Are we there yet?

Topic number one, always and everywhere…. Corona. Every conversation we have with whoever, within 5 minutes we talk about Corona. Logic because we are still in the middle of it.

The world is still fighting back. We believe this virus is touching us in a good and a bad way. We have more quality time with family and friends, we are more helping each other and we are slowing down to realise which values are really important in life. In the beginning there was a positive curve for the environment and the world was finally taking action on climate change.  Unfortunately, the environment and climate change were the elephant in the room during the elections in The Netherlands. There was not a lot written about this topic on the political agenda of our biggest winning parties during the election. For us it should be on the top of the agenda of any political party. 

We never took Corona for granted but we did not fear it. After posting our last blog Stephen got sick again from the corona virus which was still in his body. After 3 weeks of being better it made Stephen sick again. The first time all signs where “clear”.  Heavy headache, tired, loss of taste. No doubts. The second time parts of the virus went to the nerves of his brain. This had a huge impact on his behavior and character. After a couple of bad nights without a lot of sleep Stephen was telling Lillian he had a new personality. He was a completely different person and this was his new him. After a massive talk and a lot of googling Lillian found out the virus was still in his body. Stephen couldn’t believe the impact, he thought he was in psychosis. It felt like a very bad LSD trip without controlling it. His had an accelerated heartrate and could not control his body. Bing watching Netflix was the best remedy. No influences from outside and without thinking. After 2 weeks Stephen thought he felt much better but it came back after a too busy day. This time it took over his body, he was shaking and Lillian had to carry him to the toilet. Other people from Fabrica Braco de Prata had the same signs. Panic attacks, hallucinations and physical complaints. Surprisingly this are signs you don’t hear much. We never underestimated the virus but certainly Stephen was skeptical about some of the government’s choices. It was a mind-blowing couple of weeks. We maybe don’t agree on everything but we certainly understand more about all the precautions of the government. After already 4 healthy weeks we are happy the virus is hopefully really gone. What a strange time…

After all of this we finally did the things, we love to do the must. Hiking and being in nature. People told us the most impressive and rough coastline was along the province Alentejo between Villa Nova Milfontes and Odeceixe. The trail called the Fisherman’s trail which we walked a small part of. We walked two times, one walk of three days walk and one two days walk. At the first walk we did 44 kilometers and the second walk we did 32 kilometers. We are still not good in calculating and planning. Poor Morgan….. We calculated through a walking app it supposed to be around 44 km. Oops. Morgan is our hero! With her six year of age, she walked all without complaining. We are so proud! We slept on the most amazing cliffs and on the beach with our little tent. The tracks are incredible. After the two walks we decided we wanted to do much more of this and so we will visit Scandinavia after Portugal. There are still many places in this world which are like heaven. We hitchhiked back to the camper. Super funny.

We keep on meeting great people. Wild camping in Portugal is very hard at the moment. The government adjusted the rules because there where to many campers standing everywhere. We still wild camp but with a risk of a ticket of 200 Euro. In Zambujeira we met Jason, Isabelle and their two children. Stephen did a morning run and came across the property of Jason and Isabelle. He just went up to them and ask if we could sleep on a little spot on their land. They offered us a place where we could stay as long as we wanted. They live in small paradise, Inspiring people! After Zambujeira we visit Patricia, Camille and Enzo in Aljezur. We met Guy and Patrica on a beach in Goa last year. Us with our van and they with a house in the area. We kept contact and after we found out that we both were in Portugal we came together. Unfortunately, Guy was in Swiss but we had a great time with Patricia, Camille and Enzo. They took us into their little community. We enjoyed amazing food and were accompanied by many beautiful people.

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We made up our minds for the rest of the year (for now). Like we said before after our walks we decided to spend the summer in Scandinavia. We love hiking and after the hike with Morgan we felt that Scandinavia is the area to go. Luckily for us and our family and friends, our small little country is on the way to Scandinavia and so we are able to say hello to everybody we love. After crossing Denmark, we start off with Sweden, do some volunteering and hopefully after that we can enter Norway. For now, the border of Norway is still closed but they are talking about reopening in July. After the summer we will find some work in the snow (now we are able to do so). We will of course collect our snowboards and hope we can combine business with pleasure. 🙂  Our first intention will be Swiss but we will see.

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The last couple of months we spend a large part of our time in the Alentejo region and mostly around Villa Nova Milfontes. We slowly fel in love on this beautiful little village. The people and surroundings are incredible. The next couple of weeks we will explore the northern part of Portugal but not before we saying hello to our second home and family at Fabrica.

Big kisses and lots of hugs from the three of us.