A friend calls. Do I want to go camping? A friend of his owns a wood about an hour's drive from London, and needs some help picking fruit. It's open to all, and you get free camping in return for a few hours' work. The weather forecast predicts a sunny weekend, so I throw the tent in the car along with my stove-top coffee maker, bottle of wine and a deckchair. A little comfort makes all the difference to camping.
A stone's throw from where William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold II to become William I in 1066, is the small village of Catsfield. It overlooks the southern edge of the High Weald, an area of outstanding natural beauty. In a narrow country lane, a five-bar gate is marked "Hammonds Wood". To my right are the woods and to the left is the camping meadow. Experience has taught me to pitch my tent before the light fades. This done, I enter the woods and arrive at the hub of the site, an open kitchen.
A central table for around 30 people shelters under a tarpaulin suspended from the trees, illuminated by hanging lamps. On the decking floor stands a wheelbarrow, customised into a stove. Assorted pans bubble away on top.
The table, benches, decking and cupboards are all hand-made by the owner of the wood, Joc Hare, using timber recycled from his work as a tree surgeon. He's also a sculptor with many public works of art on show across the south east. He's redesigned and restored a Victorian maze in Hastings and created a huge timber entrance arch in the shape of an owl for the RSPCA's own wood nearby. Asked why he initially bought a wood he replies that, as a tree surgeon, he's had to fell so many trees, this is a good way of ensuring that more are planted.
The aim is to restore the site to a fully working wood with natural coppice cycles to provide timber for building and burning (renewable, sustainable energy), with the help of volunteers.
About 10 of us have pitched in the meadow where our host has left a supply of firewood. Having pushed the wheelbarrow containing fire from the "kitchen" and across the meadow, its contents are dumped in the fire pit which lights the pile instantly – and also ignites the conversation.
In the morning I take a look at the blackboard – which, like most things around here, is hanging from a tree – to find out what jobs need doing. I choose rhododendron removal and set off across the woods. I'm not sure I get all the roots out but that's a good excuse to have to come back and finish the job. Along the way I gather sloes, soon filling a basket destined for the market. It doesn't feel like the hard manual labour I'd been expecting, more like gentle reconnecting with nature. Afternoons are free, so I head to the nearby naturist beach, Fairlight Cove, to swim and soak up the sun before returning to camp.
Hammonds Wood is as rustic as they come, but it also has better facilities than many campsites I've stayed at. Along a path of solar lights, the spotlessly clean composting toilet is screened by an intricately woven willow panel. There's hot and cold running water fed by a natural spring and supplied via a simple heat exchanger. Ingeniously, there's a siphon switch that also supplies the bathroom . . . a cast iron, roll-top bath sitting halfway up a tree. It beats any five-star hotel bathroom and provides an awesome view of the canopy.
As I soak, it strikes me that this is low-impact living at its best. There are no walls, no barriers to nature, yet I feel sheltered and protected by the woods, and the artistic quirkiness of the camp provides a sense of luxury that is essential when roughing it.
• Stay for free in return for doing chores on site, or pay £10pp pn if you don't want to work. Catsfield, nr Battle, East Sussex (01424 434848, jochare@btopenworld.com). See jochare.showmemysite.co.uk for examples of Joc's work.
Sally Shalam is away.
