I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since we returned from Santosa yoga camp. It’s a small 10-day yoga camp just outside Shepton Mallet near Glastonbury. We went for the last weekend which turned out to be a stroke of luck weather wise.
Hannah, her friend Tammy, and I hired a camper van from a friend which was a first for me and an absolute luxury. I never want to sleep in a tent again! It was heaven having a proper bed and living room with running water and a gas hob. Joey Miles described it as the A-Team van as it’s a Toyota Hi-Ace 4×4 and looks a lot more flash than your average VW Combi! Traffic both ways was a breeze and despite the occasional navigator error (that’ll be myself and Tammy) we made good time getting there and back.
Santosa is a really low key yoga camp of around 250 people. There were two catering options. Angelic Feast and The Outer Regions Cafe who are regulars at the Buddhafield festival amongst others. There were also hottubs and a sauna which I didn’t check out this year. Each day was packed with yoga classes and workshops in a range of styles by different teachers.
Looking at the programme there was a lot of good stuff we missed because we only stayed for the last 3 days of the camp. Of interest to me was a backbending workshop, a history of yoga workshop (3000 years in 30 minutes) and Shadow Yoga with Sasha. We did catch some Integral Yoga with Manjula, Qi Gong with Jacob, Yoga Nidra with Ram Das and a workshop on the classic Hatha Yoga Pradapika with Uma.
Every evening there was devotional singing in the Bhakti space which was really lovely. On Saturday night we were treated to a Kirtan concert led by Brighton based Narayani. I’ve never come across her before so I was extra pleased to hear she was based in Brighton. She’s doing a voice circle at the BNHC in October which we’ll be going to. Come check it out!
The Ashtangis were well represented at Santosa. Joey and Donna had been teaching earlier in the week and were chilling on the last weekend so I got to practice next to Joey as he cruised through a lovely 3rd series on the Sunday morning. We also met Richard and Nicola from Sheffield, who were teaching the led Ashtanga morning class, and Justine who’s based in Hassocks.
It’s a great family friendly camp with loads of yoga and workshops. It is a camp though, rather than a festival, and you will need to self-cater most of the time. I’m not a hardcore camper myself so a week in the rain would not be my idea of fun, but having a camper van made all the difference. Check out the Gallery to see pictures of the camp.
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