It never made it above the 60s during my walk today with Bob, as we covered the 18 km (11.3 mi). AND, from here, Muros de Nalón, it'll be only 300 km to Santiago de Compostela--that's not much compared to the 2637 km that I've actually walked thus far. We basically took the bicycle route to be kind to my Achilles' tendon and plan to continue that for the rest of the journey, some 15 or so days.
The eucalyptus tree, according to Wikipedia, is the town tree. But I've noticed along my walk the last week or so many eucalyptus trees and have wondered about their story. It turns out they were planted post WW II mainly for paper pulping. But in Spain environmentalists complain that eucalyptus is crowding out indigenous forests of native oak and beech in Galicia and La Coruna. Ecologists say that traditional rural lifestyles, while not as profitable, provide more employment. By one study, an Iberian olive grove requires 199 worker-days per hectare (2.47 acres) to maintain each year, vineyards 128 worker-days and a eucalyptus plantation four worker-days. So there you have it and here's a picture of one along the path:
