I know these are in Central and Northern Portugal but please think of the people who are suffering from these terrible fires and the fire-fighters who risk their lives in trying to put them out.....

This link will show you the fires currently raging in Portugal and the number of people/aeroplanes etc fighting them.

http://www.prociv.pt/sites/en4/ocorrenc ... story.aspx

We experienced the "fall out" from brush fires while on holiday in Almeria, near Mojaca. Not a pleasent experience, especially when the wind changed and the temperature shot from 28 C to 48/50 C quite scary considering we were about 8 miles from the fire zone.

Very nice sentiments, Lesley.

It is one thing to see these fires on television but to actually witness the appalling devastation and terrible hardship these fires cause is very shocking.

We were in Obidos over the weekend and saw one of these starting - The smoke hung around for a couple of days and the smell in the air was horrible. The barman in the Hotel said there was one still burning in Fatima with 450 firefighters tackling it!

Hiya all,

Just back from Cabanas de Tavira and have seen the ravished land where the dreadful fires wreaked havoc over so many kilometers of land. So many animals died in the fires.
The beautiful Inferno- the lake with forested lands and a fab wooden walkwayetc - alink somewhere on this site shows the fab place, - has been utterly destroyed. So sad as it was beautiful.
Castro Marim golf course is a mess and not really usable at all
Driving thru the hills we saw a lot of the devastation and again up the river to Aloutim along the Portugal side of the river.so really devastating.
Very little re growth and no money to help.