The greatest news possible today, the fires are now classed as “Em Resoluçao”, which means “In Resolution”. They have finally conquered this monster. Bright blue skies have returned to the Algarve and the sound of helicopters and planes have disappeared, all with the exception of a few small flare-ups to contend with.
I took a trip up to Talurdo which is where I was photographing on Wednesday to see the devastation left behind. There is a small farm in Talurdo and it is very near to where the fires passed through, they were lucky, the fire chose a different path and missed them completely. There are a lot of Bombeiros and Army stationed at Talurdo (and all over the fire area) until they can finally say “Em Conclusão”, so I didn’t want to annoy anyone. I did send the drone up, but the return of the planes for a distant small fire meant I stopped, I will share this footage soon. Once everything dies down, I will send it up again to bring you some views of the devastation.
For now, here are some photos I took. It was amazing to hear Beetles and Crickets amongst the ash, Swallows, Swifts and Martins flying around and also a lot of Butterflies, isn’t amazing how nature deals with this. As you can see, this area has no Eucalyptus, there are a lot of Cork Oak Trees that have been destroyed. I noticed many trees that had their cork harvested this year, these trees had no defence.
In case you are wondering which area this is, I have created a Custom Google Map which shows you. This is just a tiny portion of the whole fire area.
