legends · 4 min read ·
Free Overnight
A motorhome forum thread about a free car park shows vans appearing and disappearing in the dark.
**RoamFree Forum · Thread: "Free overnight at Ketterick Moor car park — worth it?"**
**dougandshirl (10 Aug):** Thinking of stopping at the Ketterick Moor car park (grid ref in the aires app) on our way north. Free, flat, views. Anyone used it?
**vanlife_ben (10 Aug):** Used it last month. Flat, quiet, room for about a dozen vans. No facilities, no signal. We loved it.
**dougandshirl (11 Aug):** Great, thanks. Any security issues?
**vanlife_ben (11 Aug):** None. Quietest night I've had. The only thing is you never hear anyone arrive or leave. We were there with eight other vans and I didn't hear a single engine start in the morning. You wake up and they're gone.
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**kettleandcompass (14 Aug):** Same here. Stayed 12 Aug. Nine vans when I parked at 6 pm. Eleven by dark. In the morning I counted six, and I'd been up since four. Never saw a headlight.
**wanderwoman (15 Aug):** Is it me or is the number never the same twice? I counted fourteen vans from the ridge at sunset and then eleven when I walked down. People move around, I know, but you'd hear them.
**vanlife_ben (15 Aug):** It's just the dark and the wind. No signal, no phone. People leave at five to beat the traffic.
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**dougandshirl (19 Aug):** Update. We stayed last night. It's a lovely spot. Parked next to a blue Hymer with a Welsh flag in the window. Said hello to a couple in their seventies over coffee. They said they were from Barry and they come every year.
Woke at six, they'd gone. So had four other vans. Couldn't hear a thing. Just wanted to say thanks for the tip.
**kettleandcompass (19 Aug):** Doug, a blue Hymer with a Welsh flag? I've seen that van every time I've been there. Three nights in three different months. The same two people. They wave. They never come to the car park in daylight.
**dougandshirl (20 Aug):** That can't be right. We had coffee with them.
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**wanderwoman (24 Aug):** I stopped there last night. Parked at the edge. At 2 am I heard a voice outside, quite close, a man's, saying very pleasantly, "Do you mind if we park next to you?" I said no, thinking it was a camper. Looked out. Nobody. Then I heard a door open and close, right beside my van. A door, a van door, a metre from mine. But there was only grass out there.
When I looked in the morning there was a flattened rectangle in the grass, van-shaped, with the grass lying down in the direction a van's tyres would make it. The dew had not been disturbed in it.
**vanlife_ben (25 Aug):** This is getting silly. Everyone's wound each other up.
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**dougandshirl (30 Aug):** I'm sorry to bring this up again. We went back to the car park to collect the thermos we left behind. It was daylight. There were no vans at all. The car park is a patch of gravel with a post and a litter bin and a sign saying NO OVERNIGHT PARKING. The sign has been there for years. It's rusted.
I put my hand on the ground where the Hymer had been. It was warm. Two parallel strips, warm, in the shape of tyre tracks, in cold gravel.
**kettleandcompass (30 Aug):** Doug, please don't go back at night.
**vanlife_ben (31 Aug):** Right. I'll test it. I'm going up there tonight to prove it's nothing. I'll post at dawn.
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**vanlife_ben (1 Sept, 06:12):** Fine. No problem. Quiet night. Fourteen vans. All parked in a neat row, noses to the view. Everyone says good morning. Weather clear. I'll stay another night.
**kettleandcompass (1 Sept):** Ben, your location history shows you left the car park at 22:00 and you're posting from home.
**vanlife_ben (1 Sept, 06:40):** No. I'm here. It's lovely.
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**wanderwoman (2 Sept):** Ben hasn't posted since. His wife says his van is in the driveway. His phone is on the dresser.
**dougandshirl (3 Sept):** I've been looking at the aires app. A new review appeared on the Ketterick Moor listing last night, from a user with no profile picture and no previous reviews.
*5 stars. Free, flat, quiet. Everyone is so welcoming. You never hear anyone arrive. Come and see for yourself. We've saved you a space.*
*Posted 4 September.*