Live within the nature
…to sit under the trees, drinking your coffee, listening to the birds singing in the morning instead of listening to the noise of the road traffic… to touch the soil instead of the dead concrete or marble… to share the same space with lappets and bees instead of living in a sterile box… to dive into a sea full of life with urchins, octopi, fish and even dolphins instead of a “lifeless” swimming pool… to watchthe ants up close carrying their food and understand their circle of life instead of just watching a documentary of National Geographic… to feed a night visitor –the baby hedgehog living nearby– emptying your thoughts while sitting on the beach, feeling the rain, the wind, the heat or even the cold, understanding that you are part of all this life around you – to feel the fact that you are interrelated and mutually dependent.
All these aren’t just“instant experiences”, but a normal life that each and every person on this planet should lead.
The Nature, with all its beings –plants, trees, insects, animals, fish, reptiles– is part of Man. No doubt, why our connection with it revitalizes us. It really makes me feel sorry when I see in sci-fi movies people living in barren cities or lands.
So, when I took over Camping Rovies in 2015, I made a decision. To go off the beaten track, to avoid anything mainstream or commercial and create a naturalistic camping. Exactly like the places where I used to go free-camping.
This is why we planted thousands of plants, bushes, herbs and flowers, so there is color and fragrance everywhere. This is why we used rocks from our area, wood and huge tree trunks as raw material. (I personally don’t like metal and concrete as materials.) That’s why our premises have earthly colors, to be in harmony with the nature around us.
That’s why we let 5 hedgehogs, plenty of tortoises, 2-3 weasels and countless birds live in the same space; even a fewnon-poisonous whipsnakes. In other places people kill those snakes and they use poisons to kill unwanted rodents and thus eventually they poison everything around them. Even a fox which lives nearby isn’t scared to visit us in search of food.
That’s why I have always refused to use any chemicals, poisons or pesticides on our plants. We don’t even spray for mosquitos!
Eventually, the outcome is spectacular. When you let nature work in its own way, everything goes well. Our camping is now full of lady bugs and praying mantis which are busy eliminatingall harmful insects. I hadn’t seen fireflies since I was a little boy. Yet, some years ago, one evening I noticed the ground being full of them. The tree mice on the trees become prey for the owls and the whipsnakes. As by magic, there are no mosquitos around in the summer, since they are probably becoming a tasty dish for the swallows and other birds.
As a result, a balance has been created, as hundreds of people co-exist in this ecosystem without any problem. Eventually, the people abandon the observer status and becoming part of Nature.