Quinta das Abelhas

The shepherd brings his sheep down to graze our land everyday, hope they don´t eat my washing though!

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World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

The aims of WWOOF are to …

• enable people to learn first-hand about organic growing techniques
• enable town-dwellers to experience living and helping on a farm
• help farmers make organic production a viable alternative
• improve communications within the organic movement

WWOOF Website

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I’m staying with a really lovely couple Andy and Sophie and their 2 boys -12yrs and 15yrs - both mad on skate-boarding. They have a small holding in the hills not far from Coimbra.
The olives and grapes are on terraces below the buildings and a man leads a herd of sheep and goats with bells on through to graze - they follow his call. The place I sleep is a canvas and pole yurt - kindof chest height igloo from Mongolia with a litle wood burner in it. However have not had much success with fires.-

There´s not much in the way of plumbing- one tap attached to the outside wall, 4 acres to pee in, a bath on one of the terraces that is warmed by a fire underneath and a plastic toilet seat on a wooden crate over a hole for serious business. All with a view over olives, pine forest, distant houses and the Portuguese Mountains.!! Very panoramic once you get over stage fright. There are 3 cats that sneak in and sleep on my bed and 2 dogs.

I trried to get the bath fire going the other day and had to
first clear the firepit as it was full of water - eventually
I got some wet wood burning and noticed the plug was leaking
underneath so pushed it in a bit harder and it went right
through and the bath water put the fire out again. I
persevered and got a fire going after 3 attempts but the sun
was setting and getting cooler so decideded to jump in the
bath while the fire was still heating it and nearly
asphyxiated on smoke!!. Think I was a bit cleaner after a
quick plunge in tepid water.

The food here is fantastic, plenty to eat and delicious thanks to Andy!
The wwoofing work is really fun and big variety of things to do.
I´ve been doing mosaic tiling and limestone painting a room here and now on to the olive harvesting.

It,s gone from freezing cold in the pouring rain, mist that hangs low over the valley and snow on those beautiful mountain ranges!! And along with these days there,s been beautiful clear sky and sunshine like today when its so good to be alive… I´ve just come up from trying out my limited Portuguese on the Shepherd grazing his herds of sheep and goats while I pick olives. That warm Portuguese sun and the tinkle of bells made up for any lack of words.

This has been an experience I wont ever forget from adjusting to the lack of amenities but mostly because of the warmth and generosity of Andy and Sophie with their totally relaxed attitude and encouragement to try new skills and welcome for strangers.

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at last. hoorah. off to golega horse fair now.

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