Part 1 - Small steps..
After months of internet searching and telephone conversations it was time for us to visit Portugal for the very first time ever. It was October of 2018, and neither of us had visited Portugal before, but for reasons unbeknown to ourselves we wanted to buy a piece of land there. Also rather oddly, we had decided that we specifically wanted our land in Central Portugal. At this point we didn't really know what type of land we were looking for, and moreover, we didn't expect to find our perfect piece of land on our first visit, but that's pretty much what happened. When we were searching the internet for our small piece of Portugal, our only criteria. at that time, was that it could be a base for our travel plans around Europe - basically a short-term place to park our campervan. Other considerations were that it was small, maybe 1 or 2 acres, and if we were lucky, then a river running by would be lovely- although agents were quick to point out that it would be very unlikely to have running water and van access on the same piece of land.
So we had our shortlisted properties, flights, car hire and accommodation organised and were now ready to set off to 'distant lands' to see what we had only seen in photos up until this point, and a glimpse into what our future could hold. This was our first experience of viewing land in Portugal, or as mentioned, being in Portugal at all.
On that first day of viewing we met with Melanie, our agent, and the owner of Homekey Properties, at 'The Fountain of Monte Gordo'. Whilst sat quietly waiting at the fountain a lady left her house and walked past us and up a side road, it was the quietest of places, so seeing anyone on the street was slightly odd, a few minutes later both Melanie and the lady came back, it turned out that the lady was the owner of the land, what's the chances ?
The land was on a hillside, it had a lovely view and a shed running with little lizards - something we don't see in our part of the UK. It was pleasant enough, had a good feeling and a beautiful view and had definitely sparked our interest. Later in the day Melanie showed us around a couple of farm properties, these were basically small sections of a bigger farm that the farmer didn't want to farm any more, again pleasant enough pieces of land, but not too similar to the pictures we had seen on the internet. Although not necessarily a problem, they were a little overlooked by neighbouring farmers for our liking, we wanted something more remote, more hidden I suppose. Unfortunately, apart from the first property, nothing really grabbed our attention on that first day.
For the second day of viewing, we had arranged to meet with Paulo from Remax estate agency. We arrived at the office in Castelo Branco at 9.30am with our shortlist of properties printed, noted and alphabetised, but Paulo had different ideas. He sat us down at a computer screen with Angelo, we spoke a little about what we were looking for and Angelo scanned through the list of properties available, making a 'new' list. Goodness me! We had worked for months on that shortlist! We went with it, jumped into Angelo's car and set off on our day of viewing. That morning we met with others from the agency, Maria, and a friendly chap who it seemed was the driver, but his name is lost on me at the moment. That morning we looked at properties to the east of Castelo Branco, and the afternoon was set aside for properties to the west.
The service we received that day from Paulo, Angelo, Maria and the friendly chap was excellent! We looked at all types of land that day, some large (8 plus acres), and some small (1 acre), some overgrown with lots of trees, some with none, but it wasn't until the last property on day two that we felt we may have found our piece of land. I suppose its more a feeling than anything else, a quiet bright space with a beautiful view, a perfect set of Olive trees and a big sky, this was what we were looking for.