Anyone here seasoned practitioners?
Not since I was a student, and a few years thereafter. I used to bivvy on Ingleton common most weekend, even after they put up the "campers will be persecuted" signs.
It's easy enough provided you follow the basics. It's just a matter of being non obvious.
Go to bed at dusk, when it's still light enough not to need a torch, get up early.
If you go to the pub before bed, make sure your kipping spot is sussed out beforehand, again so you don't need to wave torches around too much.
Separate eating/cooking from sleeping. If you are cooking in the evening, sleep somewhere else. In the morning either move on a bit before breakfast, or at least get everything else packed and ready to go before cooking.
Subscribing to the above, anywhere goes, really. You can even just hop over a stone wall and rely on the wall to keep you out of sight of the road. Just check there isn't a bull in the field first
. I've used a pedestrian underpass under the A65 or the side of a garage in Maidenhead.
This was all mostly bivvy bag rather than tent. However, if you can't see cars on the road, a house, or a footpath from your tent, you can't be seen.
I've not tried hammocks, but they seem like just another option rather than being particularly better. If you want to be discreet, you want to be 15-20m back from the edge of whatever patch of trees you sleep in, and that's not always easier than hiding a tent using the contours of open ground. For example, touring northern Scotland last year revealed few suitable places. Plantations were surrounded by 10 ft high deer fence, and other trees were thin ribbons along the side of a road, loch or river, where you would be fairly obvious, if you cared.
