Wild Nights: Camping Britain's Extremes

by Phoebe Smith

'It’s not until we push ourselves past our perceived limits, till we feel so cold and so tired that we feel we can’t go on any further, that we discover what we are truly capable of…'

Britain’s most famous wild camper and best-selling author of Extreme Sleeps, Phoebe Smith, is back. After bivvying under boulders and camping in caves on her last tent-bound adventure, she’s decided to hit the UK’s wild places once again but this time take it further. Determined to discover what defines a truly ‘extreme’ night out, and see if she has the guts to do it, she heads to the extremities of the country.

Battling whiteouts in Wales, facing monster waves in Suffolk and attempting to make camp in gale-force winds on Britain’s highest mountain, Phoebe takes us on a series of inspirational expeditions into the wilderness as she quests to find the ultimate pitch.

Genres: Outdoors, Nonfiction, Travel, Nature

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2015

About the author

Phoebe Smith is an adventurer, presenter, broadcaster, author, photographer, speaker and podcast host.
She is an award-winning travel writer, photographer, presenter and broadcaster (specialising in adventure, sustainable travel, walking, solo travel, family adventure and wildlife conservation). She is host of the multi-award-winning Wander Woman Podcast an audio travel magazine. She regularly writes for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times (of London) and is a correspondent for BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent.
She is also Sleep Storyteller-in-Residence at Calm where her stories have been listened to over 30 million times and been narrated by Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Cillian Murphy, Jerome Flynn, Bindi Irwin and Danai Gurira to name a few.
She is co-founder and trustee of the #WeTwo Foundation a charity which empowers underprivileged young people and their local communities through conservation initiatives and life-changing expeditions.
She the first person to camp at all the extreme points of mainland Britain, solo, on consecutive nights, has slept the 3 Peaks and walked across Britain, sleeping rough while dressed as Wander Woman raising over £42,000 for homeless young people.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following on from her first camping book Phoebe Smith is determined to push herself even more. Setting herself three sets of challenges, Wild Nights, Three Peaks Sleeps and Extreme Sleeps, she ventures into the highest, lowest, furthest north, south east and west points in the UK.

On these trips she has to cope with freezing conditions, whiteouts, gales force winds on the highest points, wading through rivers and evading CCTV whilst urban camping. Written in her chatty style, it isn’t a bad book overall and a good counterpart to her first book.

[David Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phoebe is a true British wonderfully eccentric nutcase. Her madcap adventures on Ben Nevis made me resolve to give it a miss. Lowestoft Nest camping under the Birdseye factory & the wind generator was quite something.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

V inspiring, makes you want to get outside with a tent

[Charlotte Burt · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. A completely self created challenge but it was fun to read about.

[Susie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading it kind of inspired me to do sum camping. Just not in November. She went to some interesting places the only peak I've been to is nevis.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this whilst lying in the sunshine and before bed whilst I was in Tenerife. The stories Phoebe tells, couldn't be further from where I was when I read them.

Despite the weather and hardships the she 'dealt with' along the way, I found myself wanting to be outside in the UK - sleeping under the stars once more.

Phoebe's books have each left me feeling this way - and I often go back to them again to re-read and be re-inspired.

[Laura Mannes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure I would have finished this if I didn't need to hurry up and get my 52 books for the year read.
An exaggerated story of what is essentially a day/weekend hiker who needs to re-evaluate their definition of extreme.