Aljezur - Two weeks working in paradise

Getting to our workaway location in Aljezur was not very easy by public transport. So luckily for us the hosts Tim and Alexandra offered to pick us up from Lagos, a city not too far away from Aljezur that was much easier to get to by public transport from Evora.

When we arrived at the bus station after our long bus journey we were greeted by Tim and Pablo their dog. Straight away we felt very at ease and Tim (an Australian) was really friendly and chatty. He told us a little about himself, Alexandra and Pablo and explained that Alexandra would not be about that evening because Germany were in the World Cup final and she had gone to watch it with some friends that night (Alexandra being German).

On the way to their place Tim decided to take us on a scenic route off of the main high road where we enjoyed a nice view of the countryside area of Portugal, Pablo was let out for a run part way along the way and he chased after the jeep as we went along. After he felt he had run enough he got back in the car and we drove the rest of the way to the house.

Carmen and Pablo

 When we arrived we were shown around the property and where we would stay. We stayed in a converted donkey shed, which was really cool and had a bedroom and a living room, with a bathroom next door. Out around the back of the donkey shed there was a little courtyard where three other rooms were located, which had other guests staying, as part of their guesthouse business. There was also a kitchen as well if we ever wanted to cook something for ourselves (although we only ever needed to once as they took care of our food for us the rest of the time).

Relaxing in the hammock in the courtyard

After showering and changing into clean clothes we went in to watch the 2^nd half of the World Cup final with Tim and Pablo (Pablo taking up half the couch), whilst Tim also cooked us a lovely chicken stew for dinner. I must add that Tim is a most excellent cook and all his meals were delicious (more on that later). We also met a girl called Anna at the meal, who was one of Tim’s ex pupils (he is a drama teacher at an acting university in London), who was staying there as part of a holiday with her friend, who happened to be ill that night. Luckily for us that night, Germany won the World Cup final, which meant that Alexandra would be happy the next day.

We met Alexandra the next morning for breakfast and we were shown around the grounds and were told what our work was going to involve. The main aim was to clear and tidy the area around the vegetable garden and shed, and then build a fence around the vegetable garden to make it look neater. We also had to redo some sections of the fence around the outside of the property as it was getting some holes in it.

We got stuck in over the two weeks we were there and it was quite enjoyable work. We worked about 3 hours in the morning and then did a couple of hours in the afternoon, once it had cooled down a little bit, as the middle of the day was pretty hot. Carmen really enjoyed working with the machete, hacking at weeds (a definite highlight for her). We also collected Eucalyptus tree off cuttings from the woods nearby and cut them down to size to then later use as fencing. We cleared a lot of weeds and long grass around the vegetable area and around the shed. This was quite time consuming, but after two weeks it was done and we were very pleased with our work.

Carmen fixing the fence

Getting stuck in clearing the area

The finished vegetable garden with fences

Work aside there were lots of other things we did whilst we were in Aljezur. First and foremost I must mention Tim, our cook. He cooked most of the meals we had (lunch and dinner), and he is a very very good cook, he made us a lot of very lovely dishes. Spaghetti was a particular lunchtime favourite of his, which he adapted in lots of different ways, adding garlic, chilly, cheese, oil and some other spices depending on his mood.

Some of our particular favourites included his BBQ chicken, which he did on his homemade BBQ, another was aubergine stew, but the best of all was pizza night. This was when they invited round a friend and Tim made homemade pizza in his own handmade clay oven which really gave the pizzas the most amazing taste. He made quite a few different variations and we sampled a bit of everything (mozzarella and chilly garlic being our favourite). It was the best pizza either of us had ever had, and finally after 26 years it had made me a pizza convert! One other highlight I might add related to food was a lovely cake made by the two girls who were staying there. It was an orange and semolina cake, with some added cream or ice cream, again very nice. They alternatively also made a raw vegan cake, which was very similar with orange, semolina, ground almonds and apple.

Tim taking the pizza out of his homemade oven

Delicious pizza!

We had many nice evenings whilst staying in Aljezur, we met a few of Tim and Alexandra’s friends who came over for some food and conversation, even meeting a local yoga teacher, who Carmen later in the week had a class with (Carmen ended up doing a few classes over the two weeks we were there). The evenings also allowed us though to stargaze, we had never seen so many stars in the sky before. Due to hardly any light pollution and being in a rural setting with no clouds gave you really clear nights, you were even able to see some satellites and shooting stars. Pablo was also a source of constant amusement throughout our stay, running away and getting lost on two separate days, causing us to have to go look for him.

Whilst in Aljezur during the middle of the day when we had time off we visited the nearby town to see the castle and the local area, as well as visiting the nearby beaches, which are lovely, although the water is freezing cold! One beach that we went to had a river that joined the ocean. What you could do was start upstream and just let yourself be carried along by the river, and it took you on a fast ride down into the ocean, it was good fun, although it got very shallow in some areas, so you were flying along, literally with your belly scrapping the sand as you went.

The town of Aljezur from the castle

Beach in Aljezur

There were two main cities that we visited with Tim and Alexandra. The first was Lagos, a popular place for beach lovers, you will find many tourists there who go there to party all night and get roasted on the beach all day. Lagos was a very touristy city, and did not appeal to us very strongly as it just did not have a very Portuguese feel to the place, it felt like any old beach resort anywhere in the world. There are a few places of note inside the old city itself, including the old slave market but nothing I would say is worth making the trip specifically for.

One of the beaches in Lagos

However the second place we visited, Sagres was much more to our liking. It had some stunning views along the Portuguese coastline both north and east. It was known hundreds of years ago as being the end of the known world, and whilst sitting on the cliff looking out over the Atlantic Ocean it was easy to see why people thought this. Tim and Alexandra also took us to Letzte Bratwurst Vor Amerika (Last Brutwurst before America), as the name suggests a Bratwurst stall where we had a lovely Bratwurst (our first ever). We then later visited one of the beaches in Sagres for a nice dip and relax.

The coastline around Sagres

Enjoying our Bratwursts!

After our two weeks in Aljezur with Tim, Alexandra and Pablo we were really sad to have to leave, we will miss them all, having fallen in love with the place, but unfortunately our flight was booked long ago so we had literally run out of time. However we promised we would stay in touch and were invited back at any time, which we will most likely do!

All of us together outside their house