I’m Mynhardt Potgieter and I write from Asturias province in the north of Spain. I’ve been living here in Spain since February 2019, after 21 years in the south-east of London in the UK.

The draw was and still is the Camino route to Santiago de Compostela. I first got acquainted with it when I read about it as a 16-year-old and decided I wanted to do it one day …

Twenty-four years later, after a back injury and severe depression, I decided to go hiking the French Way. Two friends, Albert, a fellow South African and Seán, a very good Irish friend, and I started at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port at the end of May 2012. After a shaky start, I completed my pilgrimage with my return to Spain in 2013, weighing much less and almost healed from depression. Spain and her people have completely won my heart. I started dreaming of an inn on the French Camino route, and the search began.

Seán, my good friend and business partner, too heard the call of the pilgrimage and together we started looking for the ideal project. We came very close to buying three different properties, but the time was not right; so, in 2018, we decided to put our dream on ice.

In August 2018, I decided to browse the internet one the last time and found an auspicious property! The story is too long to write down here, but it includes, amongst many other stories, that I spent two long days on the road through France, moving here with a cat and a Skoda Yeti full of plants without ever seeing the property. Now we are here and we are very happy.

The business is being developed slowly but surely, despite Covid-19, and we hope to open the restaurant sometime before Christmas. There will definitely be South African dishes on the menu, and the neighbours already love bobotie, sweet potatoes, mashed green beans, baked potatoes and Peppermint Crisp tart. In the meantime, we’re operating three self-catering apartment units and we’re planning a luxury guest house, which we will start building DV in February 2021.

It will be interesting to hear about other South African businesses in Spain or Portugal. It can get lonely here, and we would love to make contact with other Saffas.

Kind regards from San Julián, Asturias in the north-west of Spain.

Mynhardt Potgieter

Web: www.sanjulianrurales.com
E-mail: info@sanjulianrurales.com