We often wondered if it would ever happen, but four years after moving to Portugal, and two years after construction work started on our crazy off-grid eco-luxe lodge tourism project, we are finally ready to open.
The cut-down-and-dug-out eucalyptus forest where our new buildings now stand is a distant memory and the views are as stunning as the first day we found this amazing property.
And now we have project-managed our way through construction, we’re ready to start tackling the next chapter in our second life: running a tourism business.
Sadly, you won’t find us on AirBnB just yet – the licensing process and permissions are still pending – but we’re on track to start hosting some events and retreats over the next few months and will open to all in the spring.
We’re obviously itching to get going and it’s been a frustrating time with the goalposts moving and different documents being variously needed or not needed.
Bureaucracy is terrible everywhere, but it’s made even worse having bounced around the world together with international careers never living in one place for very long – and never together in any of the countries where we have citizenship.
We’ve been stalking our architect and structural engineer to the point that the latter complained he feels like we’re holding a gun to his head.
After months of waiting for his particular bundle of papers, we have occasionally considered it … although his draftsman assures us that this won’t be necessary and it’s “almost ready”.
We’re hoping the Câmara here in Odemira will now rush our permissions through.
Alongside frustrating bureaucracy, the biggest challenge of all has been overcoming our lack of connections to power and water grids.
But now our water is no longer salty, the waste-treatment reed beds are thriving, and a test run of the villa’s underfloor heating sent the temperatures soaring along with our confidence that it’s going to be a toasty winter.
Real time power use data is streaming into my phone and the first post-summer storm was a good test for the rain-collecting systems and to work out how to manage electricity to all the pumps and heating systems so we’re not without power.
Our Post-It Note wall is back and is filled with ideas for retreats and packages to bring people to stay with us in Vale das Estrelas.
Our current ideas include writing and storytelling workshops, art and photography classes and becoming a base for long-distance walkers on the beautiful Rota Vicentina coastal and inland trails.
We can mix massage and yoga with some dark skies astronomy tourism and maybe even inspire more people to follow our footsteps either off the grid or into a completely new life at 50.
But as a journalist/diplomat couple we’re new to all this and are very much open to ideas – do get in touch if you have any suggestions.
Wine will be at the heart of our storytelling – given all the time we’ve spent travelling Alentejo, meeting winemakers and making a podcast on Portuguese history and travel through wine.
And we’ve already hosted a few events around wine, despite the southwestern coast of Alentejo not being as famous for vinhas as the interior.
While we are telling the whole story of Alentejo, there are plenty of small wine producers in Odemira and it’s certainly worth exploring if you’d like to try something a bit different.
Our friend Luís Martins has started running tastings and tours in the area and introduced us to another Odemira adega called Nascedios which produces some very quaffable wines.
And we’re fortunate enough to have a real gem in the Vicentino vineyard just a short drive from us.
They’ve just opened a new state-of-the-art winery and exquisite tasting room across the road from their 60 hectares of Portuguese and international grapes in Brejão and are famous for their Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.
The building is stunning, the wines are fresh and salty and, by investing in a lot more extra production capacity, they’re betting more vineyards in need of facilities will be moving to the coast as climate change ups the temperatures inland.
Vicentino’s head winemaker is Bernardo Cabral – an award-winning oenologist who uses his expertise the length of Portugal from the Douro to the Algarve, working with wineries in Alentejo, Bucelas, Palmeira and even on Pico Island in the Azores.
He leads the winemaking at Vicentino and also Arvad in the Algarve and his assistant winemakers run the vineyards day to day.
At Vicentino, that’s Ana Rita Bouça who developed their first Espumante sparkling wine for their winery opening and, at Arvad, Miguel Mimoso is getting exponentially excited about Negra Mole grapes.
Miguel is from our nearest town São Teotónio and successfully helped us get permission to plant half a hectare of grapes – now he’s advising us which Portuguese varieties to choose.
The current thinking for our damp, clay, coastal land is Arinto, Alvarinho and Verdelho in the whites, and Castelão, Aragonez and Jaen in the reds … but there’s a lot of research to do in a short space of time as we hope to plant in March.
If you’re an expert, do get in touch – we’re just eager to learn … and to maybe make something drinkable in a few years.
Our podcast series Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure starts at Vicentino and we even had a sneak preview of the new winery a few months ago – check out where you get your podcasts.
“Build it and they’ll come” people often say: so far so good.
“Pour it and they’ll stay” we’d like to add.
ALASTAIR LEITHEAD is a former BBC foreign correspondent now living off the grid in Odemira. We writes the blog “Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal” here and produces the podcast Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure.
