Tag Archive for: digital detox

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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!

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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.

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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!

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