Bom dia!

We’re delighted that you have taken an interest in Rural Escapes Portugal. We are both professionals from the UK (London & Brighton). Ellis is an accomplished builder who can fix absolutely anything and everything and I am an experienced yoga teacher who has also worked in education for many years.

We have three grown-up daughters between us and good lives back in Brighton. However with the girls now grown up we felt we wanted to do something completely different together, experience self-sufficient living and build something that we could enjoy with others.

So how did we end up here?

We both became excited when we saw 6 hectares of land for sale in Portugal advertised on the internet and we decided take a look. That was back in 2015.

It hasn’t take us long to fall in love with this beautiful valley with it’s stunning views of Mount Foia. It is incredibly peaceful here with little disturbance as there are no roads running through it and no neighbours near by.

The land has many native trees including cork trees, Medronho (strawberry tree) and Eucalyptus, our aim is to eventually clear the land of Eucalyptus and introduce more native plants and trees including fruit and nut trees. There is no mains electricity here so we live completely off the grid.

Although neither of us came from a permaculture background we have found ourselves becoming drawn to this way of living, we fully appreciate the intelligence of mother nature and have found that as we move through the seasons we are continuously learning about the land, how to manage it and to live in harmony with it.

These are fresh and exciting times for us which we embrace fully. We hope you are able to join us here and become part of this adventure either as a guest, or perhaps on one of our retreats or even as a volunteer.

Namaste!