A quiet holiday - NOT !

After all the trials and tribulations of the last couple of years thought it was about time we had a quiet holiday , catch a bit of sun late in the year and relax. So toddled off to the Algarve, not the beach resorts but a little town in the hills for food, walking and cultural stuff like. An Iveco owning mate was on his way south so we met up with him too

Well , we didn't reccon on the Algarve throwing us a curve ball as far as weather was concerned

So heres the results of a Tornado that hit the town

http://overlanddreams.co.uk/SilvesTornado/index.html

It lifted a 5 tonne Iveco and pushed us 50 metres onto a tree, other vans weren't so lucky and went over, a fiat camper was reduced to a chassis cab and a pile of matchwood and aluminium

It ripped the swimming pool roof off , wrecked the football pitches, demolished the 3 herses that were parked in the car park but missed the main field of campervans otherwise there would hae been carnage there as vans would have landed on vans

It stripped the paint off cars (and my mates truck)


Then the sun came out again.

Rich

Wow! Were you and your mate lucky or wot? His camper could have very easily ended up like that motorhome on its roof. The 5 tonne weight factor was clearly the saving grace.

As for that poor ol' Bedford CF (at least it looks like one with a grille I've never seen before), it's survived all these years only to fall foul of the wind.

Won't even comment on the Fiat camper, as you say, a "pile of matchwood and aluminium".

As for the camper with the sheet of plywood embedded in its side, you wouldn't want to laying in bed when that flew into you!

Scary stuff mate.

Quite a shock, hope every body was OK, was their anyone hurt, was working on a building site years ago and had a mini tornado, was a bit scary.

Four of us and a large dog in the camper when it hit. We got down on the floor and waited , nothing we could do.

No one was hurt, although I think we will all be a little bit jumpy when we are sleeping and the wind picks up again when in the campers

Others were hurt, but not badly , a stay in hospital for observation and stiches for a couple of swedish folk but they were more worried about there lost dog. It turned up 4 days later - campers replaceable, dogs and people not.

A dutch lady had to be cut out as she had broken her shoulder.

It was slightly comical watching the local fire brigade trying to cut the tree out from under the camper though, they didn't have a clue and got the saw jammed and spent the next 15 minutes unjamming the saw. To be fair they were a volenteer brigade but it makes you glad for the professionals that come to our aid.

Holy crap!!!

Jed

Jed@CampervanCulture.com wrote:

Holy crap!!!

Jed

x2!

foooook glad everybody was ok,,,,,

Anyone remember the tornado that hit Billing Land Rover Show back in 2006? A big ol' tree came down and squished Trailmaster's 110 - landed right in the middle on the roofrack, the entire wagon became V-shaped.

Thankfully nobody hurt, but a lot of tents and marquees ended up high in the trees; scary.

Tom Mc wrote:

As for that poor ol' Bedford CF (at least it looks like one with a grille I've never seen before), it's survived all these years only to fall foul of the wind.

Ah that wasn't a camper, that was a hearse - they use vans with big windows in portugal

Thenkfully there was nobody in residence

Glad you're OK, vehicles can be replaced or repaired, humans are a little more difficult.