Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal

With drought continuing to affect the valley and our concerns rising about having enough water for our tourism project, in August 2022 we enlisted the help of some water diviners to help us dig a borehole in the best possible spot. You can hear what happened in S2:Ep11 - Digging Deep which is on this feed. TRANSCRIPT… Drought is on many people’s minds at the moment, but hosepipe bans are the least...

A surprising reaction to bagpipe music from the big dog Garfunkel from August 2022. “This wasn’t an instrument the original Simon & Garfunkel were known for…the only connection is that some people prefer the Sound of Silence to the bagpipes.” TRANSCRIPT… Garfunkel was quietly guarding his radiator in the lounge as usual when his ears suddenly pricked up, he hauled his 65kg frame over to the table...

An addiction from trying to get healthy and lose some weight, but I had no idea when I wrote this in May 2022 just how important it was going to be for our survival… TRANSCRIPT… I bear the track-marks of an addict. Anyone catching a glimpse of my forearms at the moment may well wonder whether the drug of choice in the Valley of the Stars has switched from wine to heroin. “Punctures, scabs and brui...

How the city of Porto suddenly got closer, but still far enough away to ponder a big decision…to give up or to keep stressed and carry on? I mention a blog on wine that I also write - it’s called The Big Portuguese Wine Adventure and is the precursor to a proper podcast on Alentejo wines. Sign up to join the mailing list for that below. TRANSCRIPT… The day began with Ana saying it was time to stop...

Reflections on my new life and my old when a question is asked, from March 2022. TRANSCRIPT… Two things this week tell me that I have reached a new stage in my life: the first was buying my first ever 25kg bag of fertiliser; the second was saying no to reporting on a war. I never thought the day would come, but it has. It’s not something I decided without deep thought and weighing up all the optio...

I’m calling this series of recorded despatches “Season 2” as it is the best of my blog posts in 2022 recorded and collated to be heard more conveniently as a podcast. A summary of how we got here (and what went wrong along the way) can be heard on the six despatches in Season 1, also available on this podcast feed. Season 1, Episode 1 is on the occasion of a landmark birthday and reflections back...

A long lunch and a most eventful evening when we met new friends in the valley from May 2021. TRANSCRIPT… For once Millicent the Land Rover was the last car standing. What began as a lunch with new friends ended as a dramatic escape out of a car window from a raging river, a car written off in a flash flood and a truck upended in a ditch. Millicent lost an eyelash. It was a night of high drama in...

The back-story to why, and how, we ended up moving to an off-the-grid house in rural south-western Alentejo, from a moment of reflection on New Year’s Eve 2020. TRANSCRIPT… The plan was always just to find a little bit of land with a ruined house to spend our summers fixing up: our piece of Europe as we wandered the globe, but it didn’t quite end up that way.  Here we are ending 2020 with no jobs,...

Our local foe and why they’re so good I name them twice. A musical dispatch from December 2020… TRANSCRIPT… I have a few songs permanently on my mind at the moment, and none of them are by Simon & Garfunkel. The first is by Duran Duran and is sparked by any mention of one of the valley’s wild inhabitants. The second is linked to a regular off-grid chore and comes from the original Jungle Book soun...

An ambitious start to learning how to build with a lot of help and a few injuries in the process from November 2020. TRANSCRIPT… You know you’ve done a couple of good, hard days’ work with your hands when your iPhone no longer recognises you. Even if I had a newer phone I’m sure the “wild man of Alentejo” beard would have flummoxed facial recognition, but now steel rods and wire have laid waste to...

A foray into the bushes and a window into our new life of making and discovering in rural Portugal from November 2020. TRANSCRIPT… So. I could tell you about the mysterious bite – most likely from an angry centipede – which has left my entire left leg swollen and generating heat, four days after I didn’t notice I was bitten (while saving broad beans from the onslaught of the oxalis plant invasion)...

An audio version of the very first blog written in November 2020 by former BBC foreign correspondent and war reporter Alastair Leithead who gave up a nomadic lifestyle to settle off the grid in a remote part of rural Portugal with with wife Ana, a former diplomat. Read all his despatches here: https://alastairleithead.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with ot...