Here is some food for thought about a subject that The Secret Campsite is all about. This is the opening chapter in The Escapees Handbook, our little ode to nothing….. Our Nothing….. the very specific, Nothing Much that our guests repeatedly tell us they cherish.
So here goes…
Life’s busy. But not here. In fact, nothing much happens at the Secret Campsite.
Nothing Much at all.
There’s not much noise, well unless you count the morning choir of birds, the percussion kindly provided by crickets, and the calls from the deer and other mammals that could stand up to any brass section.
There’s not much to get distracted by either. No bouncy castles nor ice cream vans, no supermarkets nor gift shops. Hardly anything to see, apart from, that is, the slow worms and adders, frogs and butterflies, kites and cuckoos. The colours and smells of wild orchids, native treelife and lichen, lots of lichen. Pretty boring to some folks. And you don’t see wildlife all the time, many of them are really shy.
There are no emails to check, or trains to catch. No presentations to prepare for, spreadsheets to update, or meetings to attend. No tap of keyboards or that notification beep. No TV to watch, or clothes to wash, no pre-packed sandwiches to eat or take away coffee (actually that’s not true – we do serve real coffee).
In fact, at the Secret Campsite you may get a little unexcited. Your mind may empty of the minutiae of daily life. It might wander, free to dream, free to think. As the eminiently quotable poet Henry David Thoreau, a man who knew a thing or too about the creative power of nature, said: “It is the marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination.” As well as stumbling accidentally across an idea, you may get a bit smelly from campfire smoke. And the food you eat may be a little simpler (lasagna isn’t easy over a fire). Actually everything might be a little simpler.
Feel free to join us all in its pursuit.
If you would like to get your own copy, you can download it here or order a copy when you book to stay at The Secret Campsite. Every copy that we sell, we will donate 20% (£1) to Sussex Wildlife Trust who run the Secret Wildlife Festival here in July.
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