Portugal: Tavira becomes Hell

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I remember when I 1st arrived in Portugal with my good friend, we went to a special place (where we had a special moment last time, don't be jealous Bhaji Coote) ... but I remember being saddoned.

That special place is called Pego Do Inferno and if you're friends with me on FB, you will see it on my cover photo, the waterfall.

That entire area was amazing .... and that photo was only taken in April. Yet in September when I went back there, really looking forward to it ... I found nothing but destruction. The wooden bridge burnt down, no waterfall, no lake, no stream, burnt barren land for miles, buildings smashed to the ground ... something very wrong happened there.

Well, that something was forest fires in July. This was huge, the sky glowing red ... firefighters battling for days to control it. In the end it took over 600 firefighters, 200 trucks, 4 helicopters and 2 planes to bring things back into control. Most of the town people were supplying fruit, water and juices to the firefighters since there was no time to eat/drink whilst fighting the fires.

Plenty of land destroyed, people's homes destroyed, non-resident owners worrying about whether their holiday homes have survived. This thing could be seen from Spain, check out an artist's impression at: http://skasouls.com/images/Forest%!F(MISSING)ire.jpg

Here is a description from someone who was there:

"The fires came with 80 metres of our place and the flames were 20 ms high. Our friends have a wooden holiday home next door to us and we were frantically soaking their place with water when the Bombeiros (firemen) arrived, we couldn't leave as we had both sent our kids away in our cars- I tell you when I saw the fire coming down the hill towards us I was seriously scared. A fire engine got stuck going up the hill and the heat blew out their tyres, the flames engulfed the fire engine and then the petrol tanks literally exploded, we thought the men inside had perished, they managed to get out but with burns to their hands. A note to everyone living outside of a town, the Bombeiros told us that what saved our house was the fact the we cut down and cleared the land surrounding it, we have a large gravel swathe all around our property (which I hate but now see it's value) and this forms a break against the fire."

So much beautiful land here destroyed ... and with the economy the way it is, how can a community afford to restore that beauty? Pego Do Inferno was a magical place ... I called it the "Sentosa of the Algarve" .... yet now it is perished. When we were there we went into these run down houses, personal belongings thrown about all over the place, roofs caved in, people's homes ... and some of these people have nowhere else to go. It's funny because Pego Do Inferno means "Hell's Pool" ... it was certainly burning alright.

Actually, in April you may remember we were helping some guys who had their car stuck in the water and had to cool for breakdown assistance ... all they needed to do was wait a few months ... no more water.

Long live Pego, the Sentosa of the Algarve 😞

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