Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal

Marta has arrived.After being battered by Ingrid, Joseph, Kristin...oh Kristin...and Leonardo, the sixth named storm of the year has done what only storm systems can do...and is “barrelling” into Portugal.There are certain words and phrases it’s hard to separate from their familiar context.Is anything else dour (pron: DOO-er) except a Scotsman? Only perhaps the weather in Scotland...which is remarkably similar to the last five weeks in Portugal.It’s just a lot warmer here and being up on a hill removes the threat of flooding.As I write, the wind is whipping up a hoolie (that’s the Scottish gale, not the Irish party), all the animals have elected to stay inside, the fire is on and we are sitting in the warm watching the weather apps, monitoring our solar battery levels and hoping nothing too important blows away.Of course, on the news, storms barrelling into the coast often cause “devastation” and in some cases “utter devastation.”It might be a trope or journalese, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.The Portuguese government described this as “devastating crisis” caused by the wave of storms – the state of emergency here has been extended and there’s talk of generational flooding...all with a presidential election taking place on Sunday.Tens of thousands of people were still without power a week after a bomb cyclone and sting jet hit Leiria which is mid-way between Lisbon and Porto quite a way north of us.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.More about those two phenomena later – and about their connection to Britain’s Great October Storm in 1987, Krakatoa, bombing raids to Japan during the Second World War, and the two policemen responsible for sending us British weather.I have organised my life very carefully around avoiding British weather for the best part of 25 years, so you can imagine my current disappointment, even if I haven’t yet needed to change out of my shorts.But we’ve been lucky here in the valley – the worst so far was the departure of a large section of protective glass from its moorings next to the pool, which somehow didn’t break in the fall.A few sections of plastic roof have been relocated and retrieved from the forest, the solar panels deep in the valley have flipped over onto the pillow tank, which have so far avoided puncture despite Daniel’s metal pumphouse roof sprouting wings and taking flight.One gigantic eucalyptus tree has been uprooted and is being desperately supported by one of its neighbouring trees, slowing its journey to the forest floor...we’re already eying that one up to make a bench.Check out journalist Jorge Branco’s latest Substack update on the storms:Many of the tall dead eucalyptus trees on our neighbour’s land that were sheltering in place amid the new growth following the fire a few years ago have taken a tumble making the wood look more like a giant game of Pick Up Sticks.Our track is a little cut up but has been worse as main roads have been blocked by falling trees and firefighting bombeiroshave been busy with their chainsaws.At least 13 people have been killed across the country.And while some communities are still without water, others have far too much.The incessant conveyor belt of extra-tropical storm systems being guided straight into the Iberian coast since the start of the year has soaked the soil, filled up the reservoirs and sent storm surges flowing up the rivers...to meet the runoff coming down.The consequences continue to be dramatic.Riverside shops and homes in Alcácer do Sal were flooded up to the first floor as the Sado River level went up two metres in 20 minutes.Memories of covering hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and tornadoes as a foreign correspondent have come rushing back this week.The chaos in the French Quarter as Katrina hit New Orleans; the entire bowling alley flattened by a twister in Oklahoma (but with the pins in one lane somehow still standing); Manila under water; and then riskily escaping Madagascar’s east coast by helicopter just ahead of a massive storm.But with the hatches firmly battened down – and lunch plans quite literally rain checked by a downpour that will undoubtedly trap our neighbours on their land until the flash flood has risen and abated – I’ve had time ponder wordplay and meteorology and to have a deep dive into why we’re getting such a hammering this year.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.My geography degree and years of watching weather patterns in our new off-grid home, to understand when to expect trouble, were augmented with a couple of long and slightly confusing conversations with two Portuguese professors.But I think I’ve worked it out, and with advance apologies to the meteorological purists, I’m going to have a go at explaining it...on the basis that any accuracy lost in the act of simplification is all my own fault.It’s the Jet Stream.There we go.You need more? Ok...There are a number of jet streams, but the one affecting us is a fast-flowing river of air flowing west to east at around 30,000 feet (9,000m) across the Atlantic.It’s what planes fly into when going from the US to the UK to save fuel and time...and what they try to avoid on the way back.It’s created as heat from the equator flows towards the poles and is pulled east by the earth’s rotation. It speeds up where the warm air meets cold polar air.Like a river it can run fast and straight at 250mph or 400km/h, or meander more slowly making weather systems linger longer…and it can also move further north or further south.This year it’s further south, broadly bringing icy temperatures to northern Europe, the split of weather we see across North America and more storms to Iberia.The Baltic’s been, well, Baltic. The minus 34.3C in Lithuania is the lowest since 1996 and Tunisia’s had its heaviest rain in 70 years.There’s so much more I want to tell you about the Jet Stream...about how it was noticed after the 1883 Krakatoa volcanic eruption created an “equatorial smoke stream”; about how it slowed American bombing raids to Japan in World War Two, but at the same time sped Japanese explosive-laden hydrogen-filled paper balloons towards the US.(Fo-Go Balloon bombs were the first intercontinental weapons system and there’s a great episode of the wonderful Radiolab podcast all about it).Some blue-sky, moon shot thinkers believe it could even be a source of sustainable power generation (presumably once they work out how to keep an aerostatic wing at 30,000 feet...and get the electricity back down to earth).“They [jet streams] meander around the globe, dipping and rising in altitude/latitude, splitting at times and forming eddies, and even disappearing altogether to reappear somewhere else.” [Source: NOAA]But there’s more to discuss.The jet stream guides mid-Atlantic storms and affects where the “two policemen” direct traffic to quote Prof Carlos DaCamara from the University of Lisbon.The conveyor belt of storms are delivered between the clockwise turning Azores High (in the south) and the anticlockwise spinning Icelandic Low in the north...their position and strength also contributes to pushing six named storms into Portugal this year like on a conveyor belt.Warmer ocean temperatures and a ready source of water vapour arriving on an atmospheric river from the Caribbean...and we here in Portugal have a lot of wind and a lot of rain.Many British readers will remember the Great October Storm of 1987 which killed 18 people, felled 15m trees with gusts of 115mph...and came the night after BBC weather forecaster Michael Fish joked there wasn’t a hurricane coming.He was right – in a way – it wasn’t caused by a hurricane, but by the same phenomenon that caused all the damage in Leiria, according to Prof Pedro Miranda, also of the University of Lisbon.He explained it was years later in 2004 when Prof Keith Browning and colleagues at the University of Reading identified an intense localised wind descending from a great height where you wouldn’t normally expect it in a storm system. They dubbed it a “sting jet” after a noticeable pattern on satellite maps resembled a scorpion’s tail.They happen in “bomb cyclones” – depressions which form quickly and deepen rapidly to produce higher winds and stormier weather.The discovery helped forecasters alert people in Scotland in 2011 and 2012 and it was predicted in Portugal last week...only a bit further north than anticipated.That’s a lot to take it...and if you’ve made it this far, congratulations.There’s so much more to say, but this is neither the right time or place...I need to head up the hill soon to see what these crazy winds have done.With the rain still falling and full reservoirs starting to release water into the rivers, there’s more flooding and chaos to come in Portugal no doubt, but a break in the conveyor belt of named storms is predicted.Somehow, between squalls, our solar panels bring in plenty of power to keep our batteries well and truly topped up.But it’s time to bring on some more sunshine, a little less wind and a less cloudy dramatic view of our valleys and the mountains beyond. Our tanks and our lakes are full...it’s now time for a break in the weather.To learn more about how to visit Alastair & Ana’s eco-luxe lodge Valley of the Stars or Vale das Estrelas, visit the website where you can check availability and book your stay. They’re also running their first Wine Retreat in May with the Hutchins Wine Academy. It’s already filling up, but there are still some places available. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

For a recovering news addict, the daily barrage of bad news breaks over me like the Atlantic waves on our wild west Portuguese coast.The inundation of daily briefings, updates and newsletters which arrive from the various trusted outlets from different sides of the widening political divide are a deluge to duck below, wait out and then resurface in calmer waters.Of course, the next swell is already building...it won’t be long before another crest crashes over.Take your eye off it and you’ll be washing-machined in a tumbling turmoil through the surf and delivered prostrate on the beach.The game is trying not to get washed up by this relentless surge of warmongering, right-wing rhetoric and utter indecency (mostly coming from America)...and the distasteful giving of tributes to pander to a deeply flawed king.(Really, María Corina Machado? You really think he’ll give you Venezuela now he’s styled himself as acting president).BUT...occasionally something pops up which makes riding the swell worthwhile.This week it was a nicely written piece in The Economist about how the business of wine reflects changes in society.It’s about isolation, loneliness...and the lubricating antidote which oils the wheels of social interaction.It struck a real chord because it falls in line with what we’re trying to do here: bringing interesting people together with a glass of wine, sharing a meal and a story.It reflects what we love about wine, and how it helps put storytelling at the heart of our off-grid lodge.Hopefully this link will take you to the full article, but if not, you’ll get the gist as I’ve decided to pull out some quotes, tease out a few thoughts and pick it all apart.Of course, I could have chosen mixed martial arts for my news metaphor, which for some reason I’m inundated with every time I dip into some passive doom scrolling, alongside an inundation of rugby tries, woodworking demonstrations, DIY tips and Australian dad jokes.I guess it could be a lot worse.Algorithms have become our personalised shadows following us around the metaverse like the daemons of the Philip Pulman fantasy novels and TV show His Dark Materials.But nevertheless I am slightly fascinated by the surprise flying kicks, back-handed punches and sneaky use of elbows-to-the-head in the MMA clips...yet another good allegory for world politics.Talking of inundations, we’ve been having an amazing amount of rain – the 200,000 litre rainwater tank is full to almost overflowing, the lake’s outflow stream is back and we now know exactly where to put the drainage channels in the new vineyard.Although I’m still not wearing a jumper (I am from Newcastle don’t forget), the chillier temperatures mean we can put on a lovely fire, reach for a warming Alentejo red and (with thanks to the anonymous Economist author of “Falling wine sales reflect a lonelier and more atomised world”) let the story begin...“The long, dark days can lower people’s moods”On the one hand it’s a great idea giving up booze for January, but on the other it’s a terrible time to deny yourself something nice to warm up the longer nights...especially when the act of drinking takes you to a nice cosy bar.But straight off the back of the festive season with bulging belt buckles it seems like the right thing to do (“the exhortations of do-gooders to forgo...” as the writer elegantly puts it!)Ana and I have cut back this month...but more in the realisation that running a tourism lodge around wine and joining in with every guest is going to kill us pretty quickly.I’ve never suffered from the SAD (seasonal affective disorder) short days depression, but that’s mostly because I’ve organised my life around living in places where it’s still warm and sunny most of the time.SADly alcohol sales are on the wane through a combination of a GenZers drinking a lot less (presumably as a form of revolution against the grown-ups who set such a bad example during their childhood) and the various studies citing the health detriments of booze, but the Economist interviewees say there’s more to it than that.“Wine’s decline reflects something deeper: a fraying of the social fabric that once held Western societies together.”That’s what Andrés Pérez thinks.His family runs the Alyan vineyard in Chile (which looks amazing by the way) where “Wine tasting...is more a carefully curated social event than a lesson in tannins.”I said exactly the same thing presenting this week’s wine story-tasting for 43 people...well, perhaps not quite as eloquently or directly, but it’s what I meant... it’s less about fancy language and more about enjoying what you like.Yes, you read it correctly, wine tasting...for 43...that was a first!We had a fantastic group staying on their corporate retreat, or ‘off-site’ as we’ve learned is the new word for it.In collaboration with nearby yoga centre Orada (and with huge thanks to David for asking us to be involved), we hosted the Verto Eduction management team for the week.Our solar system once again brilliantly navigated a full house despite the rain as the study abroad programme staff gathered from all over the world and cosied up in the Clubhouse to hear a little Portuguese history through wine.We treated them to our favourite Vicentino white blend, a Gerações de Talha introduction to Alentejo’s amphora wine world, some Esporão Reserva 2022 and Mouchão’s stunning 2017 Alicante Bouschet.Alyan apparently “once offered hour-long tasting sessions. Now they last four. By the end of the visit, strangers are swapping numbers and shaking hands.”While I didn’t bang on about Alentejo wine for four hours the volume of conversation certainly increased as we ticked off the wines.“Anthropologists see the decline in communal eating as part of a broader social unravelling.”We’ve loved hosting a family-style meal around a long table on the terrace when we’ve had the time in this first year of being open.(Running this place is sometimes a bit like the Trump presidency...it feels like a lot longer, but it still hasn’t been a full year!)It’s been great to bring people together over a fish braai or some grilled black pork with lashings of Alentejo wine – ideally from a flagon – to get the conversations going.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.“People across the rich world increasingly live, and eat, alone. As a result, more people now eat and unwind in front of screens.”Now that’s an easy one,We encourage guests to the valley to let their phones have a holiday too: to switch off and take it easy...ideally from the comfort of a locked box (the phones, not the guests).Phil Davies – friend and BBC cameraman from Nairobi always swore we needed to go on safari at least once every six weeks to give our eye muscles a workout.After all the close up reading we do in front of screens, he argued, we periodically need to scan a distant horizon to maintain the flexibility to switch to long vision.It’s also great while on safari with friends to be practiced enough to know the difference between a lion and a rock that looks like a lion at 400m.Our views are vast, there’s a old windmill on a hill to focus on and we do have a few rocks that look like Iberian lynx...and of course a big library of books and shelves of games for quiet days.But of course off-grid doesn’t mean always offline as there’s a need to keep in touch.“Generation Z...drink differently, increasingly seeking out quality and novelty.”Tick.Of the 350 different grapes grown in Portugal, 250 are indigenous.And nothing says wine novelty more than Antão Vaz and Arinto, Trincadeira, Tinta Miúda and the two Touriga’s (Nacional and Franca).Quality and novelty are a draw with young drinkers on the basis that the reason the hipster burnt their mouth on coffee was because they wanted to drink it before it was cool (buh-buhm-tshing).Alentejo is of course home to the original natural wine – talha, or amphora wine made the way the Romans made it...and made that way in a few places ever since.And it’s perhaps the main reason our lower, or Baixo Alentejo, has been awarded European city of wine for 2026.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.“For some people, drinking is an isolating addiction. But for most it is a social indulgence. And that, increasingly, is what people are missing.”I’ve always loved a bit of social indulging. I have been known to socially overindulge, but only occasionally.And that’s the inspiration around a few of the things we’re planning for this year. The main one is the Wine Retreat we’re doing with the Hutchins Wine Academy in May...people are signing up for that already and it’ll be a lot of fun…there are still places left, so join us!Seventy wines, some amazing meals and winery adventures and you leave it tasting wine like a sommelier!Our Detox/Retox days of exercise then alcohol are perfect for February and March when the shoulder devils and angels both get their way...on the same day.And that plan to run a regular open house wine tasting every Friday is taking a step closer to becoming a thing.We might even host something fun on Sunday February 1st...a sort of goodbye dry and welcome back wet rest-of-the-year...let us know if you’re interested.The EU is providing “funds to uproot grapevines in order to reduce the bloc’s wine glut.”Of course they are.So obviously we’re planting half a hectare while everyone’s getting money for pulling it up.Speaking of which, I really must get my wellies on, take to the field and start counting up how many plants we need...I don’t trust my geometry (or ChatGPT’s). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

One of the great things about being married to a Portuguese Swede is also one of the great things about being an only child: it really pays off at Christmas.As a kid I was the spoilt brat with no brothers or sisters to share the gift space on Santa’s sleigh; and as a grown-up I get to celebrate twice...or some might argue, three times.Since Ana and I met, Christmas has officially begun on December 24th with a julbord of pickled herring and smoked salmon, glazed ham, meatballs with red cabbage and potato bake, special seasonal dark bread and crispbread wheels of Vörtbröd alongside cheese...to make sure nobody goes hungry.It’s all finished off by saffron buns and gingerbread...and washed down with lashings of glögg mulled wine, laced with spices (and vodka). Tack.Then to continue the excess, the 25th kicks in with turkey and all the trimmings, sweet mince pies and a Christmas cake which spent the first few months of its life soaked in brandy.And, of course, British celebrations come with the bonus of Boxing Day for turkey and all the trimmings (round two) fried up in a bubble & squeak and then a thick soup to make sure we don’t go near a turkey for another year. Musical Odemira: it was great to see the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra play at the opening concert of the Estação das Artes in Santa Clara/Sabóia presented by Miso Music PortugalThis was part of a fantastic medley of Christmas songs (hence the hats!) - great to have such an amazing performance in our regionWhere I still love the Christmas specials on British TV and the King’s Speech, Ana loves the decades-long Swedish tradition of watching Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (From All of Us to All of You) - an animated best-of-Disney special which was first shown in 1958 and they’ve been watching it at Christmas in Sweden pretty much every year since.But with us still knee-deep in learning marketing (as I mentioned last time) and the occasional guests to attend to...and with it being just the two of us for Christmas this year we’ve cut down on the decorations and the inevitable food mountain.All those Swedish and British specialities are bad enough when shared with a dozen people, let alone just us and the animals...even though the animals might disagree.Normally we go Christmas-crazy...imagine an explosion in a tinsel and fairy-light factory.But having lost so many old and treasured glass baubles to the wrong kind of Christmas tree harvested from our own land with their non-stick branches we’ve decided to go tree and tinsel free this year.The nearest we get to a white Christmas here is fields swathed in daisies after the autumn rain, and although the weather’s not as unseasonally strange as a southern hemisphere December (Joburg also celebrates Xmas in July don’t you know), we’re still enjoying temperatures in the mid-teens Celsius by day, and not much less than 6C by night.It did feel a little more Christmassy in Lisbon this week.We had a little end-of-year business to do with our amazing accountant Madalena, talking all things wine with our friend Mauro, and recording a radio story I’m doing on Portugal’s wooden house revolution.And we were also invited to a fabulous event organised by Stephen O’Regan and his People of Lisbon...at André Pinguel’s secret wine & dinner club Flores.An amazing gang of interesting people gathered – including magician Magic Douglas and the famous performer Lamb Chop...assisted by ventriloquist Mallory Lewis (daughter of Shari Lewis who created Lamb Chop in the 1950s!).We visited a few Christmas markets, discovered another of the old-school amazing bars in the Pavilhão Chinês family, and took Simon the dog to all his favourite places including the Jardim da Estrela where he picks up his Lisbon pee-mail.Garfunkel remains less convinced by the big city.The only two safe spaces in town for the big dog are our flat in Estrela and “The Big Red Box of Freedom” (Cassie the Hilux) which he knows is the only way back to his monte in Alentejo.We visited a couple of our favourite old-style Portuguese lunch and dinner places and treated ourselves to a few fun desserts.And it’s been a good week for Portugal on quite a few end-of-year measures which are usually published this time of year.Not only did TasteAtlas name Pastéis de Belém the best “sweet pastry” in the world, it also awarded it third place along with all the other pastel de nata makers in Portugal.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.I do love a Pastel de Nata – and we certainly consider the ones from Belém in Lisbon the original and the best.And in the cake category – it was a straight one/two for Ana with both her countries taking top honours.In second place was the Swedish rich chocolate cake kladdkaka which our daughter Oda has mastered.First place in the cake charts went to Pão de Ló – a famous creamy egg-yolky sponge cake which I had never heard of...let alone tried...until just this week when our winemaking friend Mauro gave us one for Christmas.He also handed over another car-load of his own fantastic Castelão red wine and some wax for us to put Vale das Estrelas labels on and seal ready for the year ahead.We also tried a white wine – an Arinto – which he thinks could be a good one for us to stock...or perhaps a white blend he’s still perfecting...so we can have a Vale das Estrelas red and white wine next year.The only problem is we need a label...are there any artists we know out there? (I’m thinking of you Ed Sumner and the Cheese & Wine Painting Club!)Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.And speaking of cheese, TasteAtlas awards Portugal the world’s third best cheese, with its Queijo de Azeitão semi-soft sheep’s cheese from just up our coast in Setúbal.Portugal also claimed top spot in the Economist’s end of year measure of which economy did best in 2025.Topping Spain’s performance to take last year’s honour, the magazine praised Portugal’s “strong GDP growth, low inflation and a buoyant stockmarket.”And there has been some good news in terms of big investment coming to the country, and some great news as far as we’re concerned – with tourism heading for a record €30bn year.There are two sides to the story of course – although the government announced the minimum wage would be increased by €50 next year, it only takes it to €920 a month.It goes some way to explain why it might be the best performing economy, but again in the Economist, it’s only in 40thplace for living standards.And the European Commission estimated house prices are overvalued in Portugal by more than 25% which is contributing to a lack of affordable housing here.All figures which make my story on the rise of the wooden, modular house in Portugal even more relevant...I’ll let you know when it’s out.But for now...all the very best for the holiday and the year ahead...and don’t forget the reader’s discount code when you book to come and see us (XMAS25 )...and our first wine retreat in partnership with the Hutchins Wine Academy in May.We hope to see you here in 2026! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

We have already learned a lot of new jobs in this new career path, and for the past two weeks we’ve been trying to learn another one: marketing.Having just about got to grips with off-grid living (first basic, then advanced level), building site project management, landscaping, interior design (Ana, definitely not me), accounting and basic small-hotelier-ing...we’ve reached the next rung on the career ladder.We built it and they came – in the summer – and now we have to keep them coming back in the quieter seasons too, telling their friends to visit, and drumming up some new business on the basis this is a remarkable place we were very lucky to find.For now we have to do what we can until Adelin arrives – a Swedish communications undergraduate (and Oda’s cousin) who is doing a work placement with us early next year to take control of our social media and play the algorithms at their own game.Until then, we are diving into the world of pricing structures, discount deals, combination packages of rooms and meals...and retreats.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.We’ve been emailing travel agents, contacting friends of friends who are retreat leaders and working out how to use our website properly...including all the data and marketing information it can provide us.And, dear reader, we do have a couple of things coming up which might be of interest...primarily an introduction to wine by a sommelier, marketing exec and author – our friend Joanna, whose Hutchins Wine Academy is hosting its first wine immersion course at our place in May.She has a coveted Wine & Sprit Educational Trust diploma and is a qualified wine educator…we’re going to have a lot of fun with this in May 2026. First come, first served!Check it out...it’d make a great Christmas present! (see, I’m learning!).I had always considered myself to be quite entrepreneurial while working at the BBC – in selling stories to my editors in the competitive world of limited money and airtime.I’d often get extremely excited about a particular idea and go all-in to sell it hard – often to different TV and radio programmes and online outlets to scramble together enough cash pledges to afford the trip.I didn’t always succeed, but did get a big safari series commissioned in Africa and managed to secure a not insubstantial amount of cash for an ambitious six-week trip on the Congo River filming in Virtual Reality and recording binaural sound.(I still love the fact that in the world of short attention spans and “you’ve got to grab them in the first 5 seconds” our 45min TV doc on the DR Congo on YouTube has more than 20m views!).Having sold the story, our team then had to deliver it...and that often took even more effort to make things happen with a limited time and budget in difficult places.As British military officers in Afghanistan often told me: “no plan survives first contact [with the enemy].”I’ve discovered there are at least a few transferrable skills from journalist to small business co-founder, but dogged determination and bloody-mindedness stand out as perhaps the most useful.Accounting comes into it too: I would often have to keep up with long lists of expenses in a range of random currencies while on assignment.Thankfully the amazing producers I worked with were very good at that...as well as all the other things they don’t get the on-air recognition for, such as securing access and interviews, editing, and managing the “flesh puppets”...annoying correspondents like yours truly.There were times when I had to manage big-ish budgets and I understand why one fellow journalist, on discovering a receipt for $50 was missing, attempted some creative writing while on a flight out of a Middle Eastern war zone.Sadly, the ploy of copying some random Arabic script for a hastily scribbled receipt was uncovered by an Arabic-reading accountant back at head office who queried the $50 claim for a “Your lifejacket is under your seat.”Special Offer for all readers: * 15% off for stays at Vale das Estrelas for all blog readers * Valid between now an April 1st (no joke)* Book before the end of January* Use code: XMAS25 on our booking siteHaving just logged one thousand receipts and more than two hundred invoices for 2025 in this latest accounting job, I think I’m doing OK, but the “sell, sell, sell” mantra of marketeers isn’t as straightforward.For a start there’s the barrage of self-declared influencers looking for a freebie to navigate: “we’d need at least three nights to truly capture the essence of your lodge,” one wrote.There are so many travel sites out there who for a reasonable annual fee will feature our property on their website...but we can’t justify signing up to all of them and it’s a bit of a lottery.We’re happy to be working with Sawday’s and Further Afield, and hope to have more collaborations in fitting with our ethos of sustainability.I’ve been writing a column for the Resident magazine (formerly known as the Portugal Resident) for a while now and they’ve just started a new podcast. I was delighted to chat to Carl Munson about our story. With all the disruption going on in the world – not least in the USA – I’ve done a few interviews telling the story of our dramatic decision to change lives before 50, give up our jobs and retrain in lots of new ones…and hopefully that will bring a few extra guests to our door!Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The price of promoting things on social media seems to be going up all the time, and we need to learn how to target audiences better, but that all takes time.We were delighted to be invited to donate a luxury two night package to the Sovereign Art Foundation’s annual Gala auction – and even more excited about being invited along to the event.We were pleased to see it was a very competitive auction and we’re looking forward to welcoming the winners in May!As well as working on making posts and programmes, we’re also learning about how to measure what’s going on through data.I’ve written before about the challenges of managing Booking.com, AirBnB, Expedia and our own direct-booking website...and I’m only now starting to understand how they undercut prices and also pay us a lot less after taking their cut.I’ve also mentioned the desire to host more “retreats” – package trips for groups based around yoga, or painting, or reading (or wine!), corporate get-togethers that are now known as “off-sites” apparently.Even Better Offer for our Pioneers: * If you are one of Our Pioneers and have stayed with us before, we’ll give you and your friends an even better discount* Book before the end of January* Valid throughout 2026 as long as the rooms are available!* Drop us a line and we’ll send you the secret promotional code.The title “retreat” does conjure up the idea of 5am yoga sessions, cleansing shakes and a large amount of wellness.We’ve joked for years about how rather than detox, RE-tox is perhaps a better fit for us: the Retoxification Institute of Portugal, perhaps, or R-I-P for short.At our daughter Oda’s suggestion I can officially confirm we are starting a Detox/Retox package for those who like a balanced diet of healthy morning activities, followed by plenty of wine and a fabulous meal to finish: Detox, Retox, Rinse and Repeat. Would you buy one? Do let us know.We’ve already learned about the seasonal nature of tourism on this coast, and it’s certainly quieter in December.But apparently it’s not just us: for real data you need to speak to the cheesemaker.Queijaria do Mira receives real data from real people in real time…and knows when occupancy rates are down...because they know exactly how much cheese the tourist lodges are buying.Low cheese sales mean low occupancy.Blessed be the cheesemaker and her buying barometer. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

On the rare occasion the entire Portuguese power grid goes down for a few hours we are positively smug, but the other side of the coin is keeping everything running when a big storm hits.And all of us on the western edge of Europe have had some kind of encounter with Storm Claudia (as Spanish meteorologists named her) over the past week or so.As any household relying on nothing but solar power will know, there’s only one drawback to having 300 days a year of sunshine in Portugal – and that’s the other 65 or so without.When we first moved into the Valley of the Stars we very quickly learned which power-hungry luxuries to save for the sunshine.For example, one never makes toast while blow drying the dog (not that one would necessarily ever want to...I rarely eat toast).Relying completely on renewable power means learning how to carefully monitor exactly what is being used where, and deciding on contingencies as each cloudy or stormy day arrives.And as we have increased the number of buildings, guests, pumps and water treatment units, the more power you use and the greater the need for planning and backups.We sort of fell into the off-grid thing without really thinking about it and looked into the figures for connecting to the Portuguese grid when we were planning our construction.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It turned out the combination of inverters, pylons and cables was going to cost almost the same as a brand spanking new solar set up.So our decision to go the sustainable route was aided by the idea of having one very large electricity bill at the beginning and free power after that.Having dodged the late October storm courtesy of a big mountain getting in the way, we were battered by Storm Claudia like everyone else.Anything coming up towards us here from the south tends to hit the mountains of Monchique and Fóia peak first, leaving us in the rain shadow.The apps often predict we’ll get many millimetres, but weather from the Algarve usually ends up dropping far less rain on us than the apps predict.Of course in dry times that works against us, rule one is “never complain about the rain,” however much there is, because we depend upon it to fill our lake and our giant 200,000 litre pillow tank for mixing into drinking water.Thankfully there were no tornados to report like the one which Claudia brought to the Algarve, but as always, the first big storm of the autumn helps us switch back into ‘winter mode’ of carefully monitoring all our energy consumption...and keeping an eye on the weather.There’s a lot more at stake than knowing whether or not to take our brolly, or if I should make the move from shorts and sandals to trousers and sensible shoes (I believe that time has now come for this year...but that’s not bad given it’s nearly December).As far as weather forecasts, most predictions for our valley are at very best only half correct, and so I channel my inner weatherman, hark back to my Geography degree and start muttering about cold fronts and barometric pressure.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.Our favourite weather forecasting apps are Weather Underground and Ventusky which provide us with a broad outline, real time radar and some big-picture predictions as the various models plot expected rainfall and front movements by the hour.Our friend Niels – who has sailed around the world and records climatic data in his vineyard – put us on to Ventusky and also introduced us to Weather Watcher on YouTube, which gives great regular summaries of Europe for the committed weather nerd.After five years I am starting to learn some patterns, but it’s tough with everything becoming more unpredictable and extreme thanks to global warming.Storm Claudia was a tricky one – she hung around a lot longer than the average storm thanks to being sandwiched between two areas of high pressure in the Atlantic and over mainland Europe.And she also had a nasty habit of bringing rain all day, and then clearing all night – perfect for star gazing but not great for our solar system.I’m not sure of the science behind it, but we usually get more rain overnight and at least a little sunshine during each day...and thankfully we don’t need much to boost our batteries and regenerate our confidence.When designing off-grid systems, Solar Iain told us there’s no limit to how much power we can generate and store, it’s just a matter of how much we are prepared to invest.After estimating how much energy 22 people might use and expecting expansion we built a system that is way bigger than we need for most of the year.We swan through summers barely looking at the solar read-out, blessed as we are by enough solar panels to happily ensure the batteries are full every day before breakfast is over – despite the pumps, the power use and all the people.And even when the days get shorter, we have confidence in our 84 solar panels which still bring in power when it’s overcast.But when a storm hits and the clouds persist, we really earn our keep as an off-grid resort.That is when power monitoring becomes an obsession.Our first port of call is the Victron app on our phones which immediately shows us how much power is coming in and how much is being used on each of our three phases.Battery percentages are notoriously inaccurate, but we’ve found voltage level to be the best measure keeping everything going – once it drops to 48V the power goes off.The key is staying above 50V – something easily achievable with some tight management and a backup generator.Going the next level down to monitor individual buildings and pump houses took a fair bit of research, but we went for Emporia Energy from the US.The sensors clip around cables to measure how much electricity is moving through them.Sadly, some cost-cutting by our electrician left far too many things crammed into one small box...confusing even him.He grumpily clipped on the monitors and even managed to wedge the box shut, but at one point the car charger circuit was using the most power, which is confusing as we don’t have a car charger yet.Having switched the labels around we now get a pretty good idea of what’s going on, even if I need a few more hubs from the US to give us the full picture.Now I’m ordering some internet-connected switches to save me running up the hill and turning things off manually in the rain.Despite the days of rain we stayed well out of the danger zone, and as we watched the sun rise and its rays start reaching our panels...despite the forecasts...our overall outlook became even brighter.The first test is always the toughest as we tweak our pumps and get back into our power-saving routines, but once again our system passed with flying colours.Speaking of flying colours we’d love to find a decent but affordable wind turbine which can integrate into our Victron solar system...anyone with recommendations, please get in touch!With the batteries filling up fast, our trip to Vila de Frades and Vidigueira for the talha opening celebration weekend was back on.Driving into the interior Alentejo the skies cleared in front of us, the storm headed off into Spain and we entered an adega packed full of some of the most exciting wines and interesting winemakersIt was Simon the dog’s 98th birthday (14 human years x 7) and if I ever make it to his age I’d be more than happy with a day like it: McDonalds lunch, a load of excellent wine, a huge amount of attention and a late night dance party to finish.We’ve got the power.And now the storm has passed we’re enjoying crisp cold nights and beautifully clear sunny days with bright blue skies...and yes, I am still wearing the shorts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

It’s more than 30,000 years since elephants last wandered the rolling landscape of Portugal’s Alentejo, but that’s all about to change.The last known tracks the pachyderms left behind are a series of fossilised footprints discovered here on our wild west coast of Alentejo.Not long after their steps in the sand were frozen in time, the giant, straight-tusked elephants were extinct.It wasn’t until 218BC that they returned – when Hannibal of Carthage shipped a North African herd to the Iberian peninsula and marched them over the Alps to the edge of Rome.Now they’re coming back to inland Alentejo, and this week I was lucky enough to have a guided tour around their new home.“It reminds me very much of Zambia,” Kate Moore told me as we drove onto the 400ha of land which will soon be Europe’s first large-scale elephant sanctuary.“It’s a really beautiful site. It used to be a cattle farm and a eucalyptus plantation, and we’ve spent the last one or two years basically trying to restore the biodiversity on site to get ready for elephants.”Kate Moore, who spent years working in conservation in Malawi, is managing director of the UK conservation charity Pangea which has spent years scouring Europe for the right site (and whose video footage I’ve attached above).“We did a feasibility study looking at all the different landscapes, honed in on the Iberian peninsula mainly because of the habitats, looked at hundreds of properties and finally shortlisted and got down to this one.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.“Gentle, rolling hills, lots and lots of water, good diverse habitat, and also privacy,” were the reasons they chose the site which straddles the two municipalities of Vila Viçosa and Alandroal just south of Estremoz.But this isn’t a safari park, or a large zoo – it will be a sanctuary for elephants to retire after spending their lives in the circus or in zoos around Europe.“Our first elephant is confirmed as an elephant from Belgium – she’s called Kariba – she was wild-caught in Zimbabwe 40 years ago, she was shipped off to Germany and has spent the last 40 years in zoos in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.”And as most EU states have banned circus elephants, and zoos are planning to give them up voluntarily, they need somewhere to go.Pangea will have space for 20 to 30 elephants, and they are preparing to receive Kariba early next year.A large shed for the elephants to take shelter from the summer heat and the chill of winter is almost finished and holes were being dug for the last sections of giant metal tube fencing – think Jurassic Park.“Basically it’s ready to receive the first elephants,” said Graça Fonseca, a board member at Pangea and a former Portuguese minister of culture.“First because it’s really a foreign investment that comes to Portugal not for tourism, but for a project that’s about conservation.“It’s about our connection with the land and the connection between humans and animals and I think that’s why it’s special and will put Portugal on the map.”It’s certainly got people talking in the local coffee shop.Graça Fonseca told the story of an early visit when the shop owner asked “are you the people bringing the elephants?” and she was delighted to hear they were, as none of her customers would believe her when she told them the animals were moving in nearby.The plan is to have open days for schools and the local community, and to create a discovery centre nearby to raise awareness about elephants and their habitat.“The most important thing...is giving them as much space we can give them in as natural a habitat as possible and all about giving them autonomy and freedom to choice, but it’s really important they get expert care,” Kate Moore told me.The Mayor of Alandroal, João Grilo, is a teacher and welcomes the educational opportunity it brings, but he also hopes the project will bring new life to a poor rural area.“I think it’s very important because we are giving an example of conservation and restoration of natural environments,” he said.“If we find ways that people could live here, build their life projects and still preserve the natural environment and create jobs that’s a great way we can do it.”The sanctuary is being paid for by large donations from individuals as well as grants from trusts and foundations.Pangea is also a registered non-profit organisation in Portugal…just saying for those people out there looking to get a golden visa...Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.One of Pangea’s ambassadors is the famous Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos who created a huge colourful woven blanket for the launch of the sanctuary.There’s been a huge rush of interest from the Portuguese media this week at the thought of elephants silhouetted on an Alentejo landscape, reminiscent of the African savannah but with the characteristic flat-topped acacia trees replaced by cork oaks.After years spent making films and telling stories about elephants across Africa it’s nice to have a story like this come to my new home.This one is about poaching arriving in Botswana – and it got me into a lot of trouble with the then-president.And here’s a piece from back in the day when the BBC was happy to pay money for these types of big impact stories:This is the TV documentary version.Each elephant which will retire to Portugal will have a traumatic back story shrouded in crime, corruption and the pursuit of ivory.I’m looking forward to telling more of their tales as the Pangea sanctuary takes shape.“They’re going to love it here,” Kate Moore believes.Into the Alentejo…It was a six hour round trip to Vila Viçosa for the journey to the elephant sanctuary, and despite my iPhone going flat and having no charger I was still back in time for Portuguese class at the local school (if a little late).Alentejo covers a third of Portugal and there’s so much to see inland...from impressive castles, monasteries, vineyards...and soon elephants.Next weekend we’ll be heading back to Vila de Frades – Friars’ Town – for the annual opening of the talhas, or amphora wines…I’ll let you know how it goes.Traditional Cante Alentejano singing, local meats & cheeses and wine straight from the clay is the order of St Martin’s Day – November 11th – when the vinho starts to flow.I’ve written a couple of pieces in the past about this time of year – this is the history of St Martin and the various autumn traditions across Europe…And this is the great tale of former diamond miner turned winemaker Teresa Caeiro, of Vila de Frades and the Geraçoẽs de Talha winery where she grew up…and the audio version from our podcast Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure - you can start listening to episode 1 here or wherever you usually get your podcasts.And Finally…It may be November, but we’ve been enjoying a bit of St Martin’s Summer and ocean currents from the south have made the water the warmest it’s been all year.We’ve been hosting a yoga retreat this weekend and they’ve been treated to some amazing morning mists over the valley. We’re talking to retreat leaders and wedding planners, so if you’re looking for a venue do get in touch.* Please come and see us - we’ve extended our discount for readers booking a room or apartment to stay in November and early December (with the code BLOG25). Book here.* AND…we will also be open for a cozy Christmas and New Year when it’s sunny during the day and cold enough at night to justify an open fire! Should be fun. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

In the voyage of discovery that is making it up as you go along, our little late-summer lull didn’t last very long.I last wrote about us suddenly realising it was September with the brief moment we had to reflect on our first summer season as small-hoteliers.In retrospect I can put an exact date on that lull: Thursday September 11th – our first night without guests since the rollercoaster ride pushed out of the stalls in July – and the only night we’ve had to ourselves since then!Presumably, real people who plan, design and build eco-luxe lodges have a pretty clear idea before they start as to who will come and visit.We hedged our bets by building a few apartments and handful of en-suite rooms, but also a communal Clubhouse space for events and meals.It was about variety – appealing to different people with different needs – big families spending a week or two together, couples wanting a get-away and ‘retreats’ where some people like to share and others prefer their own space.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.And somehow amid the naivety of the “build it and they’ll come” business plan, we’ve continued to have an amazing mixture of fun and fascinating people finding us.Some spot our little lodge on Google maps, some ask ChatGPT (which for some reason seems to like recommending us) and others see the reviews generous people have been leaving and look us up.Of course it’s been an easier sell during the guaranteed sunshine of a Portuguese summer, when beaches beckon and the pool is the perfect antidote to some time on a sun-lounger.Like any double-speed investment ad disclaimer, temperatures here can go up and down; rain does sometimes fall in Portugal (thankfully); and 300 days with sunshine does mean an average of at least 65 days without.But there aren’t many places left in Europe quite as wild and untouched as our southwestern coast of Alentejo – and not many places like ours in the area.It’s still the beauty of the landscape, the seascapes, the clifftop coastal paths, the star-scape by night...and the simple silence which are the top attractions.Whether a glass of rosé with the pink tint of a reflected sunset, a morning run through the mysterious mist and an encounter with a large stag (yes, that happened to our guests this week) or with the dramatic clouds of an impending Atlantic storm, it’s always special.It’s inspired us to plan for future expansion already and apply for an innovation and sustainability grant, set up to support young and small businesses like ours in our region.Our architect has designed some additional apartments which can be built elsewhere and lifted into place to avoid us returning to the bad-old building site days. Here’s the plan:But until people realise what they’re missing out on and discover what we fell in love with here, they need a reason to come and visit.And that’s what brings us to the paint and the porn-stars…It had been on the calendar for months...a colourful little block of days closed for new bookings labelled “Art Retreat.”It was our first multiple-day, full-board retreat in the Valley of the Stars, and we had a full house of amateur painters.The group were mostly from the UK and were members of my old pal Ed Sumner’s Cheese & Wine Painting Club.We knew a four-day full-on retreat would be tough with all 17 guests needing breakfast, lunch, dinner...and drinks every day.And with just us and our first employee Krishna, we asked our daughter Oda to fly back from LA, after her heroic six-week stint in the summer had helped us get through the hectic schedule of bookings.Ed started his painting club in London a few years ago – running events in pubs where he’d teach basic techniques by showing would-be artists how to paint their own master.Copying a Constable, making a Monet or having a go at a Van Gogh was a great way in for many folk.But during the pandemic when Ed’s Yorkshire lilt helped hundreds of people keep connected to the outside world...by joining his online painting classes.Friendships formed over WhatsApp and Zoom and it helped a lot of people through the loneliness of lockdown.That’s why some of those gathering in Vale das Estrelas had only met fellow club members online, so it was their first chance to meet in person.There was also a last minute appearance from an American couple Craig and Betty who’d read about the retreat and signed up a couple of weeks before.Craig writes the Pat the Expat column in the Portugal Resident magazine (where I also do a version of this blog once a month) and thought it might make a fun place to explore while Betty did the painting.The Cheese & Wine Painting Club crowd enjoyed the food and the wine as much as the painting classes, as they tucked into Ana’s amazing and endless repertoire of local specialities, sampled some of Alentejo’s finest wines and worked their way through Oda’s cocktail menu.Many hadn’t tried bochechas (pig cheeks) or arroz de pato (duck rice) before.They loved the flame grilled dourada, their beach picnic, and Ana’s Asian twist on Portuguese bifanas thanks to an amazing chef and super sous chef Oda.Oda cut her teeth as a bartender in the fancy rooftop terraces of Los Angeles and“If we have it, I can make it,” her whiteboard boasted, above a list of suggested cocktails to which someone added “Porn Star Martinis.”Apparently a core of club members have meet-ups in the UK and Porn Star Martinis have become a tradition.Not in her usual repertoire, the special request sparked the search for passion fruit liqueur and vanilla vodka in remote, rural Odemira.Maracuja (passion fruit) booze was easier to find than expected, not so much vanilla vodka, but with a little magical syrup-making Oda transformed the Valley of the Bars into the Valley of the Porn Star Martinis.The group were from a fantastic range of backgrounds and included an actor, a dentist, an author and an astronomer; a moth and butterfly expert who educated us all; and a nurse (whose skills were only required once or twice).They set up on the calçada deck outside our Clubhouse and painted the view we fell in love with when we first found this spot in 2018.They sketched the surf from the comfort of Bar de Praia in Almograve, inspired by the sun, the sand...and the strawberry daiquiris.They learned a bit of history through one of our wine story-tastings and met the French/British couple behind the delectable new Delância wine – with a fabulous artistic and colourful label with a story to match.They all seemed to love their stay, and for us it was a great lesson in how to prepare the meals, run the logistics and understand where to bring in extra staff next time.Speaking of next time... anyone fancy another painting retreat in April 2026??Speaking of next time... anyone fancy another painting retreat in April 2026??It also taught us that group getaways are certainly the way we’d like to go as it can all be planned and organised well ahead of time.We have our first yoga group coming in a couple of weeks, a big corporate retreat in January – a collaboration with the fantastic nearby Orada retreat centre and were recently visited by an Ayurvedic retreat leader looking to run training classes in Portugal.And it seems a lot of all sort of people like the idea of a few days away in the beauty and silence of places like Alentejo...without necessarily the need for 6am exercise classes.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it - especially if you know retreat leaders!!Just this morning I saw an article in The Times about Reading Retreats (paywall) – retreats where you just read and relax...reading retreat leaders look no further!With the clocks going back and the nights closing in, we’ll certainly be reaching for a good book this winter, and hope we can lure a few of you to join us.And in case you needed any more persuasion, we’re still offering a 15% discount for all stays through November with the code BLOG25 when you book here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

So that’s what they mean by the silly season...how did it suddenly become September?It’s been both exhilarating and exhausting, but we couldn’t have asked for a better summer start to the latest stage of our off-grid Portuguese adventure.And this week we enjoyed something which a few months ago would have been utterly terrifying in the face of an rapidly expanding overdraft...a night with no guests.As the kids started to drift back to school and the summer holidays started slowly coming to an end, a gap in our arrivals calendar allowed us the luxury of coming up for air, getting some rest, and starting to think beyond the next breakfast, lunch, dinner (or all three...on the same day).We ended the summer with a flourish...dinner for 16, wine tasting for 12, a short but first proper retreat and then a very welcome little lull.Somehow – for two months – we’ve kept the treadmill of arrivals and departures going without too many mess-ups or laundry-lacking panics.Our personal washing production line is tested enough by all the towels, so we outsource our sheets to a fabulous laundrette half an hour’s drive away in Vila Nova de Milfontes.Only once amid the madness did we reach for the iron, despite having bought three times more sheets than we needed, and thankfully we were just four pillow cases short before the overworked launderers saved our skins.Some would call it bad planning, we call it learning by doing: we set out at the start of the summer with a ‘bring-it-on’ attitude to running an eco-luxe lodge.In June we didn’t even know if anyone would come, let alone test our laundry logistics.Even with the wonderful Oda spending six weeks helping us through our first season – crafting cocktails, clinking wine glasses and making meals – it’s been a blur of guests, welcome tours, beach and restaurant advice and many, many lovely people.We have the best guests hands down and haven’t had a bad one yet...and the great reviews continue to flow in.Krishna has been cleaning like a demon, turning around rooms in a few short hours to keep all the people coming and going.We now understand what tourist season means: everybody working in the bars, the restaurants and the tourist lodges of Odemira is absolutely exhausted.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.Some places have closed already, either to take some late summer sunshine themselves, or to sit in a quiet, darkened room with a stash of sedatives.Others are powering on...knowing it’ll be quieter in the off-season and sprinting towards the finishing line.But as the families are returning home from the beaches, the walkers hiking the Rota Vicentina long-distance foothpath are back in force...extending the season well into the winter and with it the workload.We always planned to be open for much of the year – that’s why we installed underfloor heating – but didn’t expect the clifftop trail and the historic inland path which cuts through the bottom of our valley to bring so many more visitors to the area.Now we have the time to properly promote our three night stays for the walkers looking for a little more luxury: a daily, backpack-free hike followed by a dip in the pool, a slap up dinner, a new wine each evening and a hearty breakfast to set them up for the next day.We’re also getting all the logistics in place for our painting retreat with Ed Sumner at the beginning of October.The paint and the canvases has arrived, the winemakers are ready and from the WhatsApp group, the attendees appear to be getting excited!We’ve have had a cancellation...so there is space for one more person (or two people sharing) to join...please get in touch...here’s the info: it starts on October 3rd.Suddenly the sun is setting earlier, the mornings and evenings are that little bit cooler and we even had some rain last week.It was very much welcomed by the plants who’ve suffered from my only occasional irrigational interventions, and I was so out of touch that the remnants of Hurricane Erin took me totally by surprise.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Guests had been mentioning how the red beach flags had been flying and the ocean was in turmoil, but even the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina didn’t draw my usually weather-curious eye to the satellite images.As I was being interviewed on BBC Radio 5Live recalling memories of reporting on the storm hitting New Orleans (on BBC Sounds here at 1.39’00”), I was utterly unaware that one of the largest hurricanes ever recorded was churning around the Atlantic, flooding New Jersey and moving Iberian beaches.Only in the last few days have I realised just how much sand has moved and changed the shape and flow of our favourite beaches as it usually does only in the Spring.Thankfully Erin didn’t make landfall – but its last band of rain which hit the UK and barely clipped our coast gave me a little reminder that the long summer days of endless solar power are coming to an end.It robbed us of a clear lunar eclipse (although day 2 of the blood moon was still pretty special), but more importantly the batteries went flat and our power went off.I’ve always been obsessed with monitoring our solar system, but for some reason I didn’t turn off the pool or water treatment pumps, ran washing machine-loads of towels all day, left a load of lights on and then started the 3-phase industrial dishwasher before the sun came up.Thankfully our guests were checking out and the gas cooker provided all they needed for breakfast, but I was a little shell-shocked by my own complacency...and that’s definitely a good thing.Our systems have been remarkably robust, aside from the little power cut and the occasional water “pump cavitation.”Whether it was a leaking pipe or a pump “running out of curve,” we would have loved a little more attention from our water engineer, but for an off-grid system and an average of 18 people a night, it’s been impressive for season 1.After our quietish week guests are starting to return to Vale das Estrelas and September is already starting to look busy.We love all the readers and listeners taking advantage of our special blog-following discount...and by way of apology for my six-week absence from Substack, we would like to extend that offer into October.We’ve happily eroded our overdraft and our young business is going well, but we could really do with your support to help us through winter.If you go onto our website and booking engine here and then enter the promotional code BLOG25 you’ll get a 15% discount for the rest of September and the whole of October (but don’t tell anyone).In my old life, the silly season was the summer lull when everyone went on holiday and we needed to find quirky stories to fill the airwaves.I’m not sure “silly” is the right word for the mad world and relentless news cycle that continued throughout the summer, but that lull is certainly over...it’s been quite a week.Israel bombed a new country; American political tension exploded with an assassination; France, Japan and Nepal all lost their prime ministers; Russian drones entered Polish and Romanian airspace; and NASA (maybe) discovered life on Mars.Exhausting isn’t it? And those were just the top stories.But this news hound now listens to classical music, we still marvel every evening at our amazing view at orange time and pink time, the reorganised beaches are beautiful, and you really can get away from it all.Come to the Valley of the Stars: we’re in the country, on the coast and off the grid. And above all, it’s quiet here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

We’ve heard many encouraging words in the various iterations of these despatches, from Off-Grid and Ignorant, Off-Grid and Open and now Off-Grid and Entertaining (people)...in Portugal.And having welcomed quite a few guests already this summer, we love seeing their words left on the website reviews sections even more.Obviously the five out of fives and the ten out of tens aren’t going to last forever, but right now we’re loving it...and loving the people enjoying our infinity pool, those doing a wine story tasting, having breakfast, or joining one of our big-table family-style meals.“Congratulations” said Pedro as I introduced our latest guest and his partner to the valley, explaining how we fell in love with the view at first sight and how it was all a eucalyptus forest just a few years ago.I’d just explained their arrival had brought us a full house for the first time – all rooms occupied and one hopeful guest sadly having to be turned away.It was another marvellous milestone on this journey towards running our own little eco-luxe lodge in Alentejo.Our first full house involved an interesting mix of Dutch, Portuguese, French and British folk who somehow stumbled upon us and arrived curious about what we’ve done, or just in need of some well-earned summer rest.The following day was a second – not quite so impressive milestone – our first overbooking.We’re getting to grips with the software which keeps all the calendars on all the various booking sites up to date, but we made a mistake filling in the cleaning schedules spreadsheet and it left us thinking we had a room when we didn’t.Easy to do...much harder to resolve.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Thankfully our friends at nearby Monte de Silveira had an open room and we were able to solve the problem before the guests even realised there was a problem.In July that’s tough but possible...in August everything will be packed, so we can’t make that mistake again! A good lesson early on.Speaking of which, the calendar is now a sea of colour...we’ve been overwhelmed by just how many people have booked...and how many keep calling every day asking if we can fit them in.We’ve had a wonderful range of guests: German newlyweds on their honeymoon, a Polish couple who loved their wine and their wine tasting, two Spanish guys working in the area and loving the pool in the evenings.The banking consultant who helped us buy our flat in Lisbon more than 10 years ago arrived to celebrate her birthday and we managed to get a dinner together.Rachael, Daisy and Ed the painter stayed a week – Ed will be back in October for his painting retreat (just one space left!).We hosted our first Valley Sessions event featuring businessman and candidate for the Portuguese presidential election, Tim Vieira to talk politics and answer some tough questions over wine.Mauro the winemaker walked the soon-to-be vineyard with me suggesting when to do what to the land, how many bush-vines to plant and which grape varieties to mix in.There have been so many wonderful people...and all have left very kind comments.Two young women arrived in a taxi happy to spend all day in the pool and relaxing in the shade – we usually tell people coming by car gives you a much better chance to explore, but these guys were incredibly happy just hanging out here!September is also starting to get busy and that’s a fantastic time of year on this coast, with the ocean at its warmest and the summer rush of tourists having past.That’s why we’d like you to come and see us! If you go onto our website and booking engine here and then enter the promotional code BLOG25 you’ll get a 15% discount from our soft-opening rates for the whole of September (but don’t tell anyone).It’s a huge relief after all the worries about whether people would find us, whether they’d like the place and whether they’d tell their friends about their time “In the country, on the coast and off the grid”...as we sometimes put it.Well, they have. We’re actually doing it...we’ve built it and they are coming...It’s been a little over five years since we arrived in Portugal in the middle of COVID and the diplomat/journalist couple who’d bounced around the world for decades decided to give up their old lives and try running a business.In retrospect, the first few years were easy: we just had to spend money – now we have to make it.Regular readers will know how funny those retrospective words sound, given the challenges we’ve faced with funding, battling bureaucracy for permissions, project managing the construction and working out all the off-grid infrastructure.We almost gave up a couple of times as inflation soared, paperwork stalled so long we almost lost our funding and we battled to keep control of our budget.Naivety has certainly been our friend.For three years worries over water kept us awake at night, but now there’s lovely, soft minerally water running from the taps and the off-grid systems are holding up well to the high demand.There’s still plenty of DIY work to do tweaking the occasional leaking pipe and putting in some extra infrastructure, but the focus has switched to something we’re more practiced at: providing people with a warm welcome.It did lead me to the realisation I didn’t have any nice clothes left, having trashed them all working on the land.Thankfully Ana discovered a hidden box of the smart shirts I used to wear while reporting for the BBC – crisply collared shirts worn with the sleeves rolled up in whatever war zone I’d been thrown into.Now it’s a fabulous roller-coaster ride of guests arriving and departing as a new and steeper learning curve of invoicing, payment systems and booking engines is providing the stress we’ve been missing since we got our license.At least the money is now coming in as well as going out.We take turns leading a little tour explaining what off-the-grid means...urging people to try and beat the 5-minutes’ worth of sand in the hour glass when they shower.Anyone showing a brief flash of additional interest soon regrets it, as I get into the weeds on pipes, pumps, LPWAN monitoring systems, pH regulators and salt sensors.(On that note, I have a short radio documentary going out this week on the rise of LPWAN and the Internet of Things) on the BBC’s Business Daily programme – not sure exactly which day yet, but it’ll appear here when they’ve filled the schedule).I officially bore myself now when I enthusiastically dive down the water-filled rabbit hole and confuse people with TLAs (three letter acronyms).Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Amid busy and creative breakfast-making – and the fun bit of getting to know our guests who’ve somehow discovered us from all over the world – there’s a new sea of bureaucracy that any small business owner will recognise.Invoices, three different rates of VAT (IVA here) and balancing the books has taught us how we’re just one part in a complicated system of helping other people making money...out of us.Everyone seems to get their cut, but I guess that’s just how the world works.Luckily the local parish council levelled our dirt road just in time for the summer rush – still providing guests with a suitable amount of adventure, but without as much risk to their vehicles.Thankfully the guests who I accidentally (and massively) undercharged the other day came back to say they owed us money after realising my mistake.Business basics.They say ignorance is bliss...and we enjoyed being Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal for ages...but now we have to step up and know what we’re doing.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.There are big laundry and recycling runs – to drop off the empties from our wine tasting events – visits to the local butcher and the lovely lady at the little cheese shop to show off to guests all the wonderful things we’ve discovered since we arrived.And there’s something strangely satisfying about one-day turn-around of rooms as one set of guests leave just as another group arrives.Our marketing education resumes whenever we come up for air, and amid the demands of high tourist season, we make plans and put out posts for painting retreats and walking holidays in the autumn and spring.It’s a new and fun stage in our transformation from international travellers to hosts and professional entertainers.We took a bet on our beautiful view and so far everyone seems to agree with us...that this part of coastal Alentejo is something very special with its wild beaches, hidden coves and great restaurants.We’ve still got a long way to go, but I think we’re heading in the right direction. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

Portugal loves a party, and the summer season smoothly segues from festa straight into to festa.Since most schools were out from early June the festivities have been off to a flying start with both the unusually hot weather arriving unseasonably early this year...and with a football trophy.Beating the old enemy Spain on penalties in the UEFA Nations League final set the tone for the opening holiday weekend, then came Portugal Day and the celebration of the national epic poet was quickly followed by the Santos Populares – or Popular Saints celebrations.If you try to get anything done in Lisbon during the second week of June around St Anthony’s Day, the phones ring out as the city comes to a standstill of block parties awash in a sea of sardines.Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.And there are three popular saints: António, João and Pedro. Porto goes St João crazy on the 23rd and then June rounds off with St Pedro...and that is really just the start.Across the country, live music stages are popping up on every street corner and you can’t move for parades, bunting and long outdoor dining tables.Here in coastal Alentejo it’s the Marchas Populares which bring the Sagres and Super Bock beer kiosks out of winter storage and music to the town squares.Our nearest town of São Teotónio has its annual ceiling of handmade paper ribbons as the traditional mastros festival (of masts) is underway, and across the country traditional town celebrations and full-on music festivals fill the calendar from now until the autumn.On the praias, big sea swells have been keeping the surfers entertained and the beach guards on high alert; our supermarkets are newly stocked with suncream and beach umbrellas and the summer people are starting to arrive.Having just opened our doors for guests at our new tourist lodge – and being happily surprised at the number of bookings we’re already getting – we don’t have as much time as we did to join in the parties.But we’ve been celebrating in our own way...with the arrival of our first member of staff to be officially on our books: Krishna Shrestha from Waling in the western region of Nepal (a bit south of Pokhara).Krishna is a machine, whether it’s gardening, cleaning, building, or as it turns out cooking (as we signed the contract he casually mentioned working for years as an assistant chef in Dubai).We’ve known Krishna a while now and are delighted to have him as our first employee...especially as there’s so much to do in Vale das Estrelas.Hot on the heels of our first hire, we acquired our second member of staff, and in the fast-changing world in which we live, it will be no surprise to hear we recruited a robot.Our daughter Oda hit the perfect creative chord by calling the pool cleaning WyBot Herbert Hoover. Herbie is already making a big impact on the infinity pool...if not yet and beyond.While Ana selflessly held the fort for our guests, I did manage a couple of hours at one event that no self-respecting establishment like ours can afford to miss: the local tourism festival Fei-Tur.Being in the biggest regional tourist town of Vila Nova de Milfontes and on the fabulous Mira River estuary, the FEIra de TURismo do SW leans heavily on the river and ocean sports side of things with surf schools and stand up paddle boarding.But it’s a feira packed with local producers, peddling cheese and wine, honey and olive oil, preserves and cakes com or sem gluten and on the strong booze front, a muddle of Medronho-makers (or whatever the collective noun might be: a mess? a mash? a murder? Let’s hope not).It was a collection of exactly the kind of people we need to meet in order to keep our guests happy.Our fabulous lawyer Ana Aleixo treated her husband Sérgio to a surprise Vale das Estrelas staycation, our brilliant bank manager Wilson Gonçalves dropped by with the family to see what all the money’s been spent on, and we’ve been welcoming some pioneering guests who found us online and wanted to be the first to discover our place (and tell their friends).We’ve been making daily breakfast spreads for a lovely German couple, a few young Lisbonites have been spending nights escaping the big city and our first venture into painting retreats with Ed Sumner in October is pretty much sold out already.A big part of what we want to do is introduce visitors to the tastes of Alentejo – the wines from the interior and from our region, the fresh fish and the black pork, and so a local tourism fair was the perfect place to collect a tote-bag full of business cards and flyers and a notebook full of numbers.It was also a great reminder of all the things visitors to our area can see and do – beyond visiting all the beautiful beaches – and it means I’ll have to update the guides left in our rooms for guests.Horse riding, motorcross schools, freediving courses, bird watching guides, kayak tours and boat trips, and foiling...whatever that is.But at the heart of it all is the hundreds of kilometres of walking and cycling paths which are bringing thousands more visitors to our Costa Vicentina every year.The number of people hitting the trails is growing at an astonishing rate – the bars and restaurants along the clifftop route of the Fisherman’s Trail are constantly busy with resting hikers from all over the world newly discovering our wild Atlantic coast.The Rota Vicentina had a whole line of exhibition tents at this year’s Fei-Tur festival and was promoting cycling routes as well as the stunning inland long-distance hiking path and the circular trails.Pedro Almeida is the head of cycling, and was buzzing with excitement over the free downloadable maps, a new range of automatic bicycle service stations and how electric bikes are attracting a new type of cyclist.“The Fisherman’s Trail is incredibly popular as people want to see the coast – and it’s a beautiful coast,” said our friend Pedro.“But we have so many circular walking and cycling routes and we’d like to bring people here for slow tourism and natural tourism – to spend more time in one place and learn more about the local food and culture.”Many long-distance hikers stay in a different town or village each night as they track all or some of the 226.5km from São Torpes (near Sines) to Sagres and across to Lagos.Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Sunday Times chief foreign correspondent Christina Lamb – a friend from when I lived in Afghanistan – visited while walking a long stretch of the Fisherman’s Trail.Wearing her travel writer’s hat she seemed to enjoy the hike and visiting our place in an area she first discovered many years ago.Like many others she used a tour company to shuttle her luggage around. Transport companies are thriving and the local guesthouses are heaving, but they have a a lot more work to do with one-night stops rather than week-long visits.It is something we’ve already realised running a small eco-luxe lodge: the costs of cleaning and laundry push us towards a two or three night minimum stay.But with trailhead drop-offs and pick-ups, local bike hire suggestions, scenic circular routes, and a peaceful place to return to — where guests can rest their legs by the pool after a long day on the trails, sip a glass of Alentejo wine, and enjoy a fresh fish or black pork dinner with a stunning view— we believe we’re offering something really special.“We want to encourage responsible travel and responsible tourism: to attract people to do more different activities. There are boat rides, a bird watching festival – and of course cycling,” said Pedro.“The great thing about e-bikes now is you don’t have to be an athlete or to bring your own bike with you – you just need to know how to ride a bike and then you can discover more places.”And as luck would have it, the focus of the Rota Vicentina circular walking and cycling paths is all around us and the inland Historical Way crosses the bottom of our valley.The SW coast of Alentejo is well worth a visit...for hiking, biking, wine tasting, surfing...and foiling (whatever that is).We love our Atlantic coast and while we keep quiet about our hidden coves and wild beaches, a lot more people are now starting to discover this still quite secret corner of the country.So now’s the time to come and see us...before everyone else does! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

The metaphors have moved from walking through mud to battling thick undergrowth as the moment in the year has passed when the clay on our land turns to concrete.A very wet winter has given everything an extra spurt of growth, and now that the days are getting longer and sun is getting stronger it’s a jungle out there.The dogs have shed their muddy socks and now bring dust rather than wet pawprints into the house.And the Scarab Cult are back – the annual bombardment of drunken beetles careering into the house and heading for “the flame...the flame” obsessed as they are with our gas stove.Apparently they get smashed on honeycombs and then inexplicably make a beetle-line for the kitchen.Simon the dog used to chase them, but these days the old man is more obsessed with bothering us and our neighbour Daniel for human food and snoozing than chasing bugs...however much he used to like the crunch.We catch each one, try to persuade it that life is worth living and then launch it back into the wild hoping it can stay off the honeycomb, out of the hive-bars and not be lured back to the flame.It’s that trimming strimming time of year again when I dust off the weed whacker and reacquaint myself with our land patch by daily patch...shedding a few pounds in the process.Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The legal deadline for fire-prevention land-clearing within 50m of every building was thankfully pushed back until the end of May as usual, but it’s a time consuming business with more buildings built and temperatures rising.A dodgy knee hasn’t helped, but there is something very calming about spending hours methodically clearing hillside patches of esteva (rock rose) and silves (brambles)...and the instant gratification that brings.It’s nice to actually see the fruits of our labour as our indoor work is mostly sending messages out into the social media ether without the immediate feedback.We’re fine-tuning our video and photography, delving into design software and experimenting with Facebook ads and Instagram reels to reach the people – that we know are out there – who will love the wonderful place we’ve created.It turns out there’s more to it than just “build it and they’ll come.”We had a crazy idea, made a plan, got a loan, learned how to build, how to install a fully off-grid power and water system for a small hotel and somehow beat the bureaucracy to open something truly remarkable...in record time.Having retrained as builders and project managers, we are reinventing ourselves once again as marketeers, IT experts, accountants, social media super-spreaders, hosts, chefs, landscapers, gardeners and event organisers.Now we’re working around the clock to manage everything and make it all work.We’re fluctuating wildly between the fear of failing and having every confidence we’ll succeed – in the sense of having money coming in as well as going out, which I’m told is quite important.We’ve been blown away by the people visiting us and staying with us who have been so brilliantly baffled by the beauty...and spontaneously asked why our prices are so low.It’s our opening year and we really want expectations to be exceeded – and it’s hard on a website to do justice to the peace and quiet, all the nature and the open spaces.And it’s great to hear from people even more convinced than we are that we can make a success out of this crazy adventure.We are still caught deep in the weeds trying to get our booking engine activated, as connecting to the sites where people go to search for holiday homes has been an inexplicably uphill struggle.A bad user always blames his bad user experience, but linking Booking.com, Expedia and AirBnB to our own “channel management system” has been the equivalent of cutting through a bamboo forest with a blunt blade.Days of our lives we will never get back have been spent adding multiple photos and detailed descriptions, trying to avoid double bookings, one-night stays (due to cleaning costs), and dogs...at least for now, until Garfunkel and Albie get used to guests.After weeks of helplines and service desks some apartments still aren’t appearing online and rooms people want somehow can’t be reserved.It’s perhaps reassuring that the lower than expected booking numbers may be our own fault, but now we need bom dias on beds sooner rather than later.Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.In many respects we’re lucky the season hasn’t quite got started yet as it gives us time to finish things off properly and to do the noisy stuff every morning...like cutting the grass.But it’s a nervous time for us first-time entrepreneurs and with loan repayments already fleeing our account, my childhood eczema is back and we’re both running around figuratively (and sometimes literally) shouting “Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic!”We’ve realised the best way to settle our nerves is to create retreats we can plan for ahead of time – package deals including pickups and drop-offs, meals and activities.There are far too many great yoga and wellness retreat centres in the neighbourhood, but with artist friends like Ed Sumner we’ve started proposing painting retreats and get-away-from-it-all weeks based around walking and wine.There’s been a huge surge of people hiking the Rota Vicentina clifftop trails on this last wild coast in Europe, many stopping in a different place every night.But we’re building a package plan to pick people up and drop them off each day so they can do stretches of the route while basing themselves in on place: in the Valley of the Stars.I’d happily spend three or four nights walking in the morning, relaxing by the pool in the afternoon and then trying a local dish and a new Portuguese wine every evening...all while avoiding luggage logistics.And if people aren’t obsessed with walking every single step of 200-plus kilometres of the Fisherman’s Trail or the Historical Way in a straight line, then the lovely circular routes nearby for some light hikes – or rides on bikes – can give structure to a very relaxing week.So if any of this might be of interest to you or people you know please get in touch and we’ll test out some package plans.As I write, the sun is already getting higher in the sky and the shrubbery isn’t going to cut itself, the scratching sound of a hungover beetle trapped in a plastic bag is calling for an intervention and Simon the dog wants some human breakfast.We’re discovering how tough it is to get a business up and running from scratch when the personal stakes are so high.But we’re also in a very beautiful place surrounded by pets and wildlife, a chorus of birdsong, and plenty of sunshine and wild beaches.With the undergrowth cleared and the clay firm underfoot we have a pretty open path to our first summer season. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

Surprised, interested, shocked, concerned and intrigued all sum up our reaction to the massive power cuts across Portugal and Spain, but perhaps the most appropriate description of our mood was: smug.When the traffic lights went dark, petrol stations closed and panic struck the ice cream shops of the nearby tourist towns on our southwestern coast of Alentejo, we could rest easy.Our freezer-load of wild boar (wild boar) wasn’t defrosting, our water pumps were working well and our wine remained nicely chilled.While the lights went off across the Iberian peninsula, a healthy hum was heard from our control centre as our 84 solar panels were piling power into our batteries as usual.We have the storage capacity of a large electric vehicle – a BMW or a Porsche Taycan – and yesterday when the lights went out we felt very much at the luxury end of the market.We were buying fruit trees when the plant nursery billing system went down.People in Vila Nova de Milfontes were standing in shop doors and milling around street corners burning through the last of the mobile phone tower batteries for online information and updates to understand why the “apagão” or power cut, had happened.There was much speculation at the coffee-less cafés over what, or whom, might have been responsible for the outage.The explanation as to why the whole of Portugal and Spain lost electricity for many hours has to get a lot better for people to stop thinking it was Mr Putin, Mr Trump or a cabal of satanic paedophiles.I do tend to lean heavily into cock-up over conspiracy, but I’ll admit my work countering Russian disinformation led my first suspicions towards a Russian cyber-attack.Thanks for reading Off-grid and SMUG in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.But we were fine.After years of learning to live off the grid, the thousands of euros of investment, power cuts and teething troubles, our system finally came into its own.From the early days when we moved into our new off-grid home in the Portuguese countryside in the middle of the COVID pandemic we’ve been playing catch up with power.We have learned the hard way what a lot of people realised yesterday – just how much power we consume every day and how dependent we are on electricityThe off-grid system which came with our house provided a lot less energy than we were used to – even moving from Kenya where power cuts were common, but we had a generator in the garden.Toasters and ovens are the biggest culprits – and I’ll never use my hairdryer while ironing ever again!After failing to keep the giant Tamagotchi of a lead-acid battery system alive we installed new panels and lithium batteries for us...and then for the 20 plus people we can cater for at the eco-luxe lodge we’ve just opened.Three phases, hundreds of meters of buried cables, a lot of maths and fuse boxes later and we are...smug.Last week my mornings had begun with a nervous eye on the app, as 17 Easter guests and some pretty rainy and cloudy weather tested the system, which happily passed with flying colours.But while the rest of the region was powerless to do anything, our batteries were at 100%, our satellite connection kept the communications going and we were one of the few restaurants still open.We hadn’t planned on making a fish braai for our guests Robert and Kim – and we’re not even a restaurant – but in the absence of a mobile phone signal to even ask the best seafood places if they were open, we confidently offered a three course meal complete with electric light.The candles were merely for effect.And the country-wide shortage of internet connectivity led a BBC producer back to my WhatsApp and the offer of a chance to play at my old job for an afternoon.BBC Radio 4’s PM programme in the UK was interested in “some colour” from Odemira so Ana and I headed off for a wander (hear the story 38 mins in here).Our local Intermarché supermarket boss was almost as smug as we were – because their massive generator was keeping the meat and fish cold, the freezers below zero and the ATM cash machine running.There was a touch of the early COVID days about it – even if the toilet roll stocks remained largely undisturbed.We bumped into our friend Francisco from the A Terra glamping lodge – everything had gone off at his place and so he was at the ATM paying for 20 new solar panels.“Because tomorrow the price is going to be crazy,” he told me.“I should have bought them a long time ago, but now it needs to be done.”Glenn Cullen who with his wife Berny runs a beautiful tourism lodge called Paraiso Escondido was also at the supermarket stocking up on water to help guests flush.“The power cut’s a bit inconvenient...to say the least,” he told me.“We rely on pumps for the water, electricity as we’d expect for the power, so cooking – breakfast, lunch, dinners. We do have gas in one of our kitchens, so we have got a standby.“It’s a bit of a worry and something we have to think about for the future. Already we’re talking about getting generators to have backup. We have solar for hot water, but all the other things we take for granted: every day you turn the tap on, you flick a switch and communication – the WiFi is down. We rely on it so much.”I do care a lot about ice cream – and was keen to volunteer my services to stop large amounts of it going to waste, so next stop was beach-front Zambujeira-do-Mar and Rita’s Restaurant.Nuno Rita explained the gelato was straight into the freezer as soon as the lights went out and the door would remain shut until it came back on again.“It will be fine as long as the power comes back within a day,” he explained, as much to my disappointment I realised my ice cream eating sacrifice was not going to be immediately required.The Sunset Café was packed – André had his sleeves rolled up and was washing dishes while hikers on the long-distance walking trail Rota Vicentina were fuelling up on lunch.“Traditional work – no lights, washing glasses with my hands, salads, sandwiches and Portuguese bifanas,” he said, talking about the traditional bread rolls filled with thin pork steaks he was dishing out to walkers.Thanks for reading Off-grid and SMUG in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.I’m pleased to say it was a mere 17 hours that our region was without electricity.Our neighbour Daniel was up before dawn as usual and spotted a distant glow from the nearby town at around 5.15am.Now is a great time to talk about community micro-grids rather than national grids, and how renewable energy can be better managed at a local level...however much the giant power providers may protest.Solar panels have never been cheaper, but integrating small systems into national grids are not as easy as the “sell your renewable power back” offers suggest.Our friend Niels discovered it was costing him money to sell his excess power to the grid and so invested in large water tanks and heaters to create different types of “battery” instead.And our neighbour Jeff in Lisbon had taken steps towards energy independence by installing panels, but because he is connected to the grid he couldn’t use them when the blackout happened.While conservative newspapers say the Iberian power cuts prove renewable energy can’t work at scale - because of the huge steps Spain and Portugal has made towards running on green energy - we have to remember that it must.It’s perhaps more down to the traditional systems and the big, rich power companies which need to change and adapt.And it’s also a good reminder that come the next zombie apocalypse we should be fine – all we need is a couple of extra shovels to hit them with and maybe a shotgun. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

For more than three years now there’s been a loop of thinking, building, pushing and waiting...but we’ve finally opened our doors to a flurry of guests.With thanks to friends – and friends of friends – for booking in advance and betting we’d be ready, we had our biggest test so far this Easter holiday week, with six of our seven units filled and a peak of 17 people staying.Despite all the fears of the whole thing descending into a terrible Fawlty Towers epsiode – particularly when two of the visitors were German – I think we managed pretty well.We barbequed porco preto black pork, served Portuguese arroz de pato duck rice, braai-d some sea bass alongside Ana’s amazing moules and introduced our guests to some top Alentejo wines.If only the weather had stepped up and given us a helping hand.It’s the one thing we can usually rely on, but the glimmer of Spring which followed the reservoir-filling deluge of March evaporated into more heavy rain.Whether it’s meteorologically correct or not, I am convinced that in these epoch-changing times of isolationism and authoritarianism...that Britain stole our sunshine.It’s not the kind of behaviour Portugal should expect from the world’s oldest alliance.As far as I can see, the weather doesn’t feature in the 1386 Treaty of Windsor, but in an age of re-interpreting old documents...things like the American constitution for example...I wouldn’t rule anything out.It’s what I believe and therefore it’s true – it’s my truth and you just try to prove me wrong! Opá. As they say around here: oh boy.Truth or not, it was certainly a reality for our guests from London who gave up an unseasonably warm Britain for an unreasonably chilly and disappointingly damp Alentejo Easter.I’m very pleased to report a typically stiff-upper-lip keep-calm-and-carry-on attitude from guests and proprietors alike took us all through.Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.Apologising, however, by suggesting they stay another week as “it’s going to be beautiful from Tuesday” is straight from the Basil Fawlty playbook. (Note to self: don’t ever do that).Without the lure of constant sunshine, our Clubhouse became the Clubhouse it was meant to be: where people hung out around a roaring fire, chatted around the dinner table, and where younger guests played cards and started learning to play the guitar.The rainy March didn’t give the pool much of a chance to get up to a good temperature, but that didn’t stop many people from giving it try...some of them every day.We’re so lucky that cold water swimming is a thing.But the ocean proved to be surprisingly warm for the surf lessons, and on the occasional beach days the sun forced its way through with enough potency to sizzle unprotected skin (guilty as charged!).Our neighbour Daniel kindly patched up some of the bigger holes in the road for Ana’s birthday, but the holiday and the continuing rain means it will be next week before the proper repair work begins.The horse riding was a great success, the secret beaches a big hit, the local restaurants proved popular and most importantly the off-grid power and water systems thrived in their biggest challenge so far: lots of people and lots of weather.We’re still tweaking our water dilution system for automatically mixing rainwater with mineral-salted borehole water, but it’s got off to a great start.I’ll be writing more about the long range WiFi / Internet of Things LPWAN technology we’re using soon as I finish editing a BBC radio programme I’m making on the topic with some really interesting Portuguese examples.The tech is keeping our swimming pool flowing for infinity and beyond (hopefully), watching over our tanks, keeping our drinking water perfectly palatable, and will soon be managing the fabulously nutritious water emerging from our treatment plant ready for irrigation.My maths surrounding our whole power grid was always shaky, and with many showers testing water pumps and heat pumps, and lots of induction hobs being used, there were some nervous early morning checks on the batteries, but the system held up really well.Gamifying the shower experience with “beat the egg timer” hour glasses attached the wall seemed to generate some interest and some competition.The guests were the Jennings family from Yorkshire...Sarah, my godson Atti and Hugh who has been many times before to help out and was lured into the occasional odd job despite being a paying guest.Dedicated blog reader Jeremy Grant surprised his partner Siobhan with a trip to Alentejo and landed amid the chaos of people with delight over the view...after having followed our progress almost from the start.The other families are friends of my old pal Matthew Price – adventurous London professionals with a love of exploring with their brilliant young teenagers – who he strongarmed into coming along to an Easter excursion on the coastal Alentejo.Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The German couple were early adopters on Booking.com who stayed for some comfort at the start of their long Rota Vicentina hike down to the Algarve.Different dietary requirements got us thinking about how to make the perfect dinner, I started developing some breakfast skills...and there was some troubleshooting running roof repairs in high wind.It was a fantastic start to our new venture and adventure – thanks so much to all four families involved for visiting Vale das Estrelas.We are realising that there are two sides to this job: attending to guests while they are here, and working even harder behind the scenes to find new ones to come and visit in the future.“It’s marketing, marketing, marketing,” our friend Vera told us, and she and Cam have already made a thriving business out of their tourism resort Quinta Camarena a bit further north of us in Cercal, so it’s good advice.Our own website and booking engine has been at the heart of it and despite the urgency, we’d been waiting for a break in the rain and the return of a little sunshine for our talented interior architecture photographer friend Cia to take some proper photos.She spent hours working with the light and the angles to edit together an amazing set of images.It’s always going to be hard to properly capture the scale of our views and the feeling of calm here through photographs, but @ciajansen (check out her Insta) has done us proud.We’ve fussed over the photos, tweaked the text and agonized over the pricing strategy, but finally can unveil our new website www.valleyofthestars.co.uk or for those in Portugal www.valedasestrelas.ptI hope you like it – please have a look through it...if only to search for the glaring mistakes we’ve made in our prices which will allow bargain-bucket bookings.It’s our soft-opening year, so we have lower prices than similar properties in the area to give us the leeway to learn.Ana’s new mantra is that every visitor’s expectations must be exceeded when they arrive – rather than the other way around.Please help us out by sharing it with all of your networks – and if anyone wants to rent the whole property for a retreat please get in touch directly and we’ll make a plan.This journey is going to continue having its challenges – first with our workload as we learn to do everything ourselves and then bring staff in to help us in the most important places.And that’s also a challenge for us here where staff are in short supply.We’ve been so lucky that our fabulous friend Lotti – a former deputy Swedish ambassador and top lawyer – used her Easter vacation to come here and help us wash up!We couldn’t have had such a successful week without her (thanks Lotti!)And on that note, I’m turning to you again…wonderful readers...if you know anyone looking for some paid summer work, we’re looking for people experienced in the hospitality industry, working in wine, or restaurants to help us out.It’ll be hard work, but there’ll be time to enjoy this wonderful coastline. Let us know welcome@valleyofthestars.co.uk This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

Well, that was easy.After years of waiting and hoping, begging and pushing, of sleepless nights and stressful days our reaction was...understated when the email came through.We’d roped in a trade organisation to help us bother and worry the town hall decision makers and were told everything seemed on track and a decision would be delivered on Friday or Monday.Friday nervously came and went as a warning that unrequited expectations can put a cloud over a weekend.But on Monday morning the letter from our local câmara – or town hall – dropped into our inbox, and as usual was written in a way that needed translation, interpretation, further consideration and expert reassurance before we could believe what we thought we could see.“Regarding the above-mentioned matter and for all due effects, I am obliged by order of the Councilor dated March 14th 2025...”Yes...do go on...“After a classification audit, a copy of Report No. 25/25 of which is attached...”Yes, yes..?“To inform Your Excellency,” yes-yes-yes, that’s definitely me, “that the Tourist Enterprise called Vale das Estrelas...meets the conditions to be classified as Tourism in Rural Areas - COUNTRY HOUSES.”No need to shout. Wait, what? So that’s it then? Has anything else been slipped into the five pages of ifs and buts that says in some convoluted way how this will only come to pass after we have provided x and y additional documents?No? Really?OK.In this way, played out in real time, was the anatomy of an anticlimax.“The number,” we both remembered. “Now we need the number.”We’d like to think we’re not just a number, but in terms of opening to the general public...of getting the quantity of people through the door we need to pay back our loans and pay staff we haven’t yet got...everything is about the tourism number.We are just a number.How many weeks, we wondered, would it take to get that?Monday afternoon was rainy and not packed with optimism as we dived into the Turismo de Portugal online portal and started filling things in.We called a few times for guidance...and a woman called Maria João picked up pretty much straight away...every time.But the last call to Turismo irritated the person who picked up.“Yes...of course,” she said sternly. But we repeated the question anyway: “So that’s our number? Our actual tourism number? The number we need to open to the public, to list on AirBnB, to run our business? So what do we do now”“Well rent out your rooms of course! Is there anything else?”There wasn’t.There was just a number. One. Two. Five. One. One.Not the snappiest, nor the most symmetrical, but it was ours and it was beautiful. Our. Own. Number.Finally, licensed...to bill.We reached for the champagne as we had some other numbers to celebrate.It was St Patrick’s Day – and the 15th anniversary of Ana and I getting together.1, 2, 5, 1, 1; 17, 3, 2010…15. Pink Portuguese espumante. Nice.And then the work began…It’s been a stormy March here in Portugal, and we’ve been using the time to get our new website firmly under construction.As four named storms pummelled the Portuguese coast, we’ve been pulling together years of photographs and months of thoughts and ideas about how to best describe our property, and do it justice.As I said last month, all we’ve got to do now is make sure all those people who will love the calm, the serenity and the undiscovered beauty of this place will find us.As storms Jana, Konrad, Laurence, and Martinho rattled our windows, scared our dogs, tested our dams, filled our water tanks to overflowing and gorged out a river down our valley, we sent Word files full of copy and folders packed with pictures to GuestCentric’s designers.They’re a website and booking engine company for small-hoteliers like us (I like the sounds of that), and will hopefully take the pain out of listing properties, prevent double bookings and encourage as many direct enquiries as possible.But while they work away finessing and finetuning we plunged straight into what is the hell of AirBnB and Booking.com profiles to put ourselves out there ASAP.That was a frustrating couple of rainy days in our life that neither of us will ever get back.Why is adding photos to room profiles so difficult? How do we navigate the different included or excluded fees and taxes to set prices that match our expectations but aren’t too much for the visiting public?Why are there so many sections that need to be filled in?As the squalls of heavy showers are becoming more scattered and infrequent, the sun is shining through literally and figuratively as our room profiles have gone live.So here they are – finally – links to our AirBnB profiles. Taking their name from stars and constellations the three suites are called Sirius Altair and Vega; the Bungalow’s one-bed place is called Aquila and the two-bed apartment is Lynx; and the Villa has Andromeda and Cassiopeia.Spread the love, my friends...please spread the love.Our website works for now, but will be shiny and new very soon.But also bear in mind AirBnB add fees on top…and contacting us directly works better for everyone ;) Back to the weather and it really has been quite remarkable.We always say we never complain about rain as we need all the water we can get, but I have an admission to make...enough already.I know the aquifers continue to love it, and although the massive Alqueva Reservoir was half a meter from being full a week ago, our local reservoir Santa Clara is still only at 55% and it would really help our region if it filled up.Four major storm depressions in March is a first and although the rainfall hasn’t overtaken levels of 2018, the year 2000 or the more historical averages, there have been 100mph winds along the west coast and quite a bit of damage caused in Lisbon. There are trees up and flood damage all around our region too.“Unusual...but not unprecedented,” is how the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere or IPMA is quoted by Portugal Decoded.It’s a great news site in English which I’d heartily recommend. They have an obsession about making a carefully crafted infographic every week...and who doesn’t love an infographic.The winter weather has certainly become a personal obsession as we need to balance our power use on those rare weeks when sunshine is at a premium, and so keep a close eye on the Apps: Weather Underground and Ventusky are my go-tos.And I learned early on that it’s the Azores High which is the most important influence on the Iberian peninsula.When it’s a little weaker and further away from the Iberian Peninsula, as it has been this winter, some of Britain’s weather ends up here. Imagine.“Rising ocean surface temperatures suggest climate change may be playing a role,” Portugal Decoded add, with North Atlantic sea temperatures 3 or 4 degrees Celsius above average in places.But proper Spring is now most certainly on the near horizon.Despite the high winds, the cuckoo is back...somehow it made it through storm Martinho!And I’m sure I heard a Nightingale the other day.And the medium-range forecasts are no longer packed with precipitation and the temperatures are going up into the 20s Celsius next weekend.As soon as this rain stops and the temperatures soar we’ll get out planting and prepping the land before the mud turns to concrete, and get started on clearing all the rapidly growing brush to protect us from fire.But the main priority right now – as our finances reach pinch point – we have to learn how to run this place properly...and fast.Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.Some of you reading this despatch will have followed our progress for years, others a little less, but it’s a major milestone to announce we are finally open for business.Thank you for your support...it’s really helped...and if you or anyone you can think of might like to come and visit to see what all the fuss is about, please share this post.I’m pretty sure there’ll be plenty more to write about as this journey continues to unfold! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

Since our Portuguese adventure began, there are certain phrases I never thought I’d say out loud.For example: “Once we discovered pillow tanks we knew we had the answer to rainwater capture.”Then there things I never knew I’d even know, let alone say out loud: “The LPWAN system is like WiFi over kilometres and it helps us blend our mineral salted water with rain to make drinking water...oh, and stops the pool overflowing.”I mean, really.And then there are those truly out-there unexpected sentences: “So we’re having an event in two weeks’ time celebrating Alicante Bouschet – a French grape the Portuguese made their own.”I like wine, I like history, I love telling stories...and it turns out there’s a wine grape which does all three across Portugal, France and America and thoroughly excites normal people like us (or is that pushing it too far?).More about the event on Saturday March 1st coming up.But there was one message we received last week which we really never thought would come.It was one of those distant hopes lying at the top of the Penrose Stairs – that infinite staircase you climb forever but never reach the top.One of those things that for every one step forward, you take two steps back...and it’s only when you give up and turn around that you actually get there.Or it’s like penguins toppling over watching a plane fly overhead: an amazing idea which could be true, but is actually just a myth.You get the general idea. Anyway, the message said: “You have your licence.”Drumroll please.Now, before you get overexcited and start inundating us with messages of congratulations, it’s only the licence to use the buildings...there’s still an inspection from the tourism authorities to come before we get our final stamp to fully open for business.But...actually...do please inundate us with messages. Because we’re delighted, astonished, amazed, blown away and all sorts of other predictable synonyms one can use, given the circumstances.The message just popped into our inbox one afternoon, but to begin with the letter kept us guessing.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.Written in the fabulously complex high Portuguese and in the best traditions of formal legalese we read it, looked at each other quizzically, ran it through DeepL and were even more confused than before.“I hereby inform Your Excellency,” it began, “that following the approval of the aforementioned request, the application timely submitted to that effect and the payment of the respective fees, the ‘Response to the communication, for use after urban operation subject to prior control no. 9/2025,’ which is attached hereto, was issued.”“Is that good?” we asked each other.“Is that good?” we asked our architect.“It’s good,” our architect replied.So now we have a long list of things we need to make sure are in place before the tourism inspection.It includes mirrors, soap, electricity, a big rule book, drinking water, a pile of local tourist guides, a complaints book and a waste water treatment plant.There are a few other rules for “Agro-tourism” establishments, but we’re classified as Casa do Campo...or country house.(Just as an aside, I love the concept of “agro-tourism” – presumably when you arrive you are greeted by a furious host hurling a string of verbal abuse and screaming at you?)Anyway, there’s plenty of work to be done.The website building is progressing, but we’re waiting for the sunniest of days to take the best photos.And we keep being distracted by fabulous visitors.Top Portuguese winemaker Hamilton Reis came to visit and Ana cooked up a feast for his wife Susana’s birthday dinner.“Is it OK if I bring my own wine?” he asked. “Oh, go on then,” we replied.Hamilton is winemaker at the legendary Mouchão winery and produces his own Natus Vini wine...which is usually served in the best Michelin starred restaurants.Some old university friends were in town and were treated to some of the best Alentejo wines going.Among them was Nick Spotswood who has the Spotswood wine estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa and loved his first steps into Alentejo vinhos, even if his dinner table deep discussion with Hamilton over the brix system for measuring sugar content in grapes wasn’t for everyone.But all were blown away by what we’ve achieved – at least that’s what they told us – by the local fish and porco preto black pork, by Oda’s amazing LA-style cocktails, and by the beaches (yes, we managed a February ocean dip).Shameless PlugTo celebrate our successful licence approval...and the launch of our next podcast episode about one of the oldest, most historic, and most amazing wineries in Alentejo, we are holding a special wine event on Saturday March 1st.Space is limited, but we have two amazing winemakers talking about Alicante Bouschet – a French grape which (as I found myself mentioning at the beginning) Portugal has made its own.Developed in the mid-1800s to give poor French wine a deeper red colour, it was brought to Portugal in the hope it might resist a bug destroying Europe’s vineyards (it didn’t), but it then thrived in the heat of Alentejo.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Hot on Hamilton’s heals we have Mouchão’s custodian Iain Reynolds Richardson telling the many amazing stories of his family’s 250 years of Portuguese history, how they introduced Alicante Bouschet to Portugal and how he now champions simplicity and tradition in his winemaking.And French winemaker Baptiste Carrière Pradal (Domaine de la Massole) is bringing his single varietal Alicante Bouschet from the region in the south of France where Henri Bouschet created the amazing red grape with red juice in the first place.If you’d like to support us and help us celebrate do come along.Contact us directly for more information, but we’re offering a three course dinner, a guided wine tasting by the two aforementioned marvels and a stay in our lovely eco-luxe lodge for one or two nights at a really good price.So, if you’ve been thinking about coming to see us, now’s the time! Ping us a message. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

Birthday presents can reveal a lot about one’s age, stage of life and current circumstances, and this couldn’t have been closer to the truth than on the occasion of my 53rd birthday.I mean this year’s couldn’t have been much more self-explanatory:* two chequered shirts* working dungarees with lots of pockets* steel-capped safety boots* a two-pack of crowbarsI presume this means there’s stuff to do in the country.We are, of course, all aware that Darth Vader knew what Luke Skywalker was getting for his birthday...because he felt his presents.But I imagine even The Force wouldn’t have helped the bloke in the black cape work out what was in the long and extremely heavy silver-wrapped box.In retrospect, the clue which Ana always writes on presents should have given it away, but in my defence I had just woken up.“Where Murders of These Guys Would Go,” it said.Adding “...for a drink” still didn’t help me. But it was a high bar.“Of course,” I exclaimed, as I excitedly ripped off the wrapping paper, forgetting how I’d mentioned a while ago how much I wanted a new crowbar.But why two? You might ask.Well either – like dogs – you can never have too many crowbars...or Lidl were doing a special two-pack deal...and you can never have too many crowbars.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.Itching as I was to get outside with excellent foot protection, carrying loads of tools in my dungaree pockets to start crowbar-ing things, there was a birthday to celebrate.And so the most colourful of the fabulous chequered shirts was the first present to be pressed into use...once I’d enjoyed my fabulous birthday sandwiches and coffee despite the kind offer of help from the dogs.Lunch with Ana and neighbour Daniel – during one of his fleeting visits to the valley – was at our favourite clifftop restaurant O Sacas, and then it was back to the Clubhouse via the beach to continue the shelebrations.A January birthday is always a nice lift after the post-holiday comedown, but the holidays extended themselves this year as we were lucky enough to have our daughter Oda and her boyfriend Derek staying with us from mid-December well into the New Year.Derek also celebrated his birthday before Christmas – with a trip to the birthday beach and a stunning lunch of all his favourite things.We’ve found an amazing straight-from-the-source oyster supplier (with thanks to our friend David) and our butcher considers bone marrow to be only suitable for dogs which makes it considerably cheaper than in Los Angeles!Our present, and the theme of all his birthday sandwiches was “a night in a castle” and so we took the guys to the fantastic Estremoz Pousada in the Alentejo interior.Derek really enjoyed the trip, the meals, the experience...and to be honest his baggage allowance wouldn’t really have stretched to one, let alone two crowbars, to take back to LA.A few projects were ticked off at the farm including getting the raised beds built, but we also took advantage of a slow tourist month to take a couple of trips up to Lisbon to stay at our flat and enjoy some city time in our suitably named Estrela neighbourhood.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The calçada cobbled pavements in that part of Lisbon feature various black star designs which inspired those arranged in a constellation on our limestone deck in the valley.We’re just across the road from the landmark Basílica da Estrela and one of my favourite places in the world (and certainly one of Simon’s favourites) – the Jardim da Estrela.Dating back to 1842, it was designed in the style of an English garden and has the most incredible mature trees: towering palms reminiscent of LA (with matching streetlights) and giant spirit trees like the one under which we were married in Bangkok.Parrots play in the treetops, ducks do their thing in the ponds and a peacock puts in the occasional appearance.Sculptures and statues, an old bandstand, lawns, coffee kiosks, a giant children’s playground and a maze of paths makes it the go-to place for workout classes, dog walks and happy hour.Simon the ageing Hollywood dog is utterly in his element there, spending hours piecing together the pee-mail stories of every dog in Lisbon and becoming less obedient and more food obsessed with age.Garfunkel is less keen. Order, security and control are what cattle dogs pine for – not the chaotic city sounds of trams and traffic.There are only two safe spaces for Garfie in Lisbon: the flat, and the big red box of freedom which magically transported him here from his rural home at great speed...and can just as magically take him back.Most trips to Lisbon involve the running repairs required from a short-term rental property and it’s a good yardstick to how far my tinkering skills have come.I’m pleased to report replacing toilets, fitting ceiling lights, extensive drain cleaning and advanced shower replacement are now firmly in my repertoire.The place is back to being tip top, so if you fancy a stay in Lisbon this is our listing on AirBnB...but if you have dates in mind please contact us directly.But Lisboa was not all work – we discovered some wonderful new wine bars and restaurants and were honoured to attend our friend Mauro’s 40th birthday bash in the very cool Fábrica Braço de Prata.It’s a former munitions factory in the artsy Marvila neighbourhood of Lisbon close to the river between the city centre and Parque de Naçoẽs.It’s an area emerging from an old industrial zone to give vibes of San Francisco when artists could still afford to live there.It was fantastic to wander the arts space and meet Mauro & Rita’s friends and family and – in the same week as my birthday – to be treated to my own cake.I do hope Mauro wears that Alentejo farmer’s flat cap we brought him from the countryside!Back in the valley, outdoor work has taken a bit of a backseat as a decent bout of rain has kept us indoors making sure all the animals are warm enough.With the rain coming down and amid cloudy skies, there’s something strangely exciting about having a hot shower, knowing the water was heated at the same time as we were, courtesy of the roaring wood fire.And there’s something even more exciting about watching a 200,000 litre pillow tank gradually filling up with rainwater to see us through the summer.We’ve been staying in each new unit making sure it’s comfortable and properly equipped, casting a critical eye across everything, making tweaks and improvements as we go.The list of DIY tasks never seems to get any shorter, but the slow calm approach to craftwork makes it more of a hobby than a chore.Anyway, a higher priority right now is to make sure all those people who will love the calm, the serenity and the undiscovered beauty of this place will find us.We’ve been plotting and scheming marketing strategies, planning retreat proposals, making lists of people to approach and getting down to the serious matter of website construction.If running a retreat – or just attending one – is something you’d like to do with us, please get in touch. Art, writing, wine, wellness - send us a ping.The next date for your diaries is Saturday March 1st when we’re planning our next wine weekend of tastings and dinner at Vale das Estrelas with a chance to stay over.This time we’ve decided to celebrate the French grape that Portugal’s made its own: Alicante Bouschet.We’ll be hosting a dinner with the amazing Mouchão winery and our great friend Baptiste Carrière Pradal who will be visiting the valley with his family wines.The Alicante Bouschet grape has been a personal obsession for a little while now – and there’ll be a new podcast episode coming out very soon, so if you haven’t signed up for The Big Portuguese Wine Adventure, now’s your chance! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

Januaries here in Portugal are more palatable than most northern hemisphere winters.For one, I never do the whole Dry January thing because it’s my birthday month, and while we do need more rain, I love the clear chilly mornings which open up into beautiful sunny blue skies.The low arcing winter sun strikes our south facing glass and pours heat into our house – something it doesn’t do in the higher-in-the-sky warmer summer months.And the winter sun also brings enough heat for beach walks in shorts, ocean dips and plenty of power to keep the heat pumps running.Cold air coming in off the ocean blows over our hill and sinks into the valley keeping our temperatures higher and providing spectacular sunrise views over seas of mist below which in the mornings slowly burn off and melt away.Unusually we saw a little frost last week, but the new villa we’ve been trying out for ourselves has remained toasty thanks to the underfloor heating.Of course as I put the finishing touches to this despatch the rain has finally arrived and we’re monitoring water collection pumps and power systems and getting our energy saving levels right.Sun or storm, it’s a great chance to put on the fire get into the reading and research and to plan for success in this first year of being open for business.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.Every new year brings plenty of predictions of tourist trends for the year ahead – and so I’ve been deep-diving into some of the articles, reports and industry advisories to learn about Bleisure, Calmcations, PTO hacking and the “new dawn for oenotourism.”It’s a lot to unpack, but at least one or two of every “top trends” list is exactly what we’re creating, so I thought it was worth sharing:* I got most excited about the BBC’s “Seven travel trends that will shape 2025” article which listed Noctourism, Calmcations and “Off-the-beaten-track goes mainstream” at numbers one, two and five respectively.* In terms of tourism for nighttime, our skies are really dark and usually clear. The reason we called our place “The Valley of the Stars” was because of that first night we spent at our new home when we sat outside with a glass of wine and stared up, gobsmacked, at the Milky Way soaring across the sky above us. We’re a bit too far south to offer the northern lights, despite this coming year’s peak of solar activity, but I’ll be working on my astronomy knowledge over the winter months for another string to the storytelling bow and we’ll be investing in a telescope or two for a closer look.* Calmcations “focused on creating a sense of tranquillity” are very much our bag, and I can understand why, after this WHO noise report quoted in the article revealed that 20% of Europeans live in unhealthily noisy places. The quiet calm in our valley is something our friends always love – relaxing time to take in the nature – a silence only interrupted by frogs, owls, the eagle that lives over the hill and occasionally the extended playlist of the Nightingale. With yoga and massage to suit some visitors and wine tastings to calm others, this style of tourism is front and centre of what we’ll be doing at Vale das Estrelas. We’ll be offering little retreats based around painting, pottery, wine, writing and hiking....that kind of thing.* As for “Off-the-beaten-track goes mainstream” I’m happy to report our off-grid track is firmly in the un-beaten category and our area is home to the last truly wild and undiscovered coast in Europe. We face the hills and valleys, but there’s an endless supply of rugged wild beaches and coves to explore just 15 minutes from the lodge.* According to The Portugal News there are More Brits heading to Portugal and why wouldn’t they? The UK was the largest source of flights to and from Portugal from January to November last year and the number of British travellers increased more than any other nation. Quoting a Statistics Portugal report, the article explained that more people in general are heading to Portugal. It was apparently a record year for visitors, and November 2024 saw a 6.2% increase in passenger numbers year on year. Research Nester’s Global Tourism Industry Market Overview reports Ryanair will have 5.2 million affordable seats to Portugal available as part of its summer 2025 schedule.* And even more are coming – the IPDT Tourism Barometer predicts 33 million tourists will visit Portugal this year – up from 30 million in 2023 (the last year with figures). According to their survey of professionals in Portugal’s tourism sector, they highlight “a focus on sustainability.” Reinforcing the “Off-the-beaten-track goes mainstream” thing, they predict 2025 will be about “demystifying the perception of overtourism.” The IPDT believes “dispersing visitor influxes from overcrowded areas to less-explored regions is key to maintaining balance and reducing tensions in popular destinations.” So leave the city and come and see us in the country!* And it’s not just about holidays any more – a BBC article about people staying away for longer talks about “blended travel trips that include both work and leisure, which are occasionally referred to by the mush-mouth portmanteau of ‘Bleisure’". So now you know. That’s also where I discovered the concept of PTO hacking (Paid Time Off) which was apparently a big TikTok thing – the idea of combining national holidays with paid leave to get longer breaks. Quoting a Skirft Research report there’s apparently a “shift to spending on experiences over things” and it could be "the year of long getaways." With the continuing popularity of remote working and Portugal’s Digital Nomad Visas we’re hoping to lure some people to WFV (Work from the Valley) and stay with us through the winter. It’s why we put in underfloor heating.* That fits in with record November numbers seeing the tourist season extending deeper into Autumn and people travelling earlier in the year. “Spring is the new summer,” according to Zicasso’s luxury travel report, which says March to May is becoming increasingly popular for holidays and that Portugal is now the sixth most popular place to visit in the world – up from eighth for the last couple of years. There’s still a broad interest in “food, culture, wine, wildlife and adventure.” And younger travellers are showing more interest in culture and history. Repeat travellers are interested in off the beaten track tourism and there’s “an increase in requests for eco-friendly and sustainable luxury options.” Marvellous.* The most interesting thing Conde Naste Traveller announced from our perspective was “a new dawn for oenotourism” as “curiosity around lesser-known and re-emerging wine destinations is growing.” The Alentejo wine region is becoming increasingly popular, but it’s crazy hot inland where most of the wineries are! By bringing their stories and their wines for tastings at the cooler coast we hope to take advantage of the interest in 250 indigenous wine grapes and put vinho at the centre of our tourism.* The Portugal Portfolio puts the Rise of Sustainable Travel in first place, both with the demand for “eco-friendly experiences” such as eco-lodges and Community-Focussed Tourism. “Tourists in 2025 won’t just be looking for breathtaking views; they’ll want responsible ways to enjoy them,” the property management company says. They emphasise Off the beaten path exploration: “Travellers are seeking lesser-known spots, avoiding tourist-crowded hubs. This desire to discover “hidden gems” will shape new...local tourism economies.” And on ‘Bleisure’: “Digital nomads are no longer confined to coffee shops in major cities; they’re branching out to smaller, scenic locales offering reliable internet, cultural richness, and a stable environment.”Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.* And as a final thought...less about tourism and more about a longer term move...the Financial Times featured a big report recently on “Creating new utopias in Portugal.” Sadly it’s behind their firewall, but all their examples were in Alentejo and they quoted Claus Sendlinger, founder of Design Hotels saying “Portugal has become the new California,” and a “fertile ground for experimental developments.” We’re certainly that! Portugal Portfolio has a similar take: Portugal’s New Utopias: Sustainable Communities is about environments that “blend modern comforts with eco-friendly practices.”So my take-away from all this is that we’re doing something right. Eco-luxe, off-the beaten track, place for Calmcations, Noctourism and the “mush-mouth portmanteau of ‘Bleisure’". What a great line, I do love the BBC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

Despite the excesses of Christmas, and the many visitors we’ve been welcoming to the valley, I’ve managed to put together a video of our whole building project as it took shape from start to finish.As well as writing updates and despatches, I’ve been photographing and videoing our land ever since we started cutting down our tatty eucalyptus plantation almost four years ago.I’ve documented every stage of the building process from the moment the first building supplies arrived (and we realised this crazy idea was actually going to happen) to the very first wine tasting event we held a few weeks ago.Edited together from thousands of photos and hundreds of videos I hope you enjoy our look back at what we’ve achieved so far as we prepare to start the next stage of our journey and start running the place in the New Year.There’s so much more I could have included about our water treatment and electrical systems: the hundreds of metres of trenches dug and the miles of pipes buried, but this is a quick review of how we created our new eco-luxe lodge.The loan is not going to pay itself back, the rooms need to be filled and we need to start employing local people to help us, so please get in touch and book a stay.Ideally we’d like to start out with big bookings - groups of friends and family - or running retreats based around wine or walking or painting…so if you know anybody who runs retreats please put us in touch. With group bookings in the diary we can bring in chefs, arrange trips and transport, set up yoga classes and massages and introduce visitors to the amazing hidden beaches of the last wild coast in Europe.Yes, we were in the ocean yesterday, and yes it was a little on the chilly side.And don’t forget…the clue is in the title…we’re off the power and water grids: fully sustained by the sun, and by the water from our land.It’s eco, but it’s luxe…and it’s not just a great place to get away from it all, but also to learn about Portugal and about sustainable living, enjoy the peace and quiet of our countryside and our amazing coastline, try the local food and wine, and to do it all leaving just a tiny footprint.We need your support as we soft open…it’s even more beautiful once you get here…so please help us make a success of the lodge now we’re finally ready to open. This is a big year for us.The new website will be live soon, but for now here’s a summary of the rooms we have available and the prices we are offering in our first year of opening:Thanks again for following our journey and for reading my despatches from Vale das Estrelas. Your support, comments and great advice along this journey means a lot to us - perhaps more than you think. Please spread the word about this blog and what we’ve created, and I’m sure the stories of the next stage of our new life will be just as…interesting. Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.And even more importantly, all the very best for the New Year. Let’s hope 2025 holds great things in store for all of us.See you next year! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

We started the Google search with escarradeira, then moved on to cuspideira and then we started calling people.A few hours and many phone calls later we realised we just weren’t going to be able to buy any spittoons for our first big wine event at Vale das Estrelas.And there are some pretty compelling statistics for why that might be.Who, you might ask, are the biggest wine consumers in the world...France? Italy?No, and no.At 61.7 litres per person per year, it’s Portugal by a looooong way, so I guess people here don’t really feel the need to spit it out.It was explained to us very well by João Barroso of the Alentejo wine commission: “Wine in Portugal is a staple food” he told us. And that’s why the prices are so low, the quality so good, and the consumption rates so high.People here like to lunch – for at least a couple of hours every day – most shops shut, workers gather around a shared dish in their favourite tasca and it’s all washed down with a jug of table wine and maybe even a shot of the local medronho firewater with a coffee to finish.As foreigners in Alentejo the options are to: a) get stressed about not being able to go to the shops in the middle of the day...or b) learn to have a long lunches.You can imagine which option we’ve settled on.In The Big Plan for Our Second Life, wine has wound itself into the centre of everything we’re doing here.Wine, of course, is all about the story – a good wine can sell for three or four times the price – if the story is good enough.And what can be better for a storyteller than to ply one’s audience with booze while the story unfolds? It is only going to improve.With this in mind we held our first public event in the valley in partnership with Howard’s Folly – a wonderful winery headquartered in the eastern Alentejo town of Estremoz.Howard Bilton is a Yorkshireman we met through a Hong Kong connection, and he makes wine in collaboration with Alentejo’s favourite Australian winemaker David Baverstock (hear him talking about the iconic Esporão winery he's famous for here).I’ve written about Howard’s Folly before...back in 2021...have I really been writing this blog for that long? I guess I have.The winery is run by Howard’s son, managing director Tom, who brought their whole range of wines to our stretch of wild coast for our first tasting event.We decided to make a day of it – invite some friends to stay, hire a chef and put on a proper dinner afterwards...and take the first tentative steps towards running our hospitality business.Our plan is to hold regular events for locals and visitors alike to bring the history and the stories and the wines of the Alentejo interior to the coast.We sent out invitations and were overwhelmed by the interest...but then had to deliver!A stressful couple of weeks preparing everything followed.It was ambitious to have a wine tasting and a dinner in the same place on the same day...having never done this before.But it was also a deadline to get the kitchen ready for professional use and the apartments finished and fully furnished – down to the last knives and forks and whisks and colanders.Thankfully the weather was beautiful and 45 people joined the wine tasting outside with our amazing view as a backdrop to the event. Tom was fantastic – and the wines were great.We bridged wine and the dinner with more booze: an adventure down the hill for guests to try some medronho made by our friend Jorge, kindly hosted by our neighbour Daniel.Our vizinho has been working some magic on his property recently – totally transforming his whole hillside with plants and trees: landscaping like a demon before winter takes hold. Daniel was the perfect host.The three course dinner back up the hill was a huge success – helped along by Howard’s wine – and it was great to meet some new folk and bring people together.Our winemaker pal Mauro Azóia, his wife Rita and the kids also joined us and brought a special delivery: a car-load of our first Valley of the Stars wine...and the labels we had lovingly created and he had arranged to be printed.We roped in our friends Danny and Carole and their friends Alfredo and Carol to help us label the first hundred bottles and dip the tops in colourful wax.It’s a red wine made entirely out of the Castelão grape and we used the beautiful image of a sunset over our valley painted by Ed Sumner, as the artwork for the label.The first wine to carry the Vale das Estrelas logo is now available for sale! Come and stay with us and buy one while stocks last...we do have a couple of hundred bottles, but Christmas is coming...so you might not want to leave it so long!We still hope to plant our own vineyard in March if finances allow – we’ve been asking advice from every oenologist and viticulturist who would listen, on the proviso that we will only plant Portuguese grapes.Close to the ocean and away from the classic Alentejo wine region we will have to battle with the moisture – and the bugs that can bring with it – but it’s likely we will plant Castelão for our red wine.Unveiling our new wine; with Mauro the winemaker; Danny, Alfredo & Carol with the newly labelled bottles; and the label with art by Ed SumnerSo it is even better to be able have a fantastic Castelão hand-crafted by Mauro as our first ever wine.We think Arinto and Alvarinho will be the whites we plant, but the study continues – we’d love to get it right first time!Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The wonderful Portuguese-adopted Dane Carsten Jensen who’s the bedrock of the nearby Vicentino winery, paid us a visit to advise how to prepare the land for planting, and we’re hoping to secure the plants from Dorina Lindemann and her Plansel nursery.It’s an amazing process seeing how they prepare the vines by grafting Portuguese varietals on to American rootstock...as they have done since the phylloxera bug first devastated Europe’s vineyards in the late 1800s.That’s episode three of our podcast series Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure and we think it’s worth a listen – and it features us learning to spit out wine for the first time.We may not have had any cuspideiras available for Howard’s Folly, but as sensible grown up wine people, we did buy some vases which could be suitably repurposed.Suffice to say they weren’t needed.But we do now have a few spittoons on order for next time, and the time after that… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com

I’ve recently realised we don’t live like real people.When real people have a problem they call someone: a workman, an expert, a master technician, Ghostbusters, or whoever it might be - and they come with some tools and they solve it.It costs some money and takes some time to arrange, but it works. They know what they are doing, and grumbles aside, they get things working again and real life goes on.But somehow I’ve found myself in the position where I’m kind of responsible for everything...and when stuff breaks I have to work out for myself how to fix it.I’m not entirely sure how that happened.Obviously the not-being-connected-to-anything thing means we’re pretty much off most workpeople’s grids when it comes to the usual sorting of things like gas and electric.We’re very lucky to have some amazing people who we’ve met over the past few years who are the real experts...but I don’t want to bother them for the small things which I can probably do myself if I’m careful...or if I find the right YouTube channel.In retrospect, taking my expensive De Walt drill apart to repair it was a bad idea...but I really didn’t know it was going to be that fiddly or complicated to put back together (it now just about works, but slips and makes a terrible grinding noise).Given that getting this place up and running - and keeping it running - falls under my area of responsibility, I do pay a lot of attention to what the professionals do when they’re here.Much more so than real people might do.They trust the experts to get on with it unsupervised and don’t need to know how they do whatever it is they’re doing to make problems go away.Perhaps my engagement and enthusiastic nodding confuses them into thinking I understand what is happening, can remember it, and might even be able do it myself next time as it will save them the hassle of a home visit.And we are “bootstrapping” things as they called it at the Stanford Graduate School of Business classes we sat in on while there on a journalism fellowship.In other words doing it on the cheap: if I can do it myself next time, then we save money.All this perhaps explains why, when the solar hot water pump started making a very expensive sounding noise, Guido the German boiler master felt confident enough to tell me I could do it myself.“You just need two pairs of pliers of the right size,” he said after watching the video of the screaming water system and recommended a new pump.I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that...but he is very busy at the moment...I mean, what could possibly go wrong?Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.One thing we can now do very successfully by ourselves is roast chestnuts on an open fire.This year I celebrated Verão de São Martinho (St Martin’s Summer) - officially now one of my favourite times of the year - by buying a metal chestnut roasting pan.(I say that, but we could have smoked some salmon as well while we were at it - the first use of the fire filled the place with smoke until I gave the chimney a good old brush and we were back in business).St Martin’s Day (November 11th) marks the opening of the talhas and the releasing of the fresh natural wine still made in huge clay amphorae here in the Alentejo as it was by the Romans two thousand years ago.We made our now annual pilgrimage to Vila de Frades (Friars’ Town) - the spiritual home of talhas - to taste the new wine and meet the winemakers.And this year we were invited to take part in a couple of films being made by famous Portuguese wine writer Madalena Vidigal called Rota Tesouros do Alentejo (The Treasures of the Alentejo Route).Our programmes aren’t out yet, but here’s a sneaky peak at Episode 2 in Portuguese of course.Each episode looks at a different aspect of Alentejo wines, and we were invited along as special guests to learn more about old vines and talha wines - at Vidigueira cooperative and ROCIM where Pedro Ribeiro makes amazing wines with clay pots.He hosts an Amphora Wine Day every year with wine producers from all over the world who make wine with clay...and it gets bigger every year. Again it was a great day out - as was the amazing annual Wine & Friends lunch at Hamilton Reis’ Natus Vini.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It’s a great story with wine and song and you can hear it come to life in Going Roman, Episode 4 of our podcast series Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure.I wrote about our trip to Vila de Frades for the opening of the talhas last year and it’s great to look back at this time a year ago and see how far we have come in our building project and how chaotic things were 12 months ago.Hopefully we’ll soon be hosting talha winemakers here in Vale das Estrelas.St Martin’s Day also tends to coincide with a spell of beautiful sunshine, warm temperatures and a surge of growth for all the plants before the temperatures drop.The meteorological explanation is a little wobble in the high pressure zone over the Açores - one of the most important influences on Portugal’s weather.The Atlantic is the warmest it has been all year thanks to the warmer southern waters being pushed north during this annual transition into winter. Maybe we’ll even venture to the Birthday Beach this weekend...I spent a good amount of time down a rabbit hole investigate g the story of St Martin’s progression from plain old Hungarian Martin, to patron saint of the poor, of tailors, winemakers and curiously both soldiers and conscientious objectors. Oh, and of France.It’s all linked in with Halloween, Martinmas, bonfires, Remembrance, tricks and treats... and some Polish competitive croissant baking.This year the temperatures quickly dropped after the wine jars had been opened and all efforts in the valley were focussed on making sure all the dry wood was chopped and stashed under cover before the real rain arrives.My old pal Hugh Jennings was on a whistle-stop volunteering trip to help, and after some back-breaking hours with the splitting axe we had enough prepared to see us through winter.We also took the chance to make sure the rainwater collection systems were properly set up.It’s a vitally important part of our water plan to collect loads of rain over winter, and so Hugh spent hours siliconing the gaps between our solar panels while I secured the guttering and pipes we’d installed last year to increase the flat surfaces area to harvest rainfall from.This time we have a reception tank and a proper pump to take all the water we can up to the storage on the hill, so we don’t waste any.The pillow tank has already grown courtesy of some October rain and now I have meters installed to see just how well the system is running...and to keep tabs on our water collection. Full is 200,000 litres…fingers crossed.I guess there are some things I’m becoming an expert at - living sustainably...that we are certainly doing!I wrote back to Guido asking if it was really all that easy to just change the solar water pump without emptying the whole system of very hot water.“You’re right, that will probably be too much of a problem for you,” he replied, while requesting more photos of the offending items.The dials revealed perhaps a leak in the system and the pump might just be whining about it rather than failing...maybe it’s something I can solve it after all...watch this space. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com