When WBro David Nicholls of Danetre Lodge No 8594 visited WBro Bill Mead one night back in 2012, little did he know that it would set him on a Portuguese Odyssey!
Bill surprised David by saying that he and his wife Betty were off to Portugal for a rather different lodge meeting, one of the Lodge of the Oldest Ally near Lisbon.
When David told him that a distance of over a thousand miles seemed rather a long way to go for a Lodge meeting, Bill explained that the Lodge of the Oldest Ally was consecrated at Daventry Masonic Centre in 1993, that it was run in English according to the English Constitution, that it was a Craft lodge belonging to the Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire Province, and that it met twice a year: once on the first Saturday in May at Daventry Masonic Centre, and again on the first Saturday in October in Cascais.
David’s interest was sparked to plan his own visit, so two years later, WBro David and his wife Susan accompanied WBro Jack Hirst and his wife Linda on a trip to Portugal and a visit to the Lodge.
So great was the welcome and hospitality that they received, WBro David vowed to return, which he did this year. A more detailed account of David's travels will be published in the Spring edition of Password.
