Thursday 1 December 2016

Castelo Branco to Idanha a Nova

A swift breakfast and along to the train station to meet Charlie ... dropping his partner, CJ en route to England for a stint of live in care, earning the money to sustain the simple Portuguese lifestyle ... an enlightening day with Charlie, visiting his place and Jan's, both living a spartan life in rural spaces around Penamacor ... close enough to Spain for Charlie's mobile to intermittently welcome him there and back again, though he hadn't actually crossed any border ....

Long lunch in Idanha a Nova, with excellent exchange of views, common reference points like K, Bohm, Sheldrake ...  and a fascinating, rather disturbing tale of Charlie's gift as a naturopath ... the trouble such skills may bring from an establishment wedded to the corporate, integrated model of persuading people to eat denatured foods, laced with roundup and other toxic concoctions, submit to slavery albeit of a contemporary, ostensibly freely chosen type, present symptoms of disease to technician medicos, who prescribe more chemical concoctions to suppress the unwanted symptoms ... and usually generate another problem or two to keep the customer coming back ... ending up in factories for illness management ... Charlie's way undermines the whole charade ... unsurprising then that colleagues in so-called advanced civilisations frequently have their own lives prematurely curtailed through mysterious accidents ... as the son of a surgeon his success was seen as problematic and pressure was brought to bear ... hence the quiet life in rural Portugal, helping where he can, growing food the natural ways, eating raw food when possible, avoiding wheat ... a wonderful connection ... to be continued ...

Meanwhile, in Idanha a Nova the Pousada de Juventude has room for a simple living pilgrim, writer, experimenter in the free life ... with all the basics such as electricity, flushing toilets, hot and cold running water, showers, heating .... plus breakfast, all for €10 ... and a bus outside at 8 for the onward, southward journey ...

1 comment:

  1. What do you mean spartan! At least we are trying to live a healthy,eco friendly lifestyle, yes go to algarve,albufeira,add to the pollution down there!

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