinary. It won't do you any good at all.
Rural churches can be good, but be carefull now, because churches are more frequently being robbed for their lead now that the scrap value has gone up.
Bus shelters too, in rural locations. Some can be very well hidden from the road.
Wherever you chose to snooze, it's always worth checking out where you are and reading the signs. You don't know whose land you could be dozing on. It could be some millionaire's garden, who owns several viscious and well trained guard dogs.

[scott]

While I spelt, roadworks were erected.

Yes, well, I'm a slow writer myself. < / prince george >   

Bus shelters too, in rural locations. Some can be very well hidden from the road.

Somehow this doesn't say much for the treatment of bus passengers. Around here, stops get placed as far as possible from the entrances of stores, I guess so that the underpaid employees don't scare the paying customers. 

[Paul]

One further tip.  Don't wake up in the middle of a large roundabout outside a small Italian town during the morning rush hour.   
(I was hitchhiking, not cycling, and rather inexperienced in those days) 

But do wake up at the bottom of a garden in a small Italian town where the resident grows tomatoes and grapes, rather well.

The second best breakfast possible.

[Nick H.]

I hate bivvying.    Nowhere to spread out your stuff, no privacy, no territory. A nightmare when it rains. So I sold the sub 200 gram bivvy bag and got a massive tent which is less than a kilo.

[vince]

You could try the Staffordshire Moorlands. They are a little closer to home and I think every bit as windswept and picturesque as the Dark Peak.

If you are going to the Dark Peak, let me know and I'll wander up from Chesterfield with supplies

[alan]

You could try the Staffordshire Moorlands. They are a little closer to home and I think every bit as windswept and picturesque as the Dark Peak.

If you are going to the Dark Peak, let me know and I'll wander up from Chesterfield with supplies

I will wander to,
Would you wish for solids or liquids?

[Chris N]

You could try the Staffordshire Moorlands. They are a little closer to home and I think every bit as windswept and picturesque as the Dark Peak.

If you are going to the Dark Peak, let me know and I'll wander up from Chesterfield with supplies

I think I've identified a couple of likely places in Staffs: either somewhere just West of Birchover or to the East of the A53, avoiding the firing range, obviously.

[alexb]

I've never tried bivvying, but at £25 that looks damned tempting.
I did meet one guy who's idea of camping was to bivvy under a tarp suspended over his bike, so the bike formed the spine of a makeshift tent. Very ingenius and quick to set up.

[alexb]

There's a load of ipossibilities here about tarps, look at their galleries.: http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product156.asp

[Jon P]

I used to bivvy a lot when a teenager, in the high mountains of the Pyrenees. Wouldn't do it in the UK though, or alone, these days. I wouldn't feel safe.

I've done it all over the place, and hardly ever been seen doing it, let alone had any confrontation.  By far the closest shave was when I met the farmer just after packing up and setting off, and had to BS about losing the footpath as he didn't seem to be a farmer who would tolerate camping/bivvying on his land unlike many.

Contrast that with the US though and I needed to bivvy out in a suburb of Portland, I nearly sh1t myself as there were a load of tramps/drunks on the village green.  I ended up sleeping under a parked* lorry, dangerous as that is.

* more laid up than parked, in a depot with a load of others