Camino 2017 Rest of the story

After arriving in Santiago and visiting the tomb of my patron saint I felt that my pilgrimage was complete. The extension to Finisterre (or Fisterre as used in Spanish) was optional and more like vacation but I was very happy to continue walking on to the"end of the earth" as it was known in ancient times.

Helen and I started on our 4 day 90km (56 mile) walk to Fisterre. 

I did not continue blogging in part due to frustration with internet availability and partly due to laziness now that I was in vacation mode. 

The route was pretty, the weather was great and most of the stages were long and tiring but here is an overview of the days and sights  

Day 1. Santiago to Negreira

We left Santiago past the west end of the cathedral as it was just getting light, down a steep hill to cross the river and back up to the top of the next hill. There was a high fog above us and at one point we could look back across the valley and see the lower part of the cathedral with the towers and spires up in the clouds. 

 

 

After leaving the city quite quickly we were on trails through woods and up and down hills, through more open areas on our way to the little town of Negreira. 

 

Shortly before arriving at Negreira we passed over this medieval bridge, still the main traffic carrier olong this road. 

 

We found an albergue for the night and had a nice dinner at a restaurant in the town. 

Day 2. Negreira to Ponte Oliveira

The next morning we left early while it was still foggy for a long 32km day with several hills to cross on our way to the next town.  Here is the old city wall in the early morning as we left the town. 

 

After a while the sun broke through and we walked through pretty countryside. However this proved to be one of our most tiring days. We were walking for about 8 hours before we reached the next town without many places to rest or get a coffee along the way

 

The flowers were very nice by the trail

 

We finally arrived in Olveira tired but relieved to have the longest day behind us. We slept well that night!

Day 3. Ponte Olveira to Concubión

The next morning we set off on the next leg of our walk as far as the town of Cee. It is a harbor town on a bay of the Atlantic Ocean.  Our first view of the ocean came long before we arrived in Cee. 

 

For much of the day we encountered thick fog on the hills

 

And steep climbs and descents

 

Also we passed a confusing sign where the trails split: left to Fisterre and right to Muxia. 

 

Soon were we were on our way down a very steep descent to the harbor in Cee. It was very hard on our knees but we finally made it down. Often the descents were harder than the climbs. 

The sun came out and it was another glorious sunny day. 

 

 

We found an albergue in the adjacent town of Concubión and explored the town. It was very pretty with a XII century church. 

 

Dinner for me was muscles from the Atlantic. They were delicious! 

 

Day 4. Concubión to Fisterre

The next morning we made our final 13 km to the little harbor town of Fisterre. Much of the trail was close to the ocean and we were there in about 3 hours. 

We left our backpacks at an albergue and after finding some lunch, since we had missed breakfast, we set out on the last 3 km to the lighthouse on the promontory that for millennia had been considered to be the end of the earth where the souls of the dead were released to their ancestors with the gods. 

The walk along the coast was pretty with a clear sky and a very strong wind off the ocean. 

 

When we arrived Helen layed a stone she had picked out along the way to remember Ben's mother. 

 

 

Then we took the obligatory photograph at the 0.00 km post on a beautiful day with the ocean as our backdrop. We had completed what we had set out to do and covered almost 240 miles on foot across 2 countries of Portugal and Spain. A very special father-daughter experience. 

 

We picked up our Fisterrama certificates

 

 Later I wandered along the harbor watching the fishermen. I went to the fish market but today's catch had mostly been sold with just a few bins remaining. 

 

Return to Santiago

After our 4 day walk to Fisterre it was time to return to Santiago for 2 more nights. This would be our first time using transportation since we got off the train in Barcelos, Portugal which seems to have been an age ago. 

According to the schedule the bus would take a little over 3 hours but it turned out after we were already on our way that this was an express bus and only took about 1.5 hours. We were lucky without realizing it!  

Two more nights in Santiago and then on to the U.K.  

Good night, this time from Santiago.