March 2020
May I present…. 
Sao Martinho do Porto
As our house sit in Salir do Porto drew to an end we were getting news of Portugal going into a State of Emergency and closing its borders.
Before Covid 19 was a thing we made the hard decision to head towards home stopping in Thailand for a couple of months on the way. We therefore booked Thai Airways flights from Rome to Bangkok for April. Rome was chosen as a departure point because we didn’t know where we would be at the time and Rome is kind of central with many flights from all over Europe.
We had no more house sits booked. As you could imagine, no one was traveling! We needed a place to rent until April and then fly from Lisbon to Rome. San Martinho do Porto is a sleepy fishing village with a picturesque ‘half moon’ shaped bay and is extremely popular with locals in the summertime. Fortunately for us it was winter time so finding a place to rent was not too difficult. Inevitably, we received confirmation from Thai Airways that our flight was cancelled, understandably as the situation in Italy was catastrophic at the time. Things were looking grim, the apartment we were renting short term was going to be needed for longer than we originally anticipated. Not all bad news because it was a comfortable, newly renovated apartment in a prime location, with a stunning uninterrupted view of the bay. The owners obviously were aware that there would be little to no chance of renting to anyone else so we were able to negotiate a good monthly rate.
With our flight to Thailand cancelled and the Covid situation getting worse by the day we were facing the reality of being in Europe for the foreseeable future, so we were going to need to lease or buy a car. We had already leased two cars for six months each time and the cost of just one lease was almost as much as buying a reliable older used car, so we set about searching for cars. It quickly became depressing as we were to learn that cars are much more expensive in Portugal than other parts of Europe. We even considered for a little while, the idea of buying a Motorhome and ‘wildcamping’ along the plentiful coastline Portugal has to offer. That idea was quickly quashed after we inspected a few and decided that unlike our American RV we have at home, European vans are too small and we’d have been pushing our luck living in such close confines 24/7.
After an extensive search we finally settled on a 2007 Renault Megane station wagon in very good condition with low kilometers for its age. The young guy who owned the Stand (car yard) seemed to be a genuine family man and we were surprised that he accepted the first offer we put to him. The day we had arranged to pick the car up was the day after lockdown was announced. We had to discreetly meet him at the yard so he could open the gates and prepare the paperwork etc. The transferwise payment from our Australian bank had not even hit his account as we drove away! Couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy as it was probably the last car he sold for a long time. We then had to drive the two cars to Lisbon Airport to return our rental and then back to Sao Martinho do Porto where we battened down the hatches and locked down only leaving the apartment to buy groceries.
Our new car became affectionally known as ‘Maggie’ Megane 
setting off on our fortnightly shopping trip
It was a creepy feeling, we could see most of the sleepy fishing village from our window and it’s virtually deserted streets with the exception of the GNR (Guarda Nacional Republicana) car that circulated the village with its loudspeakers blaring out the message to stay at home in Portuguese. Initially there was a lot of uncertainty as to how difficult the lockdown was going to be so we stocked up on canned food and dehydrated meals (yummy). Everyone remained reasonably civil and thankfully they didn’t empty the shelves of toilet paper!!! It soon became apparent that the supermarkets would remain well stocked and we weren’t going to be missing out on anything. The way things were managed was admirable with strict limits on numbers of people in shops at any time, disinfectant at every entrance and security guards situated at the door of larger stores controlling the people lined up outside, respectfully, distanced and masked.
the view from our balcony 
we never tired of the sunsets
During our daily walk one day we saw a tractor on the beach towing an agricultural sprayer and wondered what they were doing. Surely they’re not fertilising the sand? Upon questioning we learnt that they were spraying disinfectant! The next day from our window we saw a modified fire truck with spray nozzles mounted front and rear spraying the road before mounting the pavement and spraying them too! If that wasn’t enough there was a truck following with a guy handling a lance to spray benches, rubbish bins and anything else that didn’t move. From that point on we had to be very careful when we timed our walks because you didn’t want to be caught on the streets when they came around for risk of being fumigated.
The Australian government was recommending that all of its citizens abroad return to Australia immediately and a lot of friends and family questioned why we weren’t coming home. We had given it a lot of thought but it was easier said than done, to ‘just come home‘. There were limited flights available, inflated ticket prices and a high risk of being bumped. We had already experienced a flight cancellation with Thai Airways who had since grounded their entire fleet due to financial difficulties so we were unlikely to receive a refund or a credit. Then there was the high risk of contracting the virus on a plane or at any of the numerous airports we would have had to transit to get home. We felt confident with how the Portuguese government was handling the situation and the cooperation of the public. We were in a lowly populated area, paying low rent, had access to good low priced food and wine not to mention the abundance of fresh seafood. The scales were leaning heavily toward staying put.
The wild beaches of nearby Nazare 
grilled sardines-one of the many local specialties
Twenty minutes away was the larger city of Caldas da Rainha. We would visit every two to three weeks to give the car a run and buy groceries that weren’t available at our local supermarket. Obidos, the medieval town and Nazare, famous for its big waves also were nearby and we managed to visit both before lockdown. There was so much more we wanted to discover in the area but we had to be patient and be grateful for the idyllic beaches and cliff tops we had at our doorstep.