CAMP FULL MONTE - A SHORT STORY

We moved to Montenegro in May 2006 after visiting a friend of a friend in 2005 and falling in love with the place & the people. We have been enjoying naturist holidays for years. Our dream was to set up our own resort where people could enjoy a relaxing holiday, with or without clothes.

When we finally found the right piece of land – private, beautiful, good road access – and started to develop it, we discovered there was the possibility of a major highway carving its way through the location one day! Although the exact route of the highway is not confirmed and building will take many years, if it happens at all, we decided to scale down our ideas & open a campsite.

The site is not connected to mains power, water or sewerage. So we had to start thinking ‘off-grid’. Our ‘eco-awakening’ began as we realised that alternatives to living without mains utilities were ecologically sound. We did loads of research and reading, talking to people all over the world and visited eco projects. We designed the facilities ourselves because there was no local expertise for overcoming our particular challenges.

The campsite opened this summer & despite very little marketing (we were unsure whether the site would be sufficiently ‘ready’) we had guests from all over the world. People travelled to us from the UK, Portugal, Hungary & the USA.

Our facilities include: compost toilets; natural spring-water fed showers; solar-heated hot water. The shared kitchen has everything our guests need to prepare & cook meals, although most of our campers opted for our ‘Dish of the Day’ and we would all enjoy an evening meal together. We encourage people to make themselves at home: browse the books in our library; enjoy a game from our extensive collection; potter in the garden or relax in the hammock. We grow our own vegetables & herbs in our organic garden. The landscaping & development of the grounds is an ongoing project but we have planted some fruit trees and hope to increase our yield of organic produce every year.

In 2010 we will have an outside eating area to accommodate larger groups and we’ll develop the BBQ & outdoor cooking area further. We don’t “pack them in and pile them high” at Camp Full Monte so the experience is of less people and more peace. It’s one of the aspects we value and our guests do too. We never have more than 10-15 tents on the main campsite although there is additional non-naturist camping space in the oak woodland area adjacent to the main site.

We are currently developing our website to promote our eco centre & working holidays, in addition to clothing-optional camping.

Denise Boyton-Jennings

E-mail: denise@full-monte.com

URL: www.full-monte.com