Dec 2015 Finding Wild View Retreat

We first set our eyes on the Manor House and abandoned village in December 2015, after several road trips through Spain and Portugal that year. The buildings were a ruin and on the verge of collapse. But the location and ambience was incredible and we fell in love with the place, Portugal and the people immediately. We had found Wild View Retreat but the amount of work involved in restoring it was pretty overwhelming. Excitement was met with apprehension and anxiety but we decided to stick to the gut instinct and go for it! Just getting this point seemed liked a point of no return. It had taken some serious soul searching the year before to admit the former life in London was not meeting expectations and that something needed to change. And here we were, about to do it!

Our first lucky break was teaming up with Nuno and Williams Brito, two brothers running a family engineering business in local town Sao Bras de Alportel. After months of legal work, the property was finally purchased in August 2016 and a planning application submitted in November 2016. The wait for decisions, the delays, the refusals, the resubmittals, the highs, the lows and finally the approval nearly a year later in October 2016 were somewhat of a rollercoaster to say the least. But the trusted advice and support of Nuno and Williams and many others was fantastic. We’d like to personally thank the following people for all the help, advice, support and friendship during our first few years in Portugal. This journey would not have been possible without you:

Nuno Brito and family, Williams Brito and family, Joao Brito and family

All the people who have helped build Wild View including Iddirit, Marcio, Arnando, Miguel Garcia e Costa, Cláudia Alves, Miguel Alves, Carla Gomes, Filipe Pires, Silvia Viegas, Joao Neto, Isabel Neto, Etienne De Villiers, Kaja Decoz