Shows
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalBiblical WeatherMarta 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 flood...
2026-02-0711 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalBacking the BoozeFor 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 thro...
2026-01-1811 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalHappy Holidays!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 po...
2025-12-2108 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalMarketing 101We 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, a...
2025-12-0708 min
The Resident PodcastThe Resident Podcast Interview with Alastair Leithead - Ep.2 - 02-12-25Our guest today is Resident Columnist Alastair Leithead who describes himself as a "Portugal trainee, freelance journalist & co-luxe entrepreneur".After many years as a BBC foreign correspondent, Alastair Leithead is now permanently based in Portugal where he and his wife Ana have built an off-grid tourism lodge called Vale das Estrelas.They hold events, host retreats and run a small boutique hotel in Odemira based around wine tourism alongside a wine/travelogue podcast they produce on the Alentejo region. Alastair writes blogs both on the challenges of his is new off-grid life in the countryside and...
2025-12-0232 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalStorm SurgeOn 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...
2025-11-2309 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalElephants to AlentejoIt’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 Ro...
2025-11-0908 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalPaint & porn starsIn 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, de...
2025-10-2609 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalComing up for AirSo 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...
2025-09-1408 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalIt’s actually happening...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...
2025-07-2709 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalFantastic FestasPortugal 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...
2025-06-2209 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalSpringing into SummerThe 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 hous...
2025-05-2108 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalOff Grid and SMUG in PortugalSurprised, 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...
2025-04-2908 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalOpening TimeFor 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 manag...
2025-04-2009 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalWe’ve done it!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 câmar...
2025-03-2310 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Infinite StaircaseSince 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 havin...
2025-02-1607 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalBirthday PresenceBirthday 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 Skywa...
2025-02-0208 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Pleasure of BleisureJanuaries 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 pow...
2025-01-2210 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe "Making Of" MovieDespite 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...
2024-12-2904 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Big Plan for Our Second LifeWe 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 lo...
2024-12-0807 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalReal PeopleI’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...
2024-11-2308 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalOpening timeSometimes we thought it would never happen, but four years after moving to Portugal full time and two years after construction work started on our retrospectively but objectively crazy off-grid eco-luxe lodge 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, the views are as stunning as the first day we found this amazing property, and we’re ready to start tackling a new chapter in our second life: running a tourism business.We were warned how long the finishing works would take – espe...
2024-10-2207 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalClearing SkiesToday I’d like to start with an apology.You’ve been very patient with me as I’ve bumbled and grumbled my way through the past few months, mostly moaning about DIY, crossing the Valley of Death, Losing Perspective and treating my despatches more like therapy sessions.You didn’t sign up to be armchair psychiatrists, so I’m sorry...but thank you.After a bit of self-reflection and a little “enough already” advice from people whose opinions I trust, I would like to announce the official end to my searing negativity.I’ve been...
2024-09-0809 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalIdentity CrisisWith all the talk about gender at the Olympics I’ve been reassessing how I identify.I’ve spent the last few years trying to move towards something approaching the Oxford English dictionary’s definition of handyman: “a person able or employed to do occasional domestic repairs and minor renovations.”I’ve slowly being moving towards the “Mr Fixit” label my mum used to have for my dad when I was growing up – I’m actually still using some of his tools from the 1950s box with his initials on it.But my attitude towards our...
2024-08-1709 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Valley of Death“Well, now you just need to get through the valley of death, don’t you?” was the unexpected message of encouragement from one of our recent guests.I met Professor Eric Lambin at Stanford University in northern California where Ana and I spent a fabulous (albeit COVID-interrupted) back-to-school journalism fellowship year.He might be a world-renowned geographer, a member of the European Commission’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors and a Blue Planet Prizewinner, but he was also one of the three students rocking up for beginning Portuguese classes every weekday morning.All of us wa...
2024-07-2109 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalLosing PerspectiveI’m sitting on a plane in the skies over Africa trying to put everything we’re doing into perspective.It’s silly o’clock in the morning here, but recently we’ve been no strangers to sleepless nights, recurring dreams about buried pipes bursting and cold sweats over finances and licencing.Big things are happening in the valley, but they’ve been wearing us down.I lost perspective last week on one of the most difficult days on this crazy journey so far.Another no-show from our architect and another week-long de...
2024-06-3007 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureEpisode 6: Under the LakeWelcome to Episode 6 of Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure and a story woven through so many layers of history it’s hard to know where to start.The boulder fields around the World Heritage city of Évora - in the heart of Alentejo wine country - give the name to one of Alentejo’s most famous and famously expensive wines.Thanks for reading The Big Portuguese Wine Adventure. The podcast’s free: please share it. It’s also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.Pêra Manca which means “wobbling” or “rolling” sto...
2024-06-0831 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalMoving MountainsIn the end they left with a whimper rather than a bang.Almost un-noticed, things on the building site gradually started disappearing until suddenly there was nothing left – except for a large pile of building rubbish and some unfinished digging work.We’d agreed to pay for some of Justo’s digger time by the hour, and just as I was stressing about which work we needed him to do in what order he started loading it on the back of the truck.“Broken” he shrugged and headed off to the mechanic.He came...
2024-06-0510 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureEpisode 5: Staying RomanHey there are welcome to Episode 5 of Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure.This episode we take an even deeper dive into Portugal’s Roman history through Torre de Palma - a wine hotel built on the remains of a Roman winemaking villa.Mosaics discovered by archaeologists at Torre de Palma are now being protected at the National Museum of Archaeology in Lisbon.Portugal loves to celebrate its many layers of history and so we begin this story at a Roman reenactment festival in Beja, the capital of the Lower Alentejo.We...
2024-06-0130 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureBonus Episode (4): Talha with a twistI love talking about talha or amphora wine - it’s one of the most exciting and popular winemaking techniques in the Alentejo.It’s natural wine, it’s gastronomic, and it works well with the traditional Alentejo foods like black pork…but it doesn’t taste like regular wine.Talha has an earthiness about it and is often quite heavy - like a lot of wines from Alentejo have traditionally been.But everyone here wants to make some wine in a clay pot - that’s why the ancient vessels are so hard to get...
2024-05-2910 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureEpisode 4: Going RomanOne of the hottest trends in Portuguese winemaking is using amphorae clay pots - just like the Roman’s did two thousand years ago.In Portugal they are known as talhas, and it’s the way people in Alentejo have been making wine for generations - fermenting field-blended grapes in ancient clay vessels to produce young wines.In the town of Vila de Frades (Friars’ Town) they claim to have been making it this way - constantly - since Roman timesThe clue’s in the title of course…the monks had a thirst for...
2024-05-2533 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureBonus Episode (3): Wine ClassWe packed so much into our third episode on the Plansel winery - new wine grapes, why every new grape plant must be grafted on to an American rootstock…and the great story of Jorge Bohm, Dorina Lindemann and three generations of winemakers.But one of the things we wanted to tell you more about was their international wine school, and so that’s the topic for this week’s bonus episode.It’s a basic introduction to wines and wine tasting, so if you’re already an expert please skip straight on to our next episo...
2024-05-2311 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureEpisode 3: Hard GraftThis episode we discover how a shipwrecked German wine heir accidentally changed Portuguese wines from the roots up, and why his daughter Dorina Lindemann began her winemaking journey with a fizz.Now her daughters are following in the family’s footsteps at Quinta da Plansel winery and plant nursery. We visit their estate in Montemor-o-Novo to learn about vinhos and vinhas – grapes and vines – the varieties, the grafts and the pesky pests that ruined Europe’s vineyards for half a century.After a gentle introduction to Portugal’s wines and grapes, this episode we are lea...
2024-05-1833 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureBONUS EPISODE (2): EsporãoHerdade do Esporão has a huge range of wines from the entry level Monte Velho to the once-in-a-blue-moon Torre…with all sorts of wines in between.These are some of the Alentejo wines that you are most likely to find all over the world. There are links to UK and US suppliers below so you can order the wines and drink along with João Ramos’ amazing tasting.João’s moved on - back to Setúbal - and also makes his own amazing wines…but the wines he talked us through were...
2024-05-1515 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalJuggling Spinning Plates“So when do you open?” is a common question as everything on our hillside starts to look a little more finished.“Last Saturday” is my current response – because that was the original plan.Great friends of ours from our Bangkok days...and their friends...had booked last year to come and stay when the finish date on the building contract was optimistically set for the end of February.“Yes, this February,” was my common response (often to the builders) while we prepared for a group of 28 people – half of them children, but we felt that even i...
2024-05-1209 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureEpisode 2: Deep in Alentejo Wine CountryNow it’s time to head deep into the heart of Alentejo wine country: the hot, dry interior where most of the region’s wines are produced.This episode is centred around the Esporão winery and some of its iconic winemakers, to help tell the story of a wine revolution which has shaped the Alentejo over the past 40 years.Portugal’s wine history goes back even further than the Romans, who brought large scale wine-making to the Iberian Peninsula.The Catholic Church and its sacrament kept the vineyards producing, and after England fell ou...
2024-05-1129 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureBONUS EPISODE: VicentinoYou’ve heard the story of Vicentino…now enjoy a tour around the new winery.Every week when we launch a new episode of the podcast we will be putting out a midweek deeper dive into one aspect: the winery, the winemaker or the story.Episode 1 is just down the road from our new home on this wild Alentejo west coast and they’ve just built a huge new winery to produce and showcase their wines.We followed their progress - we captured the moment when their roof went on in May 2023.The...
2024-05-0813 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventureEpisode 1: Starting localOur part of Portugal is known as the last wild coast in Europe and it’s a beautiful place to start a podcast series on Portuguese wine.Long-distance hikers pound the Rota Vicentina Fisherman’s trail which follows more than 200km of clifftops, surfing spots and secret beaches on the country’s Atlantic west coast.And one stretch of this epic two week walk features the first winery on the list for our Big Portuguese Wine Adventure – Vicentino.The wines are fresh and fruity and instilled with the saltiness of the Atlantic Ocean which th...
2024-05-0429 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalI love it when a plan comes togetherThere have been occasions when I’ve strolled up to our building site expecting a hive of activity, only to discover the Mary Celeste.Perhaps that’s an apt comparison, given the abandoned ship was found drifting somewhere between the Azores islands and the Portuguese coast in 1872 with no crew – what happened to them remains a mystery to this day.Tumble weeds don’t even grow here, but I’d swear I’ve seen them in the corner of my eye on those days where a sprinkle of drizzle or an ominous weather forecast has kept everyon...
2024-04-2808 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Big PictureThe first sign of summer is when planting a tree turns from simply picking a spot and digging up a bit of soil...to battering through concrete.It took just two days of mid-20s Celsius for the ground to turn from being soft and simple to dig, mix in with compost and happily plant, to needing a medieval throwing spear to break the surface and leave us longing for a pneumatic drill to finish the job.It’s also a sign it’s now probably too late for us to do much of our plan...
2024-04-1409 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalWater, water everywhere...We’ve worried about water for three years now – since we started our crazy off-grid adventure – but had no idea we’d be dealing with too much rather than too little.Nevertheless, we are still happy to see the heavens open, despite months of above average rainfall – thanks to El Niño – and a massive storm system that’s been sitting off the coast of Ireland and hammering the Iberian peninsula all week.Lisbon’s steep and narrow streets briefly turned to rivers, a video clip of a rare water spout near the Vasco de Gama bridge in th...
2024-03-3108 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Small ThingsWe love having friends over – especially the ones who haven’t been to our place in a while.“Wow...you’ve done so much! It’s amazing...it’s almost finished,” they all say and we breathe out a little, smile and nod to each other acknowledging the reminder of just how far we have actually come in such a short time.Blessed by the reassurance we aren’t complete idiots we can relax into a nice lunch and present a little Alentejo tell-and-taste wine story, imagining a day when we’re finished enough to open and do this f...
2024-03-1608 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalMissingI don’t remember a week like it. It lasted a month, but was gone in a flash. The emotional rollercoaster was so steep the cars barely stayed on the tracks.A powerful storm brought thunder-flashes and torrential rain, battered the valley with hailstones and scared Simon the dog so much he bolted from just outside our front door and fled into the darkness on the worst of nights.We imagined him drowned in a ditch or gored by a wild boar, we searched the land with flashlights, drove the muddy tracks, and barely slept as...
2024-03-1010 min
Ana & Al's Big Portuguese Wine AdventurePodcast TrailerAfter months of criss-crossing Alentejo in search of stories, storytellers and the best possible wines, our documentary-style podcast is almost ready to go live.We’ve increased the number of episodes from ten to a dozen to squeeze in some extra elements of a Portuguese wine story.Today we’re launching the latest series trailer - if there’s anyone you think would like to be a part of our journey please ask them to sign up for free, or to subscribe if they want early access to the episodes and a deeper dive.
2024-02-2203 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalWheel of fortuneIt was my first live auction and despite being online it was still very exciting.Exciting enough for me to keep on asking Ana if she was sure she didn’t want to bid on that too-small corner cupboard or a dining room table which she’d already dismissed as being not our style.We’re trying to find unique pieces of furniture and create our own interior décor, and so agreed to bid on a few bedside tables, a Chinese cabinet, a “possible dresser”, three camel seats and some candlesticks...oh, and a fruit machi...
2024-02-2209 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalA Birthday and a BulldozerLike most of us, I’m glad January’s over...but not for the usual reasons.There wasn’t anything particularly dry about it...neither in terms of rainfall nor alcohol (but it is my birthday month and so the no booze thing never really works out to be honest).I can’t really blame the cold darkness either...there’s been bright sunshine for the last two weeks, we’ve had a couple of unseasonably warm days over 20C (sorry)...and we even went to the beach for a dip and a clifftop fondue party.
2024-02-0209 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalLandslide!“Why didn’t I think of that?” is a question I’ve beaten myself up asking many times in this odd new life when the latest thing to go wrong has gone wrong.And it’s one I ponder while looking at a landslide, a flood and a jumble of upturned tanks on the hill below our building site which just before the storm was an almost-finished water treatment system.I make a lot of mistakes by rushing into things, not preparing properly and thinking stuff can be done in an impossible period of time...but I can’...
2024-01-2009 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalAttack of the Giant MolesWe have a mole problem – a big mole problem.I went up on site the other day and the monsters had eaten their way through our whole building site.Not just a few little hills here and there, but trenches...metre after metre of them...and some of them really deep.I mean check this out...I suspect the Mole in Chief to be Justo – maestro of the machines and digger of the ditches – but in truth, I’m delighted to see his little valleys criss-crossing their way between our buildings and up a...
2024-01-0907 min
Business DailyLiving off-grid: Scaling upAlastair Leithead and his wife Ana moved to Portugal during the Covid pandemic. They live off-grid, meaning they have no access to mains electricity or water supplies. They also have to manage their own waste water and sewage.Now the former BBC correspondent is embarking on an ambitious project to build and run a hotel, meaning their solar powered utilities will not only have to work for them, but also paying guests. Produced and presented by Alastair Leithead.(Image: Alastair and Ana at their property. Credit: Alastair Leithead)
2024-01-0221 min
Business DailyLiving off-grid in PortugalIn the first of a two part series, we're in the Alentejo region where people are buying land and empty properties in an area without power or water supply.Former BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead is one of them - he has moved there with his wife, and is trying to build and run a hotel. He travels around the region and speaks to his neighbours about their experiences.Plus - what do local people think of this influx of foreigners coming to live off-grid? Presented and produced by Alastair Leithead.(Image...
2024-01-0111 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalAccelerating into 2024...While I’m not really the New Year’s resolution type, I do like using the ticking over of another number to reflect on the 12 months past and ponder the year that’s yet to come.I’ve scattered the last despatch of 2023 with some of the most viewed posts of the year for some tough - and some not so tough - reflection.In the words of this blog from exactly a year ago:“We will plant our trees, landscape our valley, launch our wines podcast, design and finish our interiors, build our water...
2023-12-3009 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Longest NightHasn’t that last week before Christmas been such a rush to get things done?Writing cards, last minute shopping, bulldozing holes, lowering septic tanks and digging pipe ditches.It’s just one thing after another, eh?That familiar shovelling of freshly fallen sand to make sure the tanks are level, spaying a few kittens, and writing letters to Santa asking him to bring us doors and windows for the new buildings as soon as he possibly can after the festive rush...please...that kind of thing.But the typical Christmas morn...
2023-12-2408 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalWhat a Day...Sitting on the sofa chatting through the best place we could build a car park, we knew it was going to be a crazy day.But after slurping down a mug of coffee and heading up the hill a little after 8.15am we had no idea of the level chaos that was already enveloping our building site.We arrived to find a shipping container semi-suspended from the bucket of a huge bulldozer, one end pile-driven into the ground, the other scraping the edge of the mountain of dried cement known locally as the concrete poop.
2023-12-1608 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalAlentejo Wins AgainWith a thousand and one things to do, a deadline always helps sort the wheat from the chaff – or the wheat from the oats as it would turn out.An incoming Atlantic storm to break the sunshine of St Martin’s Summer provided the necessary motivation to get us out onto the land and tick things off before it all turned to a thick claggy clay mud.We knew rain would come and there were certain things that needed to be done before it did, but it was only when our weather app started giving us s...
2023-12-0209 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalSecond SummerOur path of life is a little treacherous – steep and with lots of places to slip and fall – but the further we go down it, the smaller the drop becomes and the less chance we have of plunging to our deaths.The recent rain has slid in some complications – as I wrote about last week – but the route is still navigable and we’re confident that reaching the destination is worth the difficult journey.And thanks to St Martin, this week we took this metaphor literally, packed a picnic and scrambled a tricky track down the cliffs...
2023-11-1908 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalA Large Concrete PoopThings can change very quickly here in the Valley of the Stars.The first draft of this week’s despatch began: “This week our dream has really started looking like a fabulous reality…”By that same afternoon it needed a complete rewrite, and this line needed to be cut entirely:“I don’t want this to sound like an Academy Award acceptance speech for a film that isn’t done, as we’re far from finished yet, but we are just a little more confident that one day we might be.”It was around the...
2023-11-1209 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalCome on AlineI’ve always wanted a dog called Eileen.The delight it would bring every time I shouted out in public “Come on Eileen...Come on Eileen...” would never get old.Sadly The LBD (Little Black Dog) is a boy, but at least we had Portugal’s first named Atlantic storm to fall back on this week.It might have been Storm Babet battering Britain, but it was Aline which was too-loo-rye-aying her way towards Portugal this week...same storm system, different first letter.Or for those preferring an alternative pronunciation, perhaps Aline wa...
2023-10-2108 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalGetting properly plasteredIt was dusk and we were wandering around the silent building site pondering where to place outside taps when a fancy truck pulled up.The Little Black Dog (LBD) was transitioning from timid to over-excited (more on him later), and we were surprised: we don’t get people ‘round ‘ere after the sun’s set.Then a smallish, tough-looking guy speaking Portuguese leaped down from the shiny grey Ford Tracker flanked by heavies and started walking towards us...with purpose, looking around...with interest.So this was it: the local mafia had arrived, investig...
2023-10-1408 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalOperation Free BarIn my experience one should never turn down the offer of a free bar: it’s always fun and it usually leads to new friendships, but of course there can be consequences.So when I received the message from Vanessa and Jeremy who read this blog and live in Porto, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.“We’ve just purchased a small quinta just outside Porto and the previous owners left few pieces behind,” Vanessa wrote.“It’s quite large, some see possible beauty, some see a large monstrosity, but it’s free to a new...
2023-10-0109 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalRise of the MachinesWe’d been mildly bothering Carlos the building supplies guy for a few weeks about bringing one of his big diggers in to help rearrange a few things.We’ve had a couple of rearrangements in the valley already and it usually involves setting a site visit, walking, talking, pointing and head scratching, and then waiting weeks for the agreed machine to rock up.Our most recent bothering was on our umpteenth trip to the tiles and taps place to sort out a still unresolved confusion with the builder over shower and sink hardware..U...
2023-09-1806 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Interiors MinisterThere are many good reasons to visit Marvão – a beautiful fortified hilltop town in Alentejo’s interior - but this is not the place for a day trip from our house.With a view over Spain, it’s more than four hours one-way, not giving much time for lunch or dinner at the fabulous Mil Homens restaurant, or to stay in the stunning pousada, or to do a sunrise walk around the castle and the town’s walls as we did a couple of years ago.But in pursuit of a bargain we can do eight...
2023-09-0609 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Grand Tour 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
2023-08-2606 minBusiness DailyThe return of the wine corkThe humble wine cork, once the main way to stop a bottle of wine, had its market share decimated in the 1990’s when screw caps were favoured. However, the problem of 'corked' wine has been almost completely solved and cork is recognised as a more sustainable, if slightly less convenient material for wine makers to use.In this episode we visit the world’s largest cork producing region in Portugal to find out more about how the cork industry has hit the good times once again. We explore which wines taste better with cork and how supermarkets are...
2023-08-2318 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThat Old Foe FireBeing in the right place at completely the wrong time used to be a professional blessing, but these days I’m not so sure.When I was a BBC foreign correspondent, friends would ask where I was planning to visit next so they could avoid going there on holiday because news stories seemed to follow me around the world.What could possibly happen moving to Miami? (Hurricane Katrina hit there first), or Bangkok? (weeks of violent street protests ended by a military massacre) or Kabul? (Afghanistan was supposedly back on a happy democratic track at th...
2023-08-0908 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalValley of the AngelesIt was wonderful to be away, but it’s wonderful to be back in the Valley of the Stars – reinvigorated by a few weeks of adventure and ready to plunge back into the madness with renewed vigour.The builders have been busy while we’ve been away, the animals were almost as pleased to see us as our neighbour Daniel who’s been managing the menagerie solo for a week of torment by Simon & Garfunkel and the relentless Val Kilmer thief-cat and her kittens.We were amazed to see most of our saplings have survived the summ...
2023-07-2908 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalDon't stop this trainI suppose the first lesson of over-sharing ones trials and tribulations on social media is understanding the jigsaw effect of a headline and a photo placed together..A lot of people only have time for the top line, and so posting a picture of me in hospital alongside the words “Hitting a Wall” would obviously lead to some not wholly accurate conclusions being drawn.Quite a few people now think I’ve had some kind of coronary as opposed to a colon-ary.The hospital-bed picture captured by Ana who was first on the his an...
2023-07-0608 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalHitting the wallWe’ve had our challenges since beginning this crazy new-life, off-grid-living adventure-in-paradise experiment, but the last couple of weeks have been my toughest so far. And what’s odd is that it sneaked up on me.I just hit some kind of wall which has sapped me of energy, drained me of enthusiasm and ground everything I have been doing to a halt.It could be the impossible list of things we’re trying to achieve, the increasing pressures of our building project, or the final realisation I haven’t got a proper job anymore – a...
2023-06-2807 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalWater-disasterIt’s been one of those weeks in the Valley of the Stars.For the best part of three years water has been our obsession, but the latest attempt to solve our biggest long-term challenge has just ended in an expensive failure.We shower in mineral-rich borehole water and drink filtered rain, but for our new eco-lodge that’s not going to cut it.We need a reliable system of delivering plenty of clean drinking water and have called a lot of people – from Colorado to the Netherlands – and there’s no simple answer to...
2023-06-1007 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalEuropean excursionThere are many great things our off-grid life in rural Portugal gives us, but sometimes parachuting into another place with other people reminds us how different we have become.Ana and I are not known for living in normal places and working nine to five (what a way to make a living?), but I enjoyed a moment of self-refection while we spent a sunny Sunday afternoon drinking beer brewed by monks and eating steak tartare on a rural Belgian golf club terrace.Apart from red/orange trousers, I had little in common with the Belgian...
2023-05-2509 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalNeeding Val-iumThere’s a lot of concern from friends and in the media at the moment that the machines are taking over the world and we will soon to be doomed to a life of servility to our artificially intelligent masters.Perhaps we are already in The Matrix and now the ChatGPT bot can write undergraduate essays, human life on the planet is all but over.Obviously those of us sitting off the grid in rural Portugal may not feel this as much in our day to day life of strimming land, calibrating our new irrigation sy...
2023-05-1410 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalOff-Grid 101Going Off The Grid means different things to different people.One iteration is me living barefoot on the land, not washing my long hair and disappearing down disinformation rabbit holes: “Turn on, tune in, drop out” as Timothy Leary urged in the 1960s.The resilience and persistence of Portuguese brambles and the spiky grass seed pods that drive Simon the dog to distraction keep my shoes firmly attached to my feet, and while I could do with a trim, the flowing locks ship sailed long ago.My journalistic career has also inoculated me agai...
2023-04-3010 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalA Centennial of IgnoranceOn the occasion of my 100th despatch from the Valley of the Stars I had hoped to share stories of success, of overcoming the odds despite a total ignorance and having reached some form of accomplished-DIY and self-sufficient level of consciousness.Sadly it was not to be.It was one of those days when something was clearly in retrograde.You know, one of those days where everything you try to do just breaks, refuses to work in the first place, or generally doesn’t go your way...and then kicks you when you’re d...
2023-04-2209 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalTaking a BreakThere’s something I find very special about islands perched in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and this week’s despatch originates on one of them.It’s a place known for its highs: we slept suspended 8m above the ground and breathed in bubbles of sulphur steam.Do you know where it is yet?We ate black pudding with pineapple, lodged in a windmill, ventured through underground tunnels to reach a hidden valley and almost swam in tidal pools (come on, it is April).Oh, and we tried some new vo...
2023-04-1009 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalRoots and foundations 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
2023-03-2607 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalMenagerie madnessThere have been times since embarking on this slightly crazy off-grid existence when I’ve had the overwhelming feeling that things have been spiralling out of control.Batteries have failed, machines have broken and the delicate balancing act of converting sunshine into heat and power has occasionally tipped us into darkness.I’ve chased my tail, frantically doggy-paddled to keep my head above water and then finally felt I was getting ahead of the pack.Things have become significantly easier with experience (and a massive new solar power station), but this week marked the...
2023-03-1107 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalBatcat, Elvis and the Voice of God“Mais animais” as they say around here – more animals.Shortly after sending out last week’s despatch, Val Kilmer’s kittens started appearing – we counted them one by one with an increasing sense of fear and foreboding, but thankfully she stopped at a conservative five.Not content with being a teenage mum it was also clear that there wasn’t just one father, but three or four. Imagine.And so a small bundle of different coloured blind fur rats have been squealing at us all week from the safety of a crib under the daybed con...
2023-02-2708 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalThe Nitty Gritty“So you’re retired?” someone asked me recently.We’ve given up our jobs, moved to the countryside, don’t have any income but are spending lots of money building things, so I suppose we could give that impression.My alternative answer to “no of course not” is: “yes, in the sense that we get tired, we recover, and then get tired again...or re-tired you might say.”Often it’s a 5am start and a 10pm finish, juggling finances, planning interiors, editing podcast audio, studying for wine qualifications and Ana’s driving license, or fretting a...
2023-01-2408 min
From Our Own CorrespondentChina’s Great ReopeningKate Adie presents stories from China, Brazil, Sri Lanka, the US and Portugal.China has opened up its borders again ahead of the New Year festival. Late las year, Xi Jinping eased Covid restrictions after anti-Zero Covid protests, which has led to a surge in cases across major cities and provinces. Many in the country are divided about whether to savour their new found freedoms and travel, or stay put to protect elderly relatives, says Stephen McDonnell.The storming of Brazil's congress, presidential palace and supreme court by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro has led many...
2023-01-1428 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalNew Year’s mess-solutionThis year we decided to spend the ‘New Year, New Start’ gym membership money on post-it notes.The white board just wasn’t big enough for what we aimed to achieve on January 3rd when we felt compelled to get a grip on the chaos of our projects our business and our lives in general.Inspired by Ana’s experience of work planning retreats she led our inaugural annual planning meeting with the support of the sticky paper colours yellow, pink, green and blue.And in the pursuit of strict structure and prioritisation we almos...
2023-01-1108 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep12 - Out with the old...On New Year’s Eve 2022, the last despatch of the year looks back at the challenges we’ve faced in a tough but fun year, and what we hope to achieve in 2023. Thanks for listening - and for following the blog and/or the podcast - please share it with a few friends to help broaden our support community that’s helping us through our big new adventure.Audio versions of next year’s despatches will all appear on the podcast feed, but do check out the pictures and the links on the website!Don’t...
2022-12-3104 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep11 - Digging deepFinally digging for water in December 2022 - and getting a lot more from the sky than the ground (and a lot more cheaply)…but them’s the breaks.TRANSCRIPT…It was months ago when Twitching Justino’s divining rods first dipped towards the ground and two crossed sticks X-marked the spot where he literally felt we would have the best hope of finding water.As I wrote in August: “the only control you have over a high-stakes gamble is which good luck charm to choose,” and we’d chosen him for a job which would co...
2022-12-3007 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep10 - A Doce of BatatasVisiting a festival devoted to a surprising vegetable, but a lesson in just what our region is famous for from November 2022.TRANSCRIPT…Different people value many different things very differently, and it turns out one of those things in this part of the world is the sweet potato.The humble batata-doce, as it’s known in Portuguese, enjoys a cult status worthy of celebration, police checkpoints and a lot of music.I’ll admit I chuckled (and may even have mocked) the first time I saw signs advertising the annual Sweet Potato...
2022-12-3006 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep9 - Power SergioHaving survived the fire, the equipment for our huge new solar power system needed a bit of final tweaking in October 2022 before the giant metaphorical Frankenstein switch could be thrown and the control room could start throbbing with energy.TRANSCRIPT…While energy costs continue to spiral, those of us living off the grid are allowing ourselves a brief self-congratulatory moment in the sun.In our part of Portugal we have 300 days of sunshine a year to not only enjoy wonderful beach days and sunsets (or fight the occasional fire), but also to generate a...
2022-12-3006 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep8 - A new startThe aftermath of the big fire, tackling some small spot fires a week later, losing one of our oldest oak trees, and trying to work out a master-plan by turning disaster to our advantage from October 2022.TRANSCRIPT…A full week after fire hit the valley I asked Ana what she would least expect to see on the same hillside where it started.“Another fire,” she replied, and she was right!Our eyes are now highly tuned to the slightest puff of smoke on the horizon and this was the first of a hand...
2022-12-3007 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep7 - Fire in the ValleyA scary day in September 2022 as the wind changed, a fire started a few miles away and we had to pack up everything we didn’t want to lose and headed for the hills in the hope there’d be a home to return to…TRANSCRIPT…If you saw a fire heading your way and had less than an hour to bundle together all the worldly possessions you wanted to keep – the ones that could fit in the car alongside one small dog and one very large dog – what would you take?And what would y...
2022-12-3011 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep6 - Not saying he’s no gold diggerWith drought continuing to affect the valley and our concerns rising about having enough water for our tourism project, in August 2022 we enlisted the help of some water diviners to help us dig a borehole in the best possible spot.You can hear what happened in S2:Ep11 - Digging Deep which is on this feed.TRANSCRIPT…Drought is on many people’s minds at the moment, but hosepipe bans are the least of our worries living off the grid in remote rural Portugal, where there’s no water company to call if the ta...
2022-12-3007 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep5 - Gentle GiantsA surprising reaction to bagpipe music from the big dog Garfunkel from August 2022.“This wasn’t an instrument the original Simon & Garfunkel were known for…the only connection is that some people prefer the Sound of Silence to the bagpipes.”TRANSCRIPT…Garfunkel was quietly guarding his radiator in the lounge as usual when his ears suddenly pricked up, he hauled his 65kg frame over to the table wagging his tail, and gave my arm a huge shove with his giant nose.This can sometimes happen when I’ve forgotten to give him and Simo...
2022-12-3006 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2: Ep4 - AddictedAn addiction from trying to get healthy and lose some weight, but I had no idea when I wrote this in May 2022 just how important it was going to be for our survival…TRANSCRIPT…I bear the track-marks of an addict.Anyone catching a glimpse of my forearms at the moment may well wonder whether the drug of choice in the Valley of the Stars has switched from wine to heroin.“Punctures, scabs and bruising...on the forearms, hands and legs...in the same area without healing time,” is how one drug awa...
2022-12-3006 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep3 - The long driveHow the city of Porto suddenly got closer, but still far enough away to ponder a big decision…to give up or to keep stressed and carry on?I mention a blog on wine that I also write - it’s called The Big Portuguese Wine Adventure and is the precursor to a proper podcast on Alentejo wines. Sign up to join the mailing list for that below.TRANSCRIPT…The day began with Ana saying it was time to stop.After putting so much time, energy and money into our big idea o...
2022-12-3005 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep2 - On war and oak treesReflections on my new life and my old when a question is asked, from March 2022.TRANSCRIPT…Two things this week tell me that I have reached a new stage in my life: the first was buying my first ever 25kg bag of fertiliser; the second was saying no to reporting on a war.I never thought the day would come, but it has.It’s not something I decided without deep thought and weighing up all the options.But the cork oaks are sick and we’re told giving their...
2022-12-3007 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS2:Ep1 - Facing Down FiftyI’m calling this series of recorded despatches “Season 2” as it is the best of my blog posts in 2022 recorded and collated to be heard more conveniently as a podcast. A summary of how we got here (and what went wrong along the way) can be heard on the six despatches in Season 1, also available on this podcast feed.Season 1, Episode 1 is on the occasion of a landmark birthday and reflections back on the decades before, from January 2022…TRANSCRIPT…My wife and I will be reaching our one hundredth birthday this year and o...
2022-12-3006 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS1:Ep6 - A night of high dramaA long lunch and a most eventful evening when we met new friends in the valley from May 2021.TRANSCRIPT…For once Millicent the Land Rover was the last car standing.What began as a lunch with new friends ended as a dramatic escape out of a car window from a raging river, a car written off in a flash flood and a truck upended in a ditch.Millicent lost an eyelash.It was a night of high drama in the Portuguese countryside.I don’t quite know who...
2022-12-2307 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS1:Ep5 - It all began with a treasure map…The back-story to why, and how, we ended up moving to an off-the-grid house in rural south-western Alentejo, from a moment of reflection on New Year’s Eve 2020.TRANSCRIPT…The plan was always just to find a little bit of land with a ruined house to spend our summers fixing up: our piece of Europe as we wandered the globe, but it didn’t quite end up that way. Here we are ending 2020 with no jobs, living on savings and off the grid in rural Portugal (with two dogs) on a steep learning curve a...
2022-12-2305 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS1:Ep4 - Musical pigs, bore holes and hoardersOur local foe and why they’re so good I name them twice. A musical dispatch from December 2020…TRANSCRIPT…I have a few songs permanently on my mind at the moment, and none of them are by Simon & Garfunkel.The first is by Duran Duran and is sparked by any mention of one of the valley’s wild inhabitants.The second is linked to a regular off-grid chore and comes from the original Jungle Book soundtrack.And the latest addition is Dire Straits courtesy of some dusty 1980s technology.So...
2022-12-2307 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS1:Ep3 - How hard can reinforced concrete be?An ambitious start to learning how to build with a lot of help and a few injuries in the process from November 2020.TRANSCRIPT…You know you’ve done a couple of good, hard days’ work with your hands when your iPhone no longer recognises you.Even if I had a newer phone I’m sure the “wild man of Alentejo” beard would have flummoxed facial recognition, but now steel rods and wire have laid waste to my fingerprints.In my dogged pursuit of learning how to do stuff I can happily, but stingingly...
2022-12-2304 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS1:Ep2 - Love, marmalade and Henry VIIIA foray into the bushes and a window into our new life of making and discovering in rural Portugal from November 2020.TRANSCRIPT…So. I could tell you about the mysterious bite – most likely from an angry centipede – which has left my entire left leg swollen and generating heat, four days after I didn’t notice I was bitten (while saving broad beans from the onslaught of the oxalis plant invasion). Or I could bang on about the cost of the new solar batteries, the generator and a gas boiler backup which we may need. Or...
2022-12-2306 min
Off-grid and Ignorant in PortugalS1:Ep1 - Teething troublesAn audio version of the very first blog written in November 2020 by former BBC foreign correspondent and war reporter Alastair Leithead who gave up a nomadic lifestyle to settle off the grid in a remote part of rural Portugal with with wife Ana, a former diplomat. Read all his despatches here: https://alastairleithead.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com
2022-12-2205 min
Another Brick In The WallAnother Brick In The Wall #5Building with Taipa. The Fifth episode of Another Brick in the Wall, has a very special guest Alastair Leithead, ex-BBC Correspondent, globetrotter, and the co-founder of an exciting off-the-grid tourism lodge, Vale das Estrelas, in Odemira. Speaking to Alastair, Pedro brings us the client's perspective of what it is like to embark on such a project, with all the different planning, construction and material challenges which one faces when trying to build with a vernacular material such as Taipa.Pedro Clarke is a registered Architect in both Portugal and the UK. He graduated from FAUP (Faculdade de...
2021-12-2430 min