, ,

Hiking Adventure with My Dog to Nozdra and Golija in Central Montenegro 

One feels so beautiful by being accepted and creating connections with complete strangers around the world. Montenegro has a big soul, ready to heartwarmingly welcome you at any moment! Let’s check the story from our coliving guest Lisa, who was that kind to write the story for our website and share it with all of you! 💚

FitCamp Montenegro Hosts

Going hiking to the remains of the old Ottoman Fortress and back to FitCamp – that was the plan. 

In the morning, I packed my small backpack with some food and water for me and our dog Bailey and we took off. The first bit of the hike I knew already from the previous walks. I was super excited to go again, and this time even further to explore the fortress.

The weather was absolutely amazing – summer feeling in the air. For Bailey it was a bit too warm, so we were faster in the beginning to reach the higher peaks of the mountains as I already knew there was a little pond, and I planned to take a break, mainly so that Bailey could cool herself down by swimming.

And so we did. After the break, we made our way through the stunning landscapes with a bit of wind. While the first part was more rocky, we soon passed to a beautiful valley, with grass and trees all around. We passed a few old farmhouses (katun), some presumably still in use during summer. Once in a while, there were small ponds with water for the cattle, which Bailey also happily used.

After approximately 2,5 hours of walking, we could have seen the ruins of the fortress high up in the mountain above the valley. If we wanted to make the way up to reach the ruins, we needed to leave the hiking road and do a short walk up the mountain. I decided not to walk there as I already had a wild idea in my head. I wanted Bailey and me to save our energy for the adventure ahead. 

Enjoying the beautiful weather and curious as I am, I called my partner. I quickly introduced her to my idea and was super happy to hear that she agreed to help out. Instead of turning to the fortress, I decided to go on, curious to see more of this beautiful mountain area. I wanted to dive deeper and enjoy this energy, nature and remoteness. Of course, previously, I checked the map that said it was possible to continue on the same hiking road for about 13 km to reach the main road again. From that point to FitCamp, there was about 21 km and I knew we couldn’t walk that distance on the same day, so that is where I needed my partner’s assistance. We were planning to meet on the main road that evening and the pick-up was with our camper van. After planning it all, Bailey and I took a break, ate some snacks and enjoyed the sun.

Heading on, the landscape was changing again and again, from rocky, to small forests and then a beautiful, wide and open valley. I could see that Bailey loved this just as much as I did, as she was bouncing and running a bit in front and around me. I could not believe that there was no one around, just us. 

Walking on, we reached another valley with a huge flock of sheep. So, we were not alone in the end… 

Slowly making our way towards the flock, I was looking for the shepherd. Also, I could not see any dogs, even if I was sure that there must be some. The sheep were all over the place. 

There weren’t any other options to pass further, but going directly into the flock. So, I took Bailey to my side and went slowly straight on. One moment, as we came closer, all sheep looked at us, forming a half circle. This was impressive. Even more impressive, when Bailey and I continued and I realised that the sheep were closing the circle behind us. I felt Bailey’s tension and was so grateful that she is such a calm dog, in most situations. On the other hand, I was not used to sheep and having them walking behind and around us, so I just wanted to get through the flock and out. 

Holding Bailey and walking, I talked aloud to calm down both of us. We speeded up a bit and finally made it out and turned away from the flock. 

I was super happy we made it and then I heard dogs and saw a shepherd approaching us. I waved and greeted him in my few, newly learned Montenegrins words, saying „Dobar dan“. 

He waved and greeted me with a big smile, obviously surprised to see us. He went on talking, gesturing – I tried and wished I would have learned more Montenegrin. Anyway, I just smiled and followed him as he was inviting me towards the house nearby. Meanwhile, Bailey and his dogs had also greeted each other. 

Bailey stayed outside while I went inside, following the shepherd. There was one room. Simple but cosy, with a bed, couch, basic stove and cooking area. We sat down, continuously trying to talk to each other. He even tried to call a few of his friends to help out translating. Unsuccessfully, but it was nice of him to try his best. He offered me what I thought was water and Fanta. I decided to go for the water but a few seconds later I realised when he was serving it in small glasses, that this was no water. This was rakija. Later, at FitCamp, I learnt that this is a typical alcoholic drink from Montenegro, usually made of grapes (but it can be made of other fruits) and intensively strong.

I remembered I had a muesli bar and offered him half. Then I slowly packed my bag and signalled to him that Bailey and I need to go on. He wasn’t happy as I believe he thought we planned to hike to Bosnia with just a small backpack. That was my guess, at least. Trying to communicate that everything was just fine – I thanked him. As a memory of this adventurous moment and this hospitable and welcoming shepherd, he left me to take a picture – both of us smiling and then waving goodbye.

I checked on the map and saw that we had about 1 hour of walking left. We took a small break, enjoying the beautiful views. After a while, I could already see the spot where the hiking road was intersecting with the main road, down the mountain. Pivoting down, we passed a few houses, reached the main road and then relaxed on the grass while waiting for our ride back home. 

The whole day and this hike turned out to be absolutely what I did not expect. And yet, this was just the perfect thing to happen that made this hike even more precious and unforgettable for Bailey and me.

Hvala Montenegro!

About author

Lisa Lützen is an Access Bars Facilitator, nature lover and adventurer. She spent a month at FitCamp Montenegro as our coliving guest, and we enjoyed the time with her, her partner and their lovely dog Bailey. We were amazed at how well they got the idea of our coliving concept and are more than happy to have made new friends. We are enthusiastic to welcome them again! To learn more about Lisa, click here.

/0 Comments/by
, ,

The Development Goals of FitCamp Montenegro

Being a crazy ant is not an easy job. All of us crazy ants know it, but we usually wouldn’t do anything different even if we could turn back the time. 

‘…most of the ants in the nest are creatures of habit (workers). They mark their routes with scent trails and only follow routes where another ant once walked. So they obediently finish their work list. They will mainly work harder and harder but do nothing structural about the problem.

Fortunately, there are always several crazy ants (scouts) in a nest. They deviate from the fixed routes and, therefore, find new places that the ant people need to survive. The crazy ant is the one who will find a new place. But how does he convince the other ants to help him move the entire nest?’

Read the full story about the crazy ant here. 

Lagant.nl

As many in our surroundings characterised us as crazy when we left the coast and headed up to the Adriatic hinterland of Central Montenegro to develop FitCamp, we wished to write this blog and explain our reasons, or better say goals!

GOAL 1 – Local Community Involvement & Development

Seeing the potential and optimal growth in rural tourism development of Montenegro, one of the leading thoughts of our business idea was to include the local community in all that we do. 

Offering only local products to our guests and visitors is what we crave, but taking in mind that our production is not that big to cover all the needs yet, we saw an opportunity for everyone in the village producing anything from fruits and vegetables to cheese, meat, marmalades, juices, rakija, wines and similar. 

This goal includes long-term effects that are equally positive to our business development as to the city’s economic empowerment, a larger tourism inclusion and better rural product placement. 

We frequently hear how the city of Niksic, where we are located, is not touristically developed, so we want to motivate people from this city to understand the potential of the area and plan their agricultural and other activities following all the possibilities that the modern market offers. 

GOAL 2 – Sustainable Environment

The mal-influence of tourism on the environment has become very clear, taking in mind massive movements, cruising travels increase and similar. Some of the greatest minds in sustainable tourism development are now finding a way to regenerate the travel market and decrease the poor effects of the travelling crowds that used to happen from the 70s of the 20th century up to today. 

From the very beginning, FitCamp Montenegro had a clear idea in mind – development in touch with nature! All our efforts to find a remote place and cultivate it further paid off when we landed to today-location of our well-being centre. We clicked with this area and saw all the small bits and pieces needed for the puzzle that we started to put together.  

Firstly, we were enthusiastic that the village where we are now located doesn’t have a city water supply system. Most of the people we work with and our partners told us – oooh, but the water might be a problem there. We nodded and made it one step closer to our vision.

Most of the people living here are collecting the rainfall and snowfall in underground containers from which they distribute it further to their barns, houses and gardens. The same is with us. Our property has a 44 m3 water container built underground in the backyard, and it is connected to the house by an electric water pump. So, when you are inside our premises, you can’t feel the difference as it seems the same as in the urban areas. In reality, it is not the same, as we take as much as nature has given us and reuse it in our daily life. The best about it is the reaction of our guests and visitors and how fast they learn to collaborate in saving water and protecting natural resources.

Furthermore, we started planning a sustainable irrigation system for our gardens, orchard and future cattle. We dag a pool in the valley of 150 m3 size that will soon be our addition to recreation on the FitCamp estate, as well as a secure water supply for all the produce.

The system is planned with a SMART addition so that we can control the water flow even remotely.

A solar plant is something we keep for the near future, but it’s been on our list since the very beginning. The reason for postponing it is the investment that it requires. That piece of the puzzle will close the circle of self-sustainability and give us the title of the possibly only self-sustainable place in Montenegro, especially in the commercial market.

Thus, nature will give us:

– electricity from the power of sun and wind, and 

– water from the rainfall and snowfall.

This will shape our small system as a perpetuum mobile. 

GOAL 3 – Diversified Travel Product   

As parts of our team have been working in tourism for years, we are aware of the clutter and fuzz that follows travelling. The effects of tourism on nature are not flattering, but luckily, the latest generations of travellers seem to see this problem and react to it. 

Even before the pandemic, FitCamp Montenegro’s idea was shaped around the fact that nature has a healing effect and that we should let that fact into urban lives that are stale and dusty. We didn’t want seasonal work or to offer the same services as everybody else in the rural areas of Montenegro, so it took us time to shape the whole program and system with our partners and friends. From 2018 up to today, we didn’t stop working on this idea and sharp-shaping it for the market in the best way we possibly saw it could go.

All our programs are based around the benefits and inspiration that nature gives us, and we invest ourselves in the best combination of silent time within the forest, hiking, swimming, outdoor adventures, yoga, fitness, healthy food & nutrition, and mindful workshops. We immodestly consider that we crafted a unique travel product for the Montenegrin market, and we are fanatical about the reality that our demand is responding so positively to what we created for them! That gives us further inspiration and motivation to never stop and always introduce novelties to our products and the Montenegrin travel market in general.

Avoiding the short seasonal work, our doors are not open only to travellers and our programs are not crafted just for short-term rentals. We are happy to share that winter 2022/23 was more than successful at our estate, with numerous digital nomads who have chosen coliving stay, entrepreneurs and MSMEs who have chosen our team buildings and workshops and last but not least – our volunteers, who help us and at the same time live the life with us, by applying the same set of rules and goals we crave for FitCamp.

We do hope to welcome you here and spread our love for nature and all it gives us with you, introduce you to our elderly neighbours and their delicious products and heal you by being one with our Planet Earth. 

Approaching Earth Day, we wish that this blog enlights you in your future travels and motivates you to only travel with purpose!

/1 Comment/by
, , ,

Staycation & Workation at FitCamp Montenegro

Travelling has become a lifestyle for many, especially for the new generation of wanderers who easily combine their working and living missions. These are digital nomads who live without frontiers, but also other groups of travellers and visitors who are seeking a long stay and combining vacations with their job – the so-called bleisure. 

Most of these people travel solo and seek secluded, intact spots, offering the luxury of staying in nature (or close to nature) but still connected to all the important living facilities. 

For a while now, Montenegro has been on the radar of numerous visitors, teams and nomads thanks to its lovely climate, friendly and hospitable people, intact nature and good connections. For us at FitCamp Montenegro, these groups of travellers were always important, and we created our idea having in mind their demands. We are happy to say that after the first working winter, we have had numerous digital nomads’ stays, and volunteers who helped us with numerous tasks that we have at the estate and we are looking forward to hosting some of our first team buildings during the spring season.

Why is FitCamp a perfect place for solo travellers?

‘Disconnect to reconnect‘ is one of the slogans that we use in our promotion, and it was built together with one of our former visitors who used our Coliving stay package. He was inspired to share his perception of FitCamp community living shaped in a simple sentence. 

Solo or in a couple, FitCamp indeed offers a cosy stay where you can be connected when you want or need to work, but at the same time, you can disconnect completely when needed, and enjoy the benefits of nature stay with or without additional activities.

The comments of our so far visitors show that our place is amazing for concentrating on important tasks at work as well, which makes it a great work-away location. 

‘As a business owner, I often find myself overwhelmed. In late October I decided to move away from my everyday routine and find an inspiring place to strategise and retreat myself with pure nature and fresh air. I chose FitCamp as my destination since it is 20 min away from my city, I’ve been there with my team for a workshop, and I felt that it was the right place for what I needed. I only stayed for 2 nights and managed to handle 2x a bigger workload than I regularly do from my home office. I don’t know what kind of magic they do, but I got inspired to write and create a strategy, and that was exactly what I came there for. Wine-tasting sessions in the evening definitely helped 🙂 I will definitely come back for more inspiration in spring! Thank you Andjela for being such a great host 💚 💙.’ 

– Bojana from Minuta do posla

When not working or cooking your daily meals, you have opportunities to hike or cycle to some of the amazing spots, unfairly neglected and forgotten but culturally and naturally beautiful. Our favourite for a short 1-hour walk is up to the Tower of Preśeka (Preśečka kula) which originates from the Ottoman Empire time.  

From that point on, continues a wide range of options, so you can either climb the mountain Golija, where you can see the famous Nozdra and remains of the Ottoman caravan settlements, or you can walk down the hill up to Krupac Lake – one of the lakes surrounding Niksic, also known as the Niksic Sea. During August, Lake Fest Rock Festival takes place here, in the forest, and a lot of water and nature outdoor activities are available from May to mid-September. This is one of our favourite spots to go swimming, as it’s only 15 min drive from FitCamp Montenegro.

yoga-in-nature-fitcamo-montenegro
Yoga in nature – solo travellers

Co-living Vibes

Living our dreams with FitCamp coming to life, we have the opportunity to host numerous visitors and volunteers from all around the world, spend quality time together and support each other in many ways. It’s a superb feeling when you know that your job can bring you new friends and that these can be connections for life!

Sharing our Community House with all of you for us means goals achieved and pure excitement. We are looking forward to every new visit and every new request, as we appreciate your understanding and support of our idea! The late autumn and winter time are amazing for the long stay for digital nomads.

‘We have spent a month in this amazing place, and it was a huge pleasure to share so many beautiful moments with people in Fit Camp. Beautiful nature and great hosts. The area is well-treated, comfortable, calm and inspiring. It is a perfect place to connect with nature and meet cool people. They are very welcoming and friendly, ready to support in any situation. The room is nicely equipped and furnished, cosy social area and funny pets. Quite close to the city, and a bike-friendly area. Looking forward to coming there again… and again.’ 

– Katerina, a digital nomad from Dortmund

Do you want to join our community? Contact us, we would be happy to have you!

If you are a volunteer who finds a bit of yourself in this article, find our profile on WorldPackers here. 

/by
, ,

An Unexpected Digital Detox and How To Survive It – Rural Coliving in Montenegro

It was just a regular January in Montenegro. Temperatures mild, post-festive fever high, new goals, new plans, resolutions – all prepared. The FitCamp Community House – full of people from all over the world.

We were shaping plans with our volunteers to improve our backyard and patio for the upcoming season, and just like that, a snowstorm caught us! At first, we were enthusiastic about it, as well as our dogs, but then things went a bit further and… Well, let’s go day by day!

Snow woke us up on Friday, January 20th. Bucolic. All white and beautiful. Arya immediately wanted to go for a walk, as that is her favourite weather forecast – snow and more snow, please! (dire wolf indeed 🐺)

We put our winter clothes and boots on (note: we barely made to find these, as with the climate change, the winters in Montenegro are mild, and we didn’t have this amount of snow in Central Montenegro for years) and decided to make a community hike around the village. It was amusing, as we didn’t enjoy a white hike in ages and the dogs were so happy! We even made a Snowman in the valley. A perfect start to the last working day of the week!

Saturday, January 21st
The weekend opening came with even more snow than the day before. We cleaned around the houses and spent most of the day outdoors. When the night came, the snow intensified, and our team was out until the middle of the night, cleaning the roof and trying to save trees in the yard. Further, at 11:30 pm, there was an electricity cut.

Anybody who knows anything about the Montenegrin rural areas knows the conditions of the electric network that runs through the villages – very poor, mono phase and unstable. That is why we were so afraid of this cut, as we knew that weather conditions are not favourable for the electricity company to get out and fix it in the middle of the night. Additionally, we are collecting rainfall and snowfall too for our water supply system, which is built by us and connected to the electric water pump. Meaning – no electricity, no water!
We couldn’t do much that night and it was getting late. Hoping that a good sleep will solve everything, we went to bed.

Sunday, January 22nd
On Sunday morning, we woke up to idyllic scenery but, clearly, we were cut off from civilisation. No electricity, no water and no road connection to the city. During the night, the snowfall was around 1 m. As a cherry on top of the cake, one of the acacia trees fell onto our car. Luckily, the snow and the suitcase holders absorbed much of a fall, so there wasn’t damage to the car, whatsoever.

We spent the whole day cleaning. Our team, volunteers and guests – all out, cleaning nonstop, protecting the roofs, making passages, and collecting snowfall for the water container. Exhausted, we entered the house in the late afternoon, cooked the food in the wood stove, melted snow for the toilets and indeed felt what living in the wilderness means.

Just when we thought the day was about to end, the snow blower appeared with a lot of noise. We run out of the house to welcome him, but we wish it was only welcoming him! Due to very high snowfall, he couldn’t pass our house and we needed to help them clean with shovels to be able to pass our house and go further.

Now we could go to bed with hope because we at least had the road clean, compared to yesterday.

Monday, January 23rd
Lovely people from our village who live in the city and are visiting daily, have been thinking of us so in the early morning we’ve got fresh bread and coffee delivery. What a beautiful moment of belonging to the local community!

Now, back to reality. Even if the road was clean, our car was trapped by the levy of snow left by the snow blower. We can’t blame them, of course, but it meant another day without the possibility of visiting the city (or better said, civilisation). Obviously, no electricity or water yet so we didn’t have many options but to continue maintaining the house and the yard. The project of the day – cleaning dishes in the snow. Middle Ages or, better say, Djekna – for Balkans’ readers of this blog. 😊

Tuesday, January 24th
Finally, the day has come! You think it’s electricity, but no! It’s the car. We freed it so that we could go to the city, have lunch, get a shower at Andjela’s parents’ house, and recharge the batteries on all devices.

Honestly, this was the day, or a moment, that we realised how we are passing through a digital detox no one asked for. On our way back to the FitCamp estate that night, the hope ignited our beings at the entrance to the village – the part of the area called Sume got the electricity back!

7 km further, enthusiasm disappeared – we were still in the dark. Still, the majority stood well, the spirits were up, and we were inventing things to do without being online. Cards, games, and just talking were enough to spend the night.

Wednesday, January 25th
Being used to the situation, after breakfast, we divided tasks between us and started organising the yard and the house. The good part about this amount of snow was the fact that we filled our water container nicely, collecting snow daily and putting it into the underground water tank. This was a beautiful sunny day, so everything seemed to be easier.

Around 3 pm, the electricity got back. Unfortunately, it was a false alarm, as the next cut came 10 min later. So, finally, similar to last night, after a bit of cooking the old-fashioned way, laughing, and wine, we went to bed with hope.

Thursday, January 26th
Used to the situation, we were now performing our new routines like it was completely normal. Living detached in the 21st century is easy but, we are glad to say we made it, and we didn’t miss anything at all!

After a long walk with the dogs, we collected more snowfall for the water tank, cleaned up, cooked and hung out when false alarm #2 occurred around 6 pm. We already started planning who’s going to the shower first and how to organise the rest when the new cut came. We received it relaxed. We now knew this game.

Friday, January 27th
Not all of us receive things the same way and what the majority reflects is not always the case for each member of the community. Thus, this was a day when our electricity cut team grow smaller as our guest left us. It was just enough for him and he decided to find a new place to stay. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience caused, but indeed this was out of our power. Nature was showing us that is stronger than modern society, once again. Most of us enjoyed it, some of us did not, and that is more than fine!

Another day without electricity and water went great, as we now knew the system. We were playing as a team, and all was easy!

Saturday, January 28th
Sunshine woke us up. All white and blue outside. We felt it was a day to get back.

Back to civilisation.

Back in the 21st century.

Back online.

Back to so-called normal.

And so it was.

*
Overall, this was a waking experience. A pack of different personalities from around the world trapped in the conditions of the middle ages. Positivity shined bright, and we are now proud of the love and positive energy we shared amongst ourselves.

The common understanding, the proper reaction, the compassion and empathy – this electricity cut turned out to be an outstanding experience with a bunch of individuals, who are capable of moving mountains if necessary. Hard, but not impossible, this event crafted irreplaceable memories in our heads, and we couldn’t resist sharing it with all of you! We can guarantee one thing – our community works exactly as it should in all the conditions!

/2 Comments/by
, ,

Wellbeing Holidays and Mindful Retreats – How it all started?

Living a busy life is not easy at all, especially in the modern world of today, when technology and the development threaten to overcome humans. The panic attacks, as well as anxiety, was never more frequent and it seems to be a mental problem of the new generations. Too many tasks, too many devices, too many daily things to do, social media and the perfect lives of online stars have made our lives much more stressful and the burnout is one of the everyday things.

 

Knowing all of this, back in 2018 our team has come up with an idea of a special kind of travel offers, the next level of vacationing how we like to call it! FitCamp Montenegro came to life to comfort you and to make you feel more satisfied with your vacations. Vacation is not just going away from home and wandering the world, it’s much more than that! It’s knowing new cultures, lifestyles, as well as making new friendships. If you combine all of this with our wellbeing programs, you will get a next level of vacationing that includes an enormous gift of self-care, a healthier lifestyle and cheerful spirits! We combine fitness and yoga and other outdoor activities with your stay in the rural area of continental Montenegro, but we also offer interesting lectures and workshops on nutrition, general wellbeing, positivity, stress relief and mindfulness.

 

The year 2020 brings a new addition to what we do, as we finally found a place to be a foundation of our programs, a place from where it all starts and a perfect oasis for your wellbeing. After 18 months working with our partners on their locations (which we loved and we can’t thank them enough), we found a stunning estate to become our new home and accept our long-term development plans! We are thrilled about it! All of you coming in summer 2020 will be amongst our first visitors and we can’t wait to have you here! Our estate will offer so many opportunities and will impress you with self-sustainability plans, as one of our biggest aims is to be dependent only on nature! It is perfectly located in the central Montenegro which makes it so accessible from many directions and makes it easier for us to bring you to explore various parts of the country – north and south.

 

We researched a lot and we discovered that there is no inner harmony without spending time in nature and a man of today is harming nature a lot. One of our goals is to keep our visitors motivated to maintain the environment around them and to teach them how to litter it less. Besides, one of the best ways for recovery travels is nature-healing, which we want to present you in practice! FitCamp Montenegro is developing as a self-sustainable system and it will depend only on nature. As long as we are good to it, it will give us many benefits back – solar energy, rainfall water, fruits and vegetables, dairy products and so much more. Visit us and be part of our ecological process of growing as a fully sustainable wellbeing location! Renew yourself, learn to live your best life and visit another paradise place in the Mediterranean, such as Montenegro.

/1 Comment/by