Living the good life on a hillside in Portugal

Given how sustainability is and undoubtedly will remain the ultimate buzzword between now and the end of life on earth, two friends of mine decided to tackle it head-on, by relocating and making some radical changes to how they live.

Three years ago, the couple — a yoga teacher and a builder — bought a few acres of arid hillside deep in rural southern Portugal, for the kind of money that might buy you a parking space in the Dublin suburbs.