With a heavy heart the couple had to walk away from the property in March without losing any more money. “We’d gone through such a period of highs and lows that we needed to take a break. Our early retirement plan was all about going off travelling – so we went into overdrive and booked lots of flights. We’ve been to Turkey, India, Borneo, Malaysia and Thailand,” says Lucia, just off a flight from the latter.
"Our new plan is to go to Nepal and Everest Base Camp in February and then climb Mont Blanc in June. Then when we’re back we can sit down and have another go at buying in Spain,” she says, adding that they AirBnB their Devon home to help fund their travels.