“It takes solitude, under the stars, for us to be reminded of our eternal origin and our far destiny.”
– Archibald Rutledge

After two flights, and too many hours spent at airports, I had another three hours in Lisbon airport, before I could catch the bus taking me close to home. I bought a coffee, and chose a table close to the entrance doors. It felt good to get a blast of cold winter air, as people entered and exited, especially after spending more than 24 hours in stale, airconditioned spaces.

While watching the sky turn a deep red before the sun slid over the horizon, I received a message and photo from the quinta sitter welcoming me back to Portugal, and winter. The temperature plummeted overnight to -3.8C transforming the quinta into a frosty landscape. I shivered, as I took another sip of coffee, already missing the lovely warmth of the southern hemisphere.

Later in the day, after a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride, and another 50 minutes in a car, I was happy to be back in my own space. Lily was there to meet me, although she pretended to be disinterested in my return, while Midnight was elsewhere, only showing up much later, when her stomach prompted her to return home.

Both were quite happy to go on our ritual late afternoon walk, before I locked them in the house, and I fell exhausted into bed, only to wake up almost twelve hours later.

It always takes time for me to get settled back into my own space and rhythm after a trip, but I barely got everything packed away, and cleaned up before I had to get in the car and drive to Madrid to pick Michael up for a week-long visit.

As per usual Michael went straight to the workshop in his good travel clothes, as soon as we arrived to start unpacking his new Tig/Mig welding machine he bought earlier in the day at Obramat in Madrid. He only called it a day when it became too dark to work.

We’ve asked the Electrician months ago to please come and wire up the workshop, but of course we are still waiting. We have learned long ago to try and do all the donkey work ourselves, which meant that Michael ordered the big electric cable in September, and bought some of the light fixings we need to get the job done.

Michael disappeared bright and early on his first full day on the quinta into the workshop, and it didn’t take too long before I was summoned to help via the new walkie-talkies he bought us. How he managed to wrangle the enormous bobbin onto wooden trestles is beyond me, but the weight was threatening to break them, which meant I needed to help him transfer it to steel trestles.

The rest of the day was spent pulling that cable (all 86 metres of it) through the pipes that was buried long ago. Once a thick rope was pulled through, it was time to connect the cable and hope that we would manage. With him pulling on one side, and me pushing and guiding the cable into the pipe, we reached a point where he could no longer manage, but once he tied his end of the rope to the car, we eventually got it through. Not just into the manhole, but after taking some time to figure it out, also into the electric box near the manhole.

Other jobs include more shopping for bits and bobs needed to install lights in the workshop, measuring out the placement for a greenhouse, and building steel workshop benches/tables.

Notes:
# It’s been many years since I’ve been to a place where the culture and landscape are completely different from my everyday life. When I decided to visit my family in South Africa this year, I jumped on the opportunity to squeeze a birthday trip into the mix. The only requirement was that it had to be somewhere that was easily accessible from South Africa, and when I realised that FlySafair has a direct flight from Johannesburg to Zanzibar, it was a no-brainer.

I love the Swahili coast and culture, and ever since my travels to the Kenyan coast and Lamu Island, I’ve dreamt of visiting Zanzibar. Not only because it is one of those names that never fails to conjure up the exotic in my imagination, but more specifically for the link it has back to the Arabian Peninsula.

It worked out out perfectly when I could book a flight, not just on the same day Michael flew back to the UAE after two weeks in South Africa, but departing less than an hour apart.

# The Tanzanian government inadvertently gave me a wonderful birthday gift, by cutting the Internet off to the whole country just before their general elections. My birthday ritual of spending time away from the usual rhythms of my life for reflection and introspection has been made extra special this year, as I could completely disconnect. I miss the times when travelling somewhere meant that no one could reach you, so this was like stepping back into a time not so long ago, when travelling meant you left your normal life completely behind. It was exactly what I needed, and for the first time in more years than what I can remember, I had a proper holiday, doing as little as possible.

# After 10 days in Zanzibar, I returned to visit my family for another 10 days, which was lovely, as I managed to spend good quality time with my dad of 92, while enjoying the pleasant days of late spring, and some slippery farm roads after much welcome rain.

A Special Memory or Moment of Joy:
Early morning walks hold a special place in my heart, and forms an integral part of my travelling life. In Michamvi I shared the beach with the men getting ready to head out fishing for the day, and the women foraging for molluscs and octopus, while in Stone Town cats, children leaving for school, and an assortment of early risers trickled into the mostly empty lanes long before any tourists stirred from their beds.

Curiosities or Unknown Facts about Portugal:
Portugal in essence paved the way for European colonisation in the Indian Ocean when Bartolomeu Dias managed to round the tip of Africa in 1488 in search of a sea route to India and spices, while carrying with them a zeal in their hearts to convert everyone to Christianity, unleashing a violence with their guns never seen before in this part of the world.

To Read:
Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Hall

Written by: Jolandi