Back from Oporto...

[ioannisluca]

Hi Laurie,
(and all in the forum...)!

I returned home from the Caminho Portugues (Lisbona-Oporto) last week, tomorrow I'm leaving again, this time to Bretagne and Normandie en velò...
When I'm back I'll write something on the Caminho and post some photo... Anyway, it was really good, even if I didn't meet any pilgrim along the way (only some walking the Camino de Fatima...)! And I got lost in an eucalyptus forest, too...!

Bye for now...and thank you Laurie!
I'll return after the 15th of August.

A big hug
Gianluca

 

[peregrina2000]

Welcome home, Gianluca,

Those eucalyptus forests are the pilgrim black hole. I'm hopeful the new Lisbon Friends group will be helping out with this in the near future. But it sounds like you only got lost in one, whereas I got lost in two, so that's an improvement!

Looking forward to hearing about your walk, the highs and the lows. And any specific comments for the online guide would be very helpful as well.

Have fun in France, Laurie

 

[Deleted member 3000]

So the eucalyptus tree and its origin, Australia, are causing trouble for pilgrims????

There is an annual conference on noxious and invasive species. It may need to address the "lost in a eucalyptus forest in Spain" problem.

 

[CaroleH]

Big, big mistake introducing eucalypts to Spain and Portugal.

So bad for the 'local' European environment . . . . local birds, wildlife and vegetation will not flourish in such non native forests.

Worst of all, the combination of pine and eucalypt trees, makes for the perfect fire hazzard.

 

[peregrina2000]

Maybe this is a little off topic, but I walked a day or two on the Camino to Muxia with a Spanish man who studied mushrooms and he was constantly breaking out in cries of anguish as he passed places he used to pass that were full of all kinds of mushrooms and saw that they were gone. Done in, he said, by the eucalyptus. He told me there are efforts to restore the natural habitat but it's expensive and hard.

BTW, the Camino Primitivo is virtually free of eucalyptus, and there are lots of really beautiful forests with not one in sight. Just another reason to walk the primitivo! Laurie

 

[Alan Pearce]

The well known priest associated with the albergue at Guemes on the del Norte has very forthright views on the damage caused by eucalyptus plantations, and on how they have poisoned the environment.

Alan

Be brave. Life is joyous.

 

[Priscillian]

I would like to say a word in support of the humble eucalyptus, most especially when mixed with the humble pine:
That is what Galicia smells like! Especially after a rain shower. Take away the eucalyptus and I would have nothing to want to bottle and take home with me. I think that a bad day lost in a eucalyptus forest must be better than a good day at work...
Tracy
www,pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com

 

[hel&scott]

Welcome home, Gianluca,

eucalyptus forests are the pilgrim black hole.

Yes well, far from us to comment on the invasive nature of out Tasman neighbours flora.. but at least you don't have their damn possums to contend with (merrily munching through our native forests)... on a positive note still plenty of chestnuts, walnuts and other local species sporting various interesting fungi on the route to get those horticulturaly curious of us interested on the way.