Quinta das Abelhas

the day-before-yesterday a couple of wwoofers arrived. unannounced. a week earlier than we were expecting them.

rebecca asked in an email if it was ok for her and a friend to ‘just turn up’ and i’d said please don’t, let me know in advance when you want to arrive. so, yes, i was a bit grumpy. i told them they should have phoned first. i told them we had other wwoofers here and no space for anyone else unless they had their own tent. they didn’t. we tried to think of other farms they might be able to go to.

then lovely claire offered to sleep on the sofa so they could have the yurt. andy made dinner for everyone and we all chatted over a couple of bottles of wine. all seemed fine. rebecca and charlotte said they’d met the people who are house-sitting next door, and they’d offered for them to stay there if we didn’t have room for them. we told them that although we hadn’t got off to a very good start, we were happy for them to stay here, and please not to go next door because our neighbours had told us they didn’t want any more people there while they’re away.

yesterday we had to go out to sort out paperwork for our new quinta. we thought rebecca and charlotte must still be asleep when we were having our morning coffee as they weren’t around, but we saw them coming down the track and said a hurried “good morning” as we left. we got smiles in return.

we got back from tábua to be told that they’d left and gone next door. after we’d told them the owners would not be happy about more people being there. i think my jaw actually hit the floor … i was lost for words. how can people have so little (no) respect for others?

then we went to meet the owner of our new quinta, for a last walk around the borders and to agree on a timescale for the purchase. and who should we bump into swimming in the river? rebecca and charlotte! the quinta is gated. the owner’s car was outside the gate, and our car was inside. it was obviously private land and people were “home”. but did these two bother to find someone to ask if it was ok to take a swim? no.

the owner wasn’t happy. it was embarrassing. i told them it was private land. they said they were just leaving anyway. charlotte has apparently spent a lot of time perfecting her evil glare (or perhaps it’s her natural demeanor) and we were treated to one of her finest.

i’m still upset/angry/incredulous about this brief encounter with these two people. they obviously feel we are horrible people. why? was it so unreasonable to expect them to not just turn up? this is because if people don’t “book” their stay then we may have others here already and no space for newcomers. however, we tried to help with alternative accommodation and, as it turned out, we made room for them and welcomed them. they left while we were out. no word of goodbye. no word of thanks. no explanation of how they felt. no possibility of resolution.

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