A message from Camp Curator, Maddie.

I’m an artist… I love to paint. And I am an earth lover. I grew up in nature and I’ve spent a lot of time by campfires! If I think about it - I must have learnt to light my very first one when I was just a kid. Six years old at most.

I feel like I grew up in the wild. With soil beneath my feet, surrounded by trees, beautiful streams and open skies that seemed to stretch on for miles. A half-wild life. Free to explore and discover the natural beauty and magic of the land all around me. 

I have known camping all my life. Before I could even walk, I spent summer holidays camping next to the marshes on the North Norfolk coast. I can still smell the canvas, the sweet grasses and breakfast cooking. I can hear the sounds of the world waking up and a camp slowly and gently stirring into life with the dawn. Small tinkling sounds and dappled light. 

I think what made it all the more magical and special was its fragility and impermanence. It’s seasonality, changing all of the time. Yet, somehow timeless. It’s in my bones. 

When I was twenty two, my life was forever changed when I visited India for the first time. Travelling for three months on the back of an Enfield Bullet with a pocket sized road map. We chugged along slowly, off the tourist trail as much as possible on roads which then bore hardly any traffic. 

The experience was intimate, sometimes intimidating and intoxicating to all the senses - I felt so alive! I fell in love. With all of it - the people, the history and spirituality stitched deep into its fabric. Its magic is palpable and it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the country and a pathway to a chapter of living in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh and starting my own family there. 

Four years later I found myself unexpectedly back in Norfolk. Roots being planted again. 

With my small boys in tow, camping expeditions changed to festival expeditions and we continued to travel together for the coming years. We’ve camped in some wild places! Sometimes for months at a time. 

Mela and Me…

Setting up a glamping site was a dream of mine for a good twelve years or so until it came to fruition. A friend of mine told me about this new idea - glamorous camping. I’d never heard the phrase before but it resonated. And the seed was planted…

Fast forward a decade or more…

Do you believe in divine timing - a force that propels events in life to happen at an exact moment. The right moment. For reasons that we can’t seem to fathom? Well, the perfect place to manifest my dream presented itself to me and it was everything that I had dreamt of and so, SO much more.  

From the get-go, the vision for Camp Mela and her build was abundantly clear to me. At night when it was quiet, I would walk around the site in my head - imagining myself moving around. Through each element as if I were there, seeing it in every detail. Working out how it flowed, and where things needed to be for that to happen. 

So when it came to the build I knew exactly what direction to go in. It was though I had already painted it in mind. 

One of the most important, fundamental aspects to me was that we should work as closely with nature as possible. This meant not changing or disturbing the land if at all possible. A strong ethos of treading lightly, and elegantly… in tune with nature and her rhythms. The result is a hand built, handcrafted camp made from the ground up by us.

The second thing was the aesthetic of the camp. I wanted nothing that would be jarring to the senses. I have a passion for interiors and scouting around for secondhand, unusual and decorative pieces so the prospect of collecting, curating and styling the tipis and kitchen wagon was beyond exciting! 

We use many reclaimed materials and objects. Believing and seeing beauty in repurposed finds. All the timber used for building the kitchen wagon, the decking and the beautiful dining table and benches at camp comes from locally storm-felled trees. Each one milled and cut by friends just two miles from camp. 

All of the eighty tipi poles needed were cut, peeled, sanded and oiled by us by hand. I remember thrashing through thigh high brambles in the fifty year old Christmas tree plantation looking for just the ‘right tree’. Interestingly, the First Nations peoples of North America didn’t cut live trees. They took only the dead ones - providing they were not rotten! We applied the very same principle as far as possible. 

My blood, sweat, tears and ultimately, my profound joy is in this camp. I feel part of it. In a sense it is me - a reflection of who I am, where I’ve been and the experiences that have shaped my soul. I am a custodian of this very special patch of land. Along with the most almighty ancient oak which presides over it. 

My intention for Camp Mela beyond manifesting the build was that it would be a place where people could gather. Connect, Share. And be close to nature, benefiting from what it has to offer. Alchemy for the soul. 

Mela is a retreat away from the noise of everyday life. A space for creativity and healing. To restore, rebalance, re- wild its inhabitants. She is simple, elegant and natural. And she welcomes you with open arms. 

The aim is to share with you the beauty of all my experiences and passions. A tapestry of my own camping times, my love of travelling, different cultures and just for a little while a nomadic way of life which is deeply rooted in the wisdom of nature. 

Huge gratitude goes to everyone who had a hand in helping to manifest my vision. To my two sons Oli & Phineas, and a few very lovely friends for all their help and support. You know who you are ..... 

Maddie X