We’ve done it!

Well, that was easy.

After years of waiting and hoping, begging and pushing, of sleepless nights and stressful days our reaction was...understated when the email came through.

We’d roped in a trade organisation to help us bother and worry the town hall decision makers and were told everything seemed on track and a decision would be delivered on Friday or Monday.

Friday nervously came and went as a warning that unrequited expectations can put a cloud over a weekend.

But on Monday morning the letter from our local câmara – or town hall – dropped into our inbox, and as usual was written in a way that needed translation, interpretation, further consideration and expert reassurance before we could believe what we thought we could see.

“Regarding the above-mentioned matter and for all due effects, I am obliged by order of the Councilor dated March 14th 2025...”

Yes...do go on...

“After a classification audit, a copy of Report No. 25/25 of which is attached...”

Yes, yes..?

“To inform Your Excellency,” yes-yes-yes, that’s definitely me, “that the Tourist Enterprise called Vale das Estrelas...meets the conditions to be classified as Tourism in Rural Areas - COUNTRY HOUSES.”

No need to shout. Wait, what? So that’s it then? Has anything else been slipped into the five pages of ifs and buts that says in some convoluted way how this will only come to pass after we have provided x and y additional documents?

No? Really?

OK.

In this way, played out in real time, was the anatomy of an anticlimax.

“The number,” we both remembered. “Now we need the number.”

We’d like to think we’re not just a number, but in terms of opening to the general public...of getting the quantity of people through the door we need to pay back our loans and pay staff we haven’t yet got...everything is about the tourism number.

We are just a number.

How many weeks, we wondered, would it take to get that?

Monday afternoon was rainy and not packed with optimism as we dived into the Turismo de Portugal online portal and started filling things in.

We called a few times for guidance...and a woman called Maria João picked up pretty much straight away...every time.

But the last call to Turismo irritated the person who picked up.

“Yes...of course,” she said sternly. But we repeated the question anyway: “So that’s our number? Our actual tourism number? The number we need to open to the public, to list on AirBnB, to run our business? So what do we do now”

“Well rent out your rooms of course! Is there anything else?”

There wasn’t.

There was just a number. One. Two. Five. One. One.

Not the snappiest, nor the most symmetrical, but it was ours and it was beautiful. Our. Own. Number.

Finally, licensed...to bill.

We reached for the champagne as we had some other numbers to celebrate.

It was St Patrick’s Day – and the 15th anniversary of Ana and I getting together.

1, 2, 5, 1, 1; 17, 3, 2010…15. Pink Portuguese espumante. Nice.

And then the work began…

It’s been a stormy March here in Portugal, and we’ve been using the time to get our new website firmly under construction.

As four named storms pummelled the Portuguese coast, we’ve been pulling together years of photographs and months of thoughts and ideas about how to best describe our property, and do it justice.

As I said last month, all we’ve got to do now is make sure all those people who will love the calm, the serenity and the undiscovered beauty of this place will find us.

As storms Jana, Konrad, Laurence, and Martinho rattled our windows, scared our dogs, tested our dams, filled our water tanks to overflowing and gorged out a river down our valley, we sent Word files full of copy and folders packed with pictures to GuestCentric’s designers.

They’re a website and booking engine company for small-hoteliers like us (I like the sounds of that), and will hopefully take the pain out of listing properties, prevent double bookings and encourage as many direct enquiries as possible.

But while they work away finessing and finetuning we plunged straight into what is the hell of AirBnB and Booking.com profiles to put ourselves out there ASAP.

That was a frustrating couple of rainy days in our life that neither of us will ever get back.

Why is adding photos to room profiles so difficult? How do we navigate the different included or excluded fees and taxes to set prices that match our expectations but aren’t too much for the visiting public?

Why are there so many sections that need to be filled in?

As the squalls of heavy showers are becoming more scattered and infrequent, the sun is shining through literally and figuratively as our room profiles have gone live.

So here they are – finally – links to our AirBnB profiles.

Taking their name from stars and constellations the three suites are called Sirius Altair and Vega; the Bungalow’s one-bed place is called Aquila and the two-bed apartment is Lynx; and the Villa has Andromeda and Cassiopeia.

Spread the love, my friends...please spread the love.

Our website works for now, but will be shiny and new very soon.

But also bear in mind AirBnB add fees on top…and contacting us directly works better for everyone ;)

Back to the weather and it really has been quite remarkable.

We always say we never complain about rain as we need all the water we can get, but I have an admission to make...enough already.

I know the aquifers continue to love it, and although the massive Alqueva Reservoir was half a meter from being full a week ago, our local reservoir Santa Clara is still only at 55% and it would really help our region if it filled up.

Four major storm depressions in March is a first and although the rainfall hasn’t overtaken levels of 2018, the year 2000 or the more historical averages, there have been 100mph winds along the west coast and quite a bit of damage caused in Lisbon.

There are trees up and flood damage all around our region too.

“Unusual...but not unprecedented,” is how the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere or IPMA is quoted by Portugal Decoded.

It’s a great news site in English which I’d heartily recommend. They have an obsession about making a carefully crafted infographic every week...and who doesn’t love an infographic.

The winter weather has certainly become a personal obsession as we need to balance our power use on those rare weeks when sunshine is at a premium, and so keep a close eye on the Apps: Weather Underground and Ventusky are my go-tos.

And I learned early on that it’s the Azores High which is the most important influence on the Iberian peninsula.

When it’s a little weaker and further away from the Iberian Peninsula, as it has been this winter, some of Britain’s weather ends up here. Imagine.

“Rising ocean surface temperatures suggest climate change may be playing a role,” Portugal Decoded add, with North Atlantic sea temperatures 3 or 4 degrees Celsius above average in places.

But proper Spring is now most certainly on the near horizon.

Despite the high winds, the cuckoo is back...somehow it made it through storm Martinho!And I’m sure I heard a Nightingale the other day.

And the medium-range forecasts are no longer packed with precipitation and the temperatures are going up into the 20s Celsius next weekend.

As soon as this rain stops and the temperatures soar we’ll get out planting and prepping the land before the mud turns to concrete, and get started on clearing all the rapidly growing brush to protect us from fire.

But the main priority right now – as our finances reach pinch point – we have to learn how to run this place properly...and fast.

Thanks for reading Off-grid and OPEN in Portugal! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Some of you reading this despatch will have followed our progress for years, others a little less, but it’s a major milestone to announce we are finally open for business.

Thank you for your support...it’s really helped...and if you or anyone you can think of might like to come and visit to see what all the fuss is about, please share this post.

I’m pretty sure there’ll be plenty more to write about as this journey continues to unfold!