Fires in the Douro region

The air is heavy with smoke from the three (at least) fires that have broken out in the high arid mountains of this area of Northern Portugal.

They've been on international news I understand. We saw the first ones when we went high up to Mateus on Sunday. On our return from dinner at the Quinta de Avessada we saw the bright red of flames on the skyline.

More were visible when we went to Salamanca yesterday and as we returned to Regua we've come to the area hardest hit. Why set fire? Many of these are deliberate as well as those that are tragic accidents.

Unlike on Madeira, mainland Portugal has airborne help. This red and yellow plane flew past us this morning, circled and scooped up water from the Douro, slammed the container doors shut, and flew back alongside us before he took off with his load of water with added flame retardant chemicals, to return to the scene.

Only when I loaded the pic into my iPad did I see that the hero pilot was waving.......