Camp Full Monte www.full-monte.com is a small (maximum 20 pitches) clothing optional campsite in Montenegro close to the border with Croatia.

Located in stunning natural beauty but less than 20 minutes drive from the nearest large town and naturist beach it is an ideal venue from which to explore Montenegro and the Balkan region.

We are not eco-warriors at Camp Full Monte but our totally off-grid location presented some interesting challenges and led us to investigate use of environmentally friendly build techniques and solutions.

Our first challenge was lack of water. The area abounds with natural springs in winter but these dry up in the summer. It was therefore important that we not only store water when abundant but also to ensure that we don't waste a single drop. We soon realised flush toilets and urinals consumed huge amounts of water. Worse still, having mixed waste with water to transport it, we were then left with the problem of disposing of it. Our solution was to design the communal shower/toilet/kitchen block around three compost toilet chambers that utilized the most up to date thinking, design and porcelain fittings. They don't smell, they are comfortable and clean and each time they are used we save 6 litres of water. The added benefit is that when we are closed during the winter we can extract excellent fertilizer for our grounds and gardens. We were also able to source two "airflush" urinals saving even more water and capturing excellent liquid fertilizer. Having removed the need to deal with "black" waste water from the toilets, we were left with relatively clean "grey" water from the showers, basins and kitchen. Using an ingenious system, recycling old tin baths, we have implemented a grey water system that filters our grey water and irrigates our gardens and grounds during the heat of the summer, keeping everything green and verdant when all around begins to brown and scorch.

Our next triumph was to find a way of harnessing the suns energy to heat water. We had no power so most solar water heating systems were out of the question as their design invariably includes an electric pump. Our system operates entirely on thermal convection and provides us with a 400 litre tank of hot water all year round.

Lack of electricity is still an issue and over time we hope to expand the current solar photovoltaic system that we use to drive the compost toilet ventilation fans. In the meantime we use individual solar units to light the grounds. We have to resort to using a generator for a few hours each evening, not the most ecological solution but we have to be pragmatic, whilst continuing to strive to improve our solar electric generation capability.

Is there more we could do? Of course but limited availability of "green" products in Montenegro and a tight budget means we have had to adopt a "do what we can" approach. Our mantra during building and development of the site has been to reduce, re-use and recycle wherever possible. We have invested a huge amount of time in the collection of materials surplus to the requirements of less "green" minded local developers. Ceramics, bricks, cement, roof tiles, timber that would otherwise have gone to landfill have been used for our build. They're glad to get rid of them and we're glad we've found a use for other peoples rubbish. We also managed to save over 170 railway sleepers (railroad ties to our U.S. friends) from incineration and used them in the construction of vegetable beds, fencing and steps. We've re-used hundreds of palm leaves trimmed by the municipal government to construct our privacy fencing and hundreds of wine bottles (glass is not recycled in Montenegro) have been used to create unusual windows in the communal area of the campsite building.

So whilst we recognise there is more we could do we're encouraged by the results to date and are continually striving to find new ways to reduce, re-use, & recycle to provide a clothing optional camping resort that literally does not cost the earth. If you ever find yourself in our region of the world please do visit. You can find more details on our web site www.full-monte.com.