Frequently Asked Questions – Camping

Do I need insurance?

Yes. You need to ensure that you are covered for damage to yourself (accidents, illness and medical expenses) and damage to ourselves and our property (civil liabilities towards third parties). You are responsible for your own medical expenses, repatriation should it come to it, and for any damage that you cause.

Check that your ordinary travel insurance will cover you whilst you are taking part in farm based activities. Some won’t.

WWOOF Portugal suggest OV Europa or World Nomads, who both offer policies designed specially for budget travellers. As always check the small print. We’ve never used either company, but if WWOOF are suggesting them then we think they’re probably worth checking out.

Please ensure that you know how the Portuguese healthcare system works for travellers of your nationality and can provide the correct paperwork in an emergency. Not all European countries have a reciprocal agreement. We won’t pay your medical bills if you don’t get this right.

We ask all visitors to supply us with a copy of their passport and emergency contact numbers on arrival. It’s also a sensible idea to ensure that copies of insurance policies and any other paperwork are easy for us to find in an emergency.

Whilst we’re talking about insurance I can’t stress enough that while you are on the farm you are responsible for your own safely and we expect you to take reasonable care to ensure the safety of others and the security of our property and animals.

How can I reach you by public transport?

You’ll find local public transport details here. For travel to Portugal without flying, look at this guide full of links.

What should I bring with me?

Everything you’ll need for your stay (with the exception of those who are renting a caravan / our truck who will have bedding provided)! Be aware that you may only use ecologically friendly soaps, and that you will not have access to electricity on the farm.

What is there to do locally?

Bars and restaurants – There is bar / restaurant within walking distance, which does and excellent value lunchtime menu. If you are able to travel further afield, both Pampilhosa da Serra, Fundão, and surrounding towns have lots of choose from.

Swimming – In summer you may choose to swim in the local river spots, or in the free outdoor pool at Meãs. A little further is the pool at the Barragem de Santa Luzia, pictured below.  There are indoor pools in Pampilhosa da Serra and Fundão, both accessible by bus.

Barragem de Santa Luzia

Barragem de Santa Luzia – This large lake offers fabulous walking, swimming in summer plus canoes for hire, and a lively bar with wifi access. There’s a reasonably priced local restaurant close by which serves local specialities like chanfana, a rich goat stew. A walk all the way round the lake should take around 6 hours or you can just wander more locally.

Walking or Cycling – The whole area is great for walking and cycling with many peaceful tracks and little villages to explore. If you’re up for some more serious hiking it’s worth it for spectacular views. We’re within sight of the Torre, the highest mountain in continental Portugal and part of the Serra da Estrela mountain range. The Barragem de Santa Luzia in Casal da Lapa boasts a BTT centre for cyclists, and is the starting point of a number of suggested cycle routes.

Local markets and shopping – There’s a weekly market in Fundão each Monday and a fortnightly one on Thursdays in Pampilhosa da Serra. Pampilhosa da Serra is a small town with a post office, theatre, library, plenty of local restaurants and bars and all your basic shops. Fundao is larger. Both are accessible by bus for a day out.

We realise it’s quite a distance to travel to local supermarkets etc for snacks and ‘extras’ so our younger son runs a ‘tuck shop’ for the benefit of our visitors where he has a range of drinks, snacks and some of our produce. This is an educational maths project for him and he’s learning fast!

Can you cater for special diets? What’s the food like? Who cooks it?

We serve three simple but pretty substantial meals per day. If you choose to join us for meals you will need to fit in with the schedule that we are following at that point. Breakfast is generally oats, lunch is something light like soup, salad or bread with home made cheese and chutneys, and dinner is generally a cooked meal.

Almost all our meals are vegetarian. We use as many home produced ingredients as possible. We can cater for vegans, or most other diets with prior warning. Do not expect us to have specific ingredients in store (vegan milks for instance) without prior warning.

We don’t supply between meals snacks or drinks but we operate a ‘tuck shop’ if you’d like to purchase these sort of things.

Is there internet access?

We currently don’t have internet access for visitors at the farm, although we are hoping to soon. If you have your own laptop you will be able to use the wifi provided by the local council which is free and open office hours in Unhais o Velho or 24 hours in Pampilhosa da Serra. There is also a local bar which will allow wifi access if you smile sweetly and buy a drink! If you don’t bring a computer, there are a couple of internet enabled computers in São Jorge de Beira Post Office or larger facilities in Pampilhosa da Serra and Fundão libraries.

You can recharge devices at the wifi centre in Unhais o Velho, but we cannot offer recharges at the farm.

How about telephones?

There is only one mobile network which works in the area, which is NOS. The signal isn’t great at the farm but if your foreign phone has roaming it should pick this up (and will probably work better than ours!). We cannot recharge mobile phone or other electricals for you.

We have a landline telephone for emergencies.

Can I bring my children?

We love hosting children along with their responsible parents. Parents are entirely responsible for the safety and conduct of their children and are expected to accompany them at all times.

Can I bring my pets?

No. Short term campers may not bring pets. We have dogs and cats of our own, plus goats, rabbits and poultry. Their safety and comfort is our first concern.

Can you accommodate groups?

Absolutely! We hosted our first Scout camp summer 2010, and enjoyed it so much that we’ve hosted Scouts every year since. We’d love to talk to you about your group.

Have you got space for camper vehicles?

We do, but let us know in advance to ensure that we have space.

How about smoking and alcohol?

What you do in your own time and space is your own business, but please bear in mind that this is a family environment and we don’t welcome drunken singing at 3am!

We can provide you with home made wine, aguardente and jeropiga, either to drink here or take away as gifts. We normally have beer in the tuck shop.

We do not allow smoking in the camp site during summer due to the potential fire risk. If you’re a smoker we ask that you’re meticulously careful with your butts. Not only is it horribly impolite to leave them lying about, but they pose a serious fire risk in a dry climate like ours.

Can I do my laundry?

We have a traditional washing facility for you to scrub your laundry in. You can buy ecologically friendly, locally made, laundry soap from our shop or bring some with you, but we do insist that you use it to avoid polluting our water.

Alternatively, make a donation to our project and we will willingly do your laundry for you.

Can you tell me about your bathroom facilities?

We have a compost toilet which deals with solid waste in an ecologically friendly way and incorporates a pee separator so that this valuable resource isn’t wasted. Don’t worry if you haven’t used one before, we can explain the system.

In the summer we wash in the local river which is a quite wonderful experience and something that some of our previous volunteers have commented has been one of the aspects of their stay that they’ve really enjoyed. Each Spring we dam an area next to the farm. Please ensure you bring ecologically friendly toiletry products with you to ensure that you’re not polluting this resource. We try and stock some basics like soap in the shop.

If you don’t fancy bathing in nature,  we have a more conventional washing facility in the form of a solar heated shower. We were lucky enough to win a grant from WWOOF for this work, and if you’re interested you can keep track of our progress via our blog.

Unless you’ve not managed to work this out alone, it’s worth pointing out that this is not the place to come if you are looking for a daily wallow in a bubble bath followed by blow drying your hair!

 

What should I do with my rubbish?

We’d rather that you didn’t produce any to be honest, but that’s probably unreasonable! But please consider packaging when making purchases. We’d rather reuse than recycle, so if you’re throwing out anything that you think could be reused please flag it up. Food waste goes to the animals and anything else organic like card, tissues or natural fabric goes into the compost. Otherwise we take recycling and rubbish into town when we go. Many guests decide to lighten their luggage load whilst they’re with us, so if you end up with anything you’d prefer to leave behind we’ll put it to good use or make it available to future visitors.

 

If we haven’t answered your question, please don’t be afraid to email us!