Portugal fires

[MrsKCastle]

Horrible to read about this today. Thoughts with the people of Portugal and particularly of course the emergency services. Such a sad week.

BBC Link

Sounds awful. What a tragic disaster happening over there. So many people has lost their lives :(

I have an ex colleague who lives over there - there are a good 40km away so not affected fortunately, but they have offered their accommodation to people who may be in need of a comfortable bed.

So tragic.
I do admire Portugal's way of declaring 3 days of national mourning - we should have similar for Grenfell.

We are approx 30km away in Coimbra District in holiday accommodation and next to a river. Ash is falling around us but staying put. Wind has dropped thank goodness but fire not yet contained. One of us will have to stay awake tonight on lookout. God help those not so fortunate pray for poor little Portugal and the goodness of people.

The reports sounded terrifying. So sad. Take care theoriginal.

So sad take care Chatelaine!

We were grateful to arrive safely home on Sunday. Quite an experience. We had to leave a day early from our accommodation and couldn't go on to the next leg of the tour as that had been evacuated due to the fires. I'm understating things a bit but we did have a four hour window when we had to "make a plan" saying how much we loved each other. Ash falling and smoke coming over the valley. Jump in the river or risk getting in the car and making it out of the remote valley and temporarily towards the fires? We anguished and decided to leave. The reason for our first visit to Portugal was to visit our DS who now lives there. We left and happily had 5* alternatives, but took up the generous offer made by DS's friends to stay on their land. It was an amazing experience including compost toilets which I recommend! We had the most amazing river swimming of our lives: clean and warm. Lovely simple quality food and friendliness. Our first unfortgetable visit to Portugal and will visit again without hesitation. (Feeling > Grateful) Pray for poor little Portugal. x