Davina Cuneo

Yes, it rains quite a bit in the south of Valencia. A microclimate.

Have you thought about the Canary Islands?  Considering your temperature range ... Not too hot, not too cold, all year round :)

About wildfires: Comunidad Valenciana is a place with high risk or wildfires. Same as Galicia. Galicia, and portugal have eucalyptus, we have pinus halapensis. 90 percent of tree cover in alicante is pinus halapensis. And it loves fire. We've had wildfires almost all summers, some of then quite near.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/08/08/inenglish/1533742741_740491.html

This one was scary. And not too far from alzira.

So if wildfires are a concern ...

High rainfall is ok but a good spring or perforation (well) would add a lot.

Maybe north of spain is a bit rainy. Not too cold though.

We're thinking about a good property in 20, 30 or a life time span. Maybe you like the temperature now in Alicante but every year is the hottest year of history with more and longer heat waves. Maybe sooner than you expect Alicante is as hot as sevilla is now.

The thing is that Portugal has the same climatic range as spain and is a bit cheaper.

Also in these six years we've realised that community is really important. We're going to portugal to see if we can get the feeling that there is place we can fit in.

Hi, I'm Joan, my wife writes better in English than I do. But I'll try to answer your question the best I can.

We're both from Alicante, were born here. The last 6 years we've been developing a farm in north Alicante, in a very nice area called valle de Guadalest.

I would not recommend Alicante to start a permaculture project. Actually I would not recommend Comunidad Valenciana, nor Murcia either. But again Geoff lawton does permacutlure in Jordan, so,it's fine if you really want to do it here.

Why nor?

Water

If you can afford to buy a piece of land with a reliable source of water fine, it's going to be difficult and expensive but, if you can you have a lot done. It does not rain that much here. Maybe in Marina Alta area.

Climatic change.

This is becoming a desert. We've noticed a real change in the last 15 years, springs don't last as long as before. Some of them don't flow at all.

Price of land and size.

Comunidad valenciana is a very turistic place. Land here is quite expensive. If you've got money go for it but normally the land one can afford is steep or quite far from any nucleus of people or eroded. To get more than 2ha you're gonna have to buy from more than one person.

My options in spain would be, and are (I'm still considering spain): Valle del Genal (ronda), Sierra de huelva, and north of spain (cantabria, asturias and galicia) trying it to be quite near de coast (less than 35km).

And of course Portugal. Castelo branco is a bit cheaper than spain and, to me, seems to have more permaculture projets going than any other place in spain.

If you come to alicante send a message and we could have a beer.

Cheers.

Hi all!

We are Davina and Joan, a young couple with two kids who want to come and live in Central Portugal. At present we live in Alicante (Spain) and have just sold our farm. We are coming in June for a couple of weeks (10-24th) to see some areas and land for sale and we would love to meet some permies around Castelo Branco!

We are looking for accommodation in Castelo Branco. We've found many things in Airbnb but none of them seem to match our criteria- as they are all quite far. For some reason, we haven't been able to find anything around Monsanto, Penamacore area.

Does anyone know a place where we could stay?

Any local permies who would like to meet? That would be great!

Thanks in advance,

Love from us.

Hi Martin & Maike,

We are Davina and Joan (both 33) and our two kids, Luca (3) and baby girl Maia (6 months old).

Six years ago, while we were working together, Joan as an computer engineering and Davina as a translator, we decided to quit our jobs and start a permaculture project in North Alicante, near Valencia (Spain).

Here is the link in case you want to have a look https://granjamandragora.es
I’m sorry but it’s only available in Spanish.

It has been a great experience for us, so challenging. We have worked hard and regenerated the land. We have kept goats, chickens, bees. We have built swales, ponds… and enjoyed very much living in our tiny yurt.

Early this year, we decided to sell our farm, which we have just done. It is sited in a very touristic place and the adjacent properties are being bought by foreigners to build holiday houses .

We are now looking for a piece of land in Central Portugal. The area around Castelo Branco or Coimbra looks very nice to us!

Here in Alicante we were alone. After these years experience,
we’ve realised that building something with a community is essential. And now, with the arrival of our two kids, we want to be around with people with the same philosophy of life.

We’re looking for a land with a well or spring, so, with good water resources, with a house or ruin to renovate and most important, with other permaculturists with children around. Some alternative school or other shared parenting initiatives or with people home-schooling, so our kids can play with others.

We speak Spanish and English, and Davina speaks Italian and French as well.
We’ve got a small beekeeping operation of 50 hives that would come with us.

Basically, as you can see, we're looking for pretty much the same kind of land :)

We read that you’re planning to visit Portugal in June. We too. Hopefully, we will be there for two weeks (10- 24th June). It would be nice to meet if you are around those days and maybe we can share ideas, and help each other.
At the moment, we are looking for accomodation for those 2 weeks… we found some in Airbnb, as well as in the Parque de Campismo Municipal Idanha-a- Nova but they all seem to be a bit far from Monsanto, Penamacore area, which are our first options. Do you know any accomodations that would suit us?

Thanks in advance!
All the best,

Davina.

Hi Burra Maluca,

Is this property still on sale? I'm interested on it.

Thank you very much.