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"De Vuursche"

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Ben, one of my best friends and I wanted to go camping. But we didn't want to pay to stand on a campsite. We wanted to be more in the nature. But in a lot of places in Belgium and Holland wildcamping is forbidden.
So we did some research and found several free legal wildcampspots. These camp spots are called "paalkamperen" or "bivakzone" in Dutch..which means post-camp or bivouac.
These areas are marked, most of the times with pump where you can get groundwater or a pole with some rules on it. You are allowed to stand there for 72 hours and normally with a maximum of 3 tents.

The first one we tried was in a forest "de Vuursche" in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It is a one and half hour drive from my hometown.
So Saturday around 2 in the afternoon we left on our mini adventure. When we arrived at the forest, my gps wanted me to park on the highway. So after some driving around and eventually asking someone, we found the closest parkingspot.

We got all our stuff and start walking to find the campspot. We walked a couple of hundred metres and we saw some tents... And as we followed the path, we saw some more tents.... So the rule of maximum 3 tents was already passed. I think there was a total of 15 tents and we thought we were going to be the only ones.

We found a great spot for our tents and start making camp for the night. Ben brought a tarp so we even had outside shelter.
Our campspot looks great and we even had a tree bar with water and wine.

I really like cooking and also outside with just the basics. We had a lovely pasta dish for dinner and evening filled with laughter and good conversation.

After a great night's rest, I woke up with the sounds of birds and the wind going thru the trees. I got my whole bed out of the tent and layed myself outside...I love it ! Staring at the light coming thru the branches and green leaves of the trees, the wind making it move around like it is dancing to the music of the birds!

After while Ben woke up and Vinni another friend texted he was on his way. I made some lovely scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. When vinni arrived, we played some cards games.

Oh and we had Enrico joining us, he was living as a nomad in the Netherlands, going from place to place. He chose to live this life. He carried around a big seashell and all little jars filled with herbs and wax. He burns these herbs and wax in the shell which smells incredible and it is also used as cleansing. And we all got a beautiful gemstone of his collection. So it was a great ending of our camping trip to the Vuursche in the Netherlands. On to our next adventure...