One thing I’d recommend is to start a little less all-in. You don’t have to go straight into backpacking out to the middle of nowhere and roughing it, you can start with car camping at a for-pay campground that’ll have some basic amenities, and just pitch a small tent there.

This’ll give you a chance to practice some basic skills in a less demanding environment before you really have to fully rely on them. Won’t cost much, and you’ll still be getting a chance to unwind a bit. Then once you’re more comfortable with your skills you can expand your horizons.

It’s only as overwhelming as your trip. Start simple: Overnight in a tent somewhere close to home. Bring what you think you’ll need, and if it turns out you overlooked something vital, you can always go home whenever.

Baby steps. Nobody camps a week in the wilderness alone, miles away from civilization their first time.

I don’t have a resource to point you towards, but firstly decide how you’re doing things. Are you hiking? Or are you hitting green lanes (BOATs and UCRs) in a 4x4? The first will make you need lightweight and smaller kit, the latter less so. Figure out what you’re looking to do and buy accordingly.

Test your setup by camping in your backyard.

In the US we have KOA campgrounds which have a camp host and usually a store. I used them for my first RV trip and found it to be very helpful. Maybe you have something similar?

Bushcraft is a good search term if you want to go as old school as possible. Ultralight is similar but using more modern equipment. Backpacking is the general term for long trips through the woods. Any of those will get you some good info on YouTube or various blogs to start with.

In warmer weather you can have a fine weekend with a very small amount of gear. A water filter, a dehydrated meal or two, and a small camp stove would be just fine for a beginner and shouldn’t cost too much for the basic version of any of them. Obviously many people would also want a tent and/or sleeping bag but you can decide how you want to handle that. Sleeping outside isn’t so bad and helps you appreciate a tent much more. Hammock camping is fairly popular as well so maybe consider that option if you want at least a bit of shelter without commiting to buying a tent right away.

I wouldn’t recommend foraging for food until you have some experience just being out there. Maybe bring a book about local plants on your first trip so that you can work on identifying them without the stress of them being your only food source.

The biggest piece of advice is just to get out there and see how it goes. Maybe you’ll love the freedom and challenge of having very little gear with you or maybe you’ll hate not having one specific comfort. Just pick a spot relatively close to civilization for your first trip so you can get out of any trouble you might find yourself in and you’ll be fine. Decide how you want the next trip to go based on the first one and just keep getting building from there.

https://www.countryfile.com/uk-travel/holiday-ideas/a-beginners-guide-to-wild-camping seemed like a pretty good guide. Maybe combine it with a holiday to Scotland if you’re worried about the legality of wild camping.

Congrats on turning your life around and getting into the outdoors.

A quick way to learn would be to find a friend who knows and go camp with them.

I think you should not try to acquire all the gear until you know what you will actually use (besides, you will be the one carrying it)

Things I would definitely bring:

-a hatchet

-container(s) to drink from and cook in

-lighters

-single burner propane stove

-tent

-sleeping bag

-tarp

-rope and/or ratchet straps

-water filter (MSR MiniWorks EX is my personal fave)

-garbage bag(s)

Based on what you described, I think you should just go for it with some basics for one night at a time, and you will quickly learn what you want to bring in the future.

Check out the YouTube channel Camping with Steve. Each episode is an overnight camping trip in various settings, either in the wilderness, or abandoned places, even stealth camping in a roundabout once. The guy has a good energy about him and you’ll get a ton of tips on the practical side of camping.

Ppl are offering great advice about where to start, and it’s what I’d suggest too - start with car camping to get a feel for it. If you overcommit too soon, you could ruin the experience for yourself. I know many ppl who will never camp again because they treated it like a hotel stay, got rained out, and decided it wasn’t for them lol.

A couple of resource suggestions - you mention an interest in self sufficiency. Read the SAS Survival Guide by one of your own, John Wiseman. It’s my go to for general survival tips and skills, including the ones I hope to never need. But lots of good info just to be aware of too.

Some other great resources can be books on flora and fauna. One I have sitting on my desk is the Canadian Outdoor Survival Guide. Obviously it’s for Canada, but it teaches you edible plants and behaviour around some bigger beasties (I don’t think that’s an issue in the UK).

And a final thought - an old Parks Canada marketing slogan is a really good nature-respecting thing to keep in mind: Take only pictures, leave only footprints.

Nature is in our backyard, but it’s home for the animals that live there.

Happy camping! ☺️

I have a small van with a bed and a sink in. I don’t visit any campsites. I don’t see this as “wild camping”, but apparently it counts so I’ll pitch in my advice anyway. I feel like we would have very similar interests - my holidays consist of going to Scotland for roughly a week, walking wherever seems nice, and generally being away from other people. I park overnight in lay-bys or carparks that allow camping. I started out sleeping in the back of my car for the first few years, but it’s not as comfortable and I enjoyed myself enough that I decided to invest in a van.

The things I bring with me are

• bottled water (I have some 5L bottles that I fill from the tap, usually 30L is enough for drinking and hand washing for a week, with one “shower” from a bottle)
• books
• bedding
• camping stove and wok
• reusable plastic plates and forks
• clothing
• money (this is the most important, because if you forget anything else on the list you can buy it with money)
• map of where I’m going downloaded to my phone

I go shopping and find a toilet once a day. I drive to somewhere nice (just look at the map and take a guess). Sit and read,go for a walk wherever looks interesting, snack, sleep, repeat. In terms of food, it’s mostly pastries and salad, because it’s hard to find ready-to-eat vegetarian food. For cooking, I’ve found that stuffed pasta and readymade sauce is easy to cook, and the other go-to is vegetarian sausages in a bun. But generally I only eat one or two cooked meals per holiday. It’s not worth the washing up IMO.

My experience is probably different than what you’re planning, but similar enough to be useful advice I hope. You can literally start by just jumping in a car with some food and water, and driving somewhere nice. As long as you have a car, anyway. I’d suggest to start small and close to home, then it’s an easy escape if anything goes wrong

Start small.

Try a few overnights and test your limits. Figure out what you enjoy and what you don’t like. Some people really get into cooking over an open fire, and others would rather bring packaged food. Some people want to hike for miles with a heavy pack, and others would rather set up close to the trailhead.

I highly recommend the book The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley. It’s far more applicable for the roaming in nature possibilities in the UK than where I am in the US.

If you have a vehicle, consider car camping. Some of the YouTube I have been watching are “Cheap RV living” and “SUV RVing”. Both of these channels show how little you really need to live in a car.

Something to keep warm, something to cook, somewhere to poop. Lots of people get a little battery bank to keep their phone or laptop charged. Try not to use your vehicle power when parked but you can charge everything while driving. I have been watching a ton of that camping channels because my wife and I are about to live in our car for a while and find where we will move to. We spent the last year gathering everything we think we need for the trip using these videos. People live in cars as small as a Prius (which has climate control when the car is off). We have a slightly bigger car, but I think we can do it after seeing so many people living in cars.

Think about it like this: you don’t have to go to the Australian outback and survive there for a week with nobody being around.

Start with a one day hike so that you can pack and carry enough gear that will ensure you can spend the night and figure it out from there. Take a note of stuff that you missed and add it to the list of items you’ll research and buy. Drop stuff you didn’t need after a while (emergency supplies exempted).

You’ll probably need clothes, a tent, a sleeping bag and mat, a flashlight, a stove & fuel, lighter, plus kitchen utensils / cutlery, water bottles, food, toiletries, toothbrush, a towel, first-aid kit, some insect repellant, sunglasses, your phone (solar charger), some money or credit card, and potentially maps and a compass if you’re planning a longer hike and there might not be any reception (or you lost your phone). There are apps (e. g. Locus) that have dedicated “outdoor” map types and allow map downloads, so they work offline and provide more useful information about the terrain.

Look at camping / hiking communities where people post their minimal loadout pictures to get an idea of how little gear really is needed to get around and add stuff you’d like for comfort from there. There is a whole “ultralight” movement out there that will give you an idea of the absolute basics you’ll need, people typically post overhead pictures of their gear there and add descriptions.

Regarding your specific question for drinking water: there are solutions to filter water so it can be safely consumed, search for “portable water treatment”, e. g. LifeStraw, Geopress etc., plus chemical additives that purify water.

Yes, you can make bacon&eggs, you’d typically crack the eggs at home and seal them in a bag to carry them along. A camping stove will allow you to fry food and boil water, plus you can always start a fire (where legal!).

Sleeping bags will be rated for certain temperatures, get one that matches the climate you plan to sleep in, then optimize for weight and cost - we can’t tell you how to weigh each factor since that depends on destination, group setup (load distribution) and naturally, your financial situation.

If you want to get more serious about being self sufficient, you might want to look into “bushcraft” later on, although I do consider this an advanced topic separate from camping / hiking, and it won’t work in every corner of the world. Still, there are decent books about it and the topic is interesting either way. A good starting point could be: https://www.amazon.com/Bushcraft-Boxed-Set-Advanced-Gathering/dp/1507206690/

Overall, don’t overthink things and start with small, short trips, you’ll learn as you go.

I think you are talking about wilderness backpacking, as opposed to regular backpacking.

Backpacking means you are generally on trails and bringing everything you need, including food. You don’t need survival skills to backpack, but some basic ability to navigate with a map and compass is really good to know.

Wilderness backpacking is like regular backpacking but is more survivalist and you generally don’t use established trails. This is more hardcore and can include having to get food while you are in the wilderness by fishing or hunting.

Start off hiking.

Gear is a big topic of debate. Understand whatever you buy will probably not be what you will need and you will probably replace or upgrade gear a lot as you find out. I don’t think anything I have in my pack now was with me for my first trip.

Bivy vs tent vs hammock comes down to what suits you and the environment you are going to, can’t hang a hammock if there aren’t enough trees.

Alcohol stove vs fuel stove vs cooking over fire all depends on your convenience desire and if there are fire restrictions. Hell, you can even go no-cook meals if you are indifferent to the comfort a hot meal on a cold day can bring.

Passive vs manual water filtration is a matter of personal preference. Water purification tabs are light as fuck, but the taste is not pleasant. If you have a good filtration system the source of the water need only be unpolluted, like a lake or stream. You can boil water, but that isn’t a perfect system and there is still a lot of junk and flavors that you probably don’t want. Pump filters are faster, but gravity filters require less energy and you can’t use them while on the move.

Shoes should be hiking shoes or boots, ones with ankle support can be really nice in topography where you will be changing elevations a lot.

Backpack should be an appropriately sized backpacking pack with a frame. You can go frameless if you are ultralight, but ultralight people are neurotic and derrainged. You want one that fits you and is big enough for the trip but not oversized.

Food is pretty personal. You really could only take highly perishable foods like unpreserved meat for a day if you are in temps above safe storage temps. So don’t think you can take a steak for day 4 when it is 25C out. If it doesn’t need refrigeration or is a preserved product, you can choose what you want. Some people will eat nothing but trail mix, some people will take nothing but dehydrated camping food, what you take will be up to you. If you are looking to cook whatever you want, then overlanding type camping or car camping is what you should be looking at.

Definitely understand that the temps that a sleeping bag are rated for are not accurate. Whatever the lowest temperature they say it is good for is almost barely survivable in reality. If A bag is rated for 15C, it probably is livable at 20C with layers on. Bags are case by case so you will have to try out a bag to know at what temperature you can comfortably sleep in them.

You should start with reading forums and communities to see what other people are doing. There are checklists you can reference to wrap your head around everything you might need and then you can figure out what you want. Definitely start with an overnight trip to work some kinks out of your setup and then go for more days as you gain confidence in your setup.