Waking up at 5.15am is never easy. It is dark outside, but it is around 20 degrees. When does 20 degrees feel cool? When the previous day’s high was 38. We hit the snooze button and realise as we get up at 5.30, we are unlikely to get to Monsanto for sunrise, which was the original plan.
This doesn’t really matter. The important thing is to do this walk before the heat arrives. We take the ten minute drive to the parking spot, get our stuff into a rucksack, and set off up the hill. Well, I say hill, but it is the top part of a mountain. It is a stiff walk up the little cobbled streets of the village of Monsanto. We take our time. We are walking through living, vibrant, history. It is absolutely fantastic.
I know I have mentioned this before, but Portugal is absolutely a godsend for both preserving and making accessible historical sites. After a long uphill walk, we arrive at the castle. It is vast and built on top of huge granite boulders. It’s just staggering that this edifice could be built in such a place.
We spend a long time up there. Go around the castle, the adjoining chapel, the joined boulders. A couple of hours later we are negotiating the cobbles coming back down the steep slope. For a big lad like me coming down a slope is always filled with trepidation. I think the highlight was being able to identify CasaBo from the top of the mountain using Kimberley’s telephoto lens.
Back in the carpark for 10am and we feel like we have had a day’s excitement already. Time to celebrate with a coffee and some cake. Then we decide to go back to CasaBo and just relax. We dream. We plan. We just love being there.
Whilst there, we receive the quote for phase one and it looks good. Phase one is putting up a shelter for TUT, cleaning the well so we have water, creating driveway access onto the land and widening the entrance and setting up some power. We are silly excited to think that we will have somewhere to park TUT that is ours. More than that, we are also starting to plan for phase two, which is our dream home.
We decide tomorrow to take a massive baby step. More on this tomorrow but a warning. It is not for the faint hearted!
To round off a fantastic day, we decide to go and celebrate with a visit to Sagwat, a Nepalese Indian restaurant that we have seen recommended on one of the local Facebook groups we have joined. This place is absolute dynamite, and this is the best meal we have had since our arrival in Portugal, and we have had some cracking meals.
It is quite simple as I sit here to understand how we got here. Unbelievable but simple. All we had to do was set the destination, take baby steps, act as if, and have fun. Might I suggest, if you do not believe me, to just try it first on something small. Anything. Try it.