26 Comments
Apr 30, 2023Liked by Alastair Leithead

My wife intelligently suggests a 3 pronged approach:

1) Knowledge; explain the situation

2) Awareness; make the guests physically aware that there are consequences. For example with tokens that each give water (perhaps 30 or 45 seconds) each. There could be a large supply and they could be included in the price of the room but the action of having to put a token in for each portion of liquid should instill a mindset of frugality.

3) Technical solutions: Timed (token dependent) activation, mist instead of waterfall, etc.

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May 2, 2023Liked by Alastair Leithead

Most definitely the information and edification aspects very important but do not underestimate the power and value of the effects of physical activity in the learning process. Just the action of putting a token in a slot would reinforce any intellectual aspect of the learning process. (My wife is a nurse with (among others) child psychology speciality). It blew my mind when I learned about the connection between manual dexterity and learning which has been proven and is a cornerstone of Piaget's cognitive development theory.

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May 1, 2023Liked by Alastair Leithead

Elon Muck more like. Horrible man ☚ī¸

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May 1, 2023Liked by Alastair Leithead

I agree with the wife of Gregor

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author

Hi there - I don’t, but I follow his updates...and see that you visited recently!

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Your ‘brochure’ should make clear what guests must expect. You only want people to come who respect nature. A visit to friends in Kenya taught me so much about the continual difficulty in finding enough water and the need to preserve it. We showered with a bucket under us to reuse in the garden. I happily adapted to the trickle of water available and felt very privileged to return to the uk to water flowing from the taps.

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I imagine you've already thought a lot about the kind of people you want to attract. The adventure of being in an off-grid place should be a draw for people. So maybe it's just about the way you pitch it, so the sustainable nature of the place makes it a positive?

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The water situation is most problematic, we're in the Oeste region and can see how water, or lack thereof, is going to be a problem. Our ground is already bone hard, not normal for this time. I have maxed out my brush cutting ability with my new Stihl at two hours today to beat the deadline. Had to be waved in!. Must remember I'm 69 not 39... dehydration weight loss benefit soon negated by imbibing Pingo Doce excellent Alvorinha Reserva... we're only human. Regarding water conservation would a timer type percussion tap as fitted on sinks work? Inconvenient maybe yes but stresses the importance of saving water...boa sorte

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Do you have a house battery, e.g. a Tesla Powerwall? (Oops, El*n M*sk). We have a 17kWh battery which is fed by our little solar array and force-charged overnight a very low tariff to take it to 100% (not an option for you, but you have more solar than me, and more sun). It saves us an absolute fortune.

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Hi Alastair! Loved reading this. We were also pondering starlink but went a different route that actual proved more effective and a lot cheaper. We created a guide for those in our community which you can find here - https://usercontent.flodesk.com/

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I’ve stayed in many campsites with timed showers of 3-5 minutes. I find three a bit short for a hairwash too.

In the Alentejo it is forecast to get even hotter and drier with climate change. I wonder if water there should be prioritised for local people and agriculture rather than tourists who may squander this precious resource without thinking. I guess decisions will be made by the governmentâ€Ļhopefully not too late

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Bores create a different problem they

remove ground water.

My comment. Increase your storage capacity and/or look at your personal desal plant

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