Travanca do Mondego

On to the next house sit… We made our way directly from the Nazerè sit up the country past Coimbra and turn left heading inland and up until we get to the hydroelectric dam on the River Mondego. Not for from there is the sparsely populated small village of Travanca do Mondego. As we mentioned before, it was our forth visit to sit for our now great friends and their three lovely dogs. This was a great start as we finally got to meet Roman, Cathryn’s husband. We had a really nice couple of days catching up and getting to know Roman. He is a great guy and we have a good vibe when we are here. It was super nice getting to see the dogs again, and it was clear they recognise us on sight now. We had a couple of nice BBQs accompanied with some good wine. It turns out Roman is a super cook and we really need to get his recipe for his rack of ribs. they were amazing!

The weather was lovely too, and once Roman and Cathryn had set off for their adventures, we got down to cleaning the pool and looking to see what we could do to take care of their lovely property. There were a few new things the dogs needed, and that is really important. In terms of Clyo’s and Cassie’s meds they were slightly different since our last visit, so it was getting those details right, and we quickly settled in to a relaxing couple of days keeping the doggies entertained and to get over their initial moods missing their parents.

So, the first week was just chilling and getting into the swing of looking after the house. The lawn needed a trim, and unfortunately the sit-on mower was out of action so the strimmer got to work! Wayne did this each morning for a few days until the weeds were mostly cleared. Wayne could only work in the mornings until 11.30am to comply with the fire risk level which had been raised due to the hot weather and lack of rain. It worked well , because Annette could concentrate on her physio and household tasks without Wayne getting in the way.

In fact, the whole stay (three weeks) went very much the same way. We got out occasionally to do a bit of shopping, either to Mortagua or Santa Comba Dão. The latter being preferred as they had all the major shopping centers including a LIDL where we get our favourite cheese and they also do a nice coleslaw. We did manage to get out to catch up with our friends Heidi and Mike from Mouronho which was nice, and so nice to see them again.

We also got out for some walks with the two pups every now and then, and Cassie got her exercise in the pool with many hours of swimming and ball fetching. Just the ticket for her, as she is getting on a bit and doesn’t mix well with other dogs who we frequently meet on our excursions with the two younger dogs.

We didn’t get much rain while we were there, but with the bore-hole irrigation system and morning dew, the plants nd trees were doing great. The wildlife was plentiful too, we saw loads of lizards, snakes, eagles, buzzards, as well as every other small birds that we could mention. The insects were going crazy to, with some huge mammoth wasps which are the size of your thumb and Wayne managed to photograph one.

We also had a load of fun in the pool with Cassie. She loves chasing and fetching balls in the pool and starts to wine and complain when she has to come out. The Pups don’t like the water so just run around barking at Cassie, but they get to go on long walks, where Cassie has most of her exercise in the pool!

We also had a couple of meetups with some of our friends here in Portugal. Firstly a lovely evening and snacks with Heidi & Mike from a previous sit In Mouronho, it was great to see them again. We also had lunch in Santa Comba Dão with Luise from Solo 50 Plus Portugal. You should check out her YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@Solo50plus.

Three weeks went by really quickly, and before we knew, it was time to pack up and leave. We will be back soon though as we have become great friends with Kat & Roman and we love the dogs.

We are off on our next house sit very soon, and we are especially looking forward to this one as it will be our first one in Spain. just dipping our toes as it’s only just across the border and not far from Marvao which we visited with our best friends a couple of years ago (it doesn’t seem that long ago!). It was beautiful there and you could look across to Spain from the castle, so we are really stoked to return that way.

Before that though we are returning to our house build to check on progress. We have been doing things while staying at this sit though as things are due to move along quickly soon. We have been getting quotes for a solar system and talking to some very nice ind interesting folks from various companies, so that’s on the horizon now. So stay tuned to see how things are going there soon.

There is light at the end of the tunnel now, but anyone who has been through a similar journey will tell you that living in the tunnel is the challenge, and if it wasn’t for all of our friends we would have struggled. So a big shout out to all our friends! especially our besties who encouraged us to make the journey a reality.