The Good Squad

"He knows not where he's going, for the ocean will decide, it's not the destination, it's the glory of the ride."  - Edward Monkton  Many years ago I gave my dad a birthday card with this short poem on it. Perhaps the words lingered in my memory, because a long time later I took them to heart and acted on them. Back in 2018 my partner and I abandoned our relatively standard, provincial, heading towards middle age lifestyle, in favour of going travelling. We packed up our entire lives, along with the dog in to a converted bus and set off on an adventure, with no fixed destination, just a loose plan to travel around Europe indefinitely and see where we ended up.   Fast forward fourteen months and we find ourselves owning a small farm in central Portugal, harvesting vines, olives and a plethora of other home-grown delicious fruits. If someone told me before we set off this is where I'd be and what I'd be doing, it's unlikely I'd have bel...

Outside our home This weekend marked the one year anniversary of us leaving the UK to go travelling around Europe and begin a new life in the sun. I thought it would be timely therefore, to write a post reflecting on the experience, recalling some of the highs and lows and share a few thoughts on how making a big lifestyle change affected me. There are certain things I've learnt during our adventure that I think have been valuable lessons, nuggets of wisdom as it were. Firstly, I have observed that life is totally unpredictable, you don't know what is around the next corner, and the best laid plans can be turned upside down without a moments notice, so my advice is not to plan too much, and just roll with it. At the vineyard, Bordeaux When we left the UK last September and headed for Bordeaux for a rendezvous at a château with some grape-picking work lined up, we didn't predict breaking down on day one and arriving almost a week late, which somehow earned us the...

Me and Nick acclimatising to Portugal  We've been in residence at our little farm in Portugal for seven weeks, and wow, how time flies! It's been quite challenging and we haven't achieved as much as we would have liked to by now, but it's been a great few weeks none the less with plenty to reflect on and keep us busy. The biggest thing holding us back currently is that the bus is out of action. One afternoon about a fortnight after moving on to the land the bus wouldn't start, she normally starts on the button, so we were surprised.  Initially we thought it was due to the batteries getting drained. As our good friend and fellow Portuguese resident Susie once said "batteries - they are a dark art!" ... a statement I now believe to be true! I'll try to be brief in explaining our battery dilemma..... The leisure batteries that run devices, lights, the fridge etc had been playing up for a while and though we only bought them last year, it app...

We did it! We bought a farm in Portugal, or as they are known by here a 'quinta'. Keys to our house & future The last two months have been intense and very exciting. Here's the 'what, how and why' of us buying our little slice of heaven in Portugal.... We arrived in Portugal from Spain at the back end of March with the express intention of finding out if we could buy a house on a piece of land that we originally spotted in November last year and fell in love with. We're not entirely sure what led us to Portugal in the first place. I have a vague recollection of discovering Penamacor (our location) online before we went travelling. I liked the name, four syllables which roll nicely off the tongue and a landscape that looked divine. Then, later, when we were in France in the oyster region after grape picking last October, we met a lovely, slightly eccentric young lady walking her cat and three dogs on the beach who we got chatting to; she urged us to ...

It's a leisurely pace  of life in Portugal It's been over two months since I last posted, mainly because we are in the midst of some exciting and important changes, and I kept putting off writing until matters had been concluded, so I could do a 'big reveal'. However such is the gentle pace of life here in Portugal that things don't seem to get concluded very quickly, so whilst time certainly flies when you're having fun, you can't always achieve as much as you hoped or intended, especially over the easter period which is celebrated to the max here with numerous public holidays and local festivals. So instead I'll bring you up to date with how things currently stand and fill you in on what Portugal's been like for us this spring. Happy to be back in this gorgeous place We left Spain at the end of March and headed straight for Penamacor, in mid Portugal - a charming, picturesque town we visited briefly in November and where, despite losi...

It’s been a while since my last blog post. I decided to have rest because I thought I might be boring my readers! Us guys, these days Since January we’ve been travelling along the Costa del Sol, the Costa Tropical and into the Cabo de Gata in Spain, and are currently holed up in the Peradon family owned town house in Almeria for a couple of weeks, which is a real treat after spending the last six months in the bus (as much as we love it). For a good few weeks, I felt I was repeating myself, talking about yet another lovely beach, more scenic walks, and, at the risk of sounding smug, basically another day in paradise, which might not be what friends and family in grey, cold England necessarily want to hear about! So, after a few weeks’ break, here’s a summary of our recent movements as well as some thoughts on how I think travelling has benefited us and improved our quality of life. The Big yellow bus, Nerja After completing visiting the major Costa del Sol locations i...