Month: September 2008

08.09.08 Monday.

San Pedro Martir to The Lighthouse Finisterre.

Our last day, back to the Chapel of San Pedro where the marquees were still up but deserted, the chapel still locked and only a fountain that didn’t seem worth taking shoes and socks off for. But the light as dawn was breaking was excellent and the multiple levels of cirrus clouds were lit by the pink rays of the early sun with, as the guidebook said, panoramic views over to the Cape Finisterre. The route followed the coast road in several places after descending into Cee, the local main town, and gently rose and fell over the two headlands prior to the beach at Finisterra. En route we met a man tending the apples in his orchard. He gave us some small peaches which were windfalls from his trees and talked about how the apples from his orchard were sent to Asturia to be turned into cider. The Somerset pilgrim was able to say that he also came from a big cider making region but there the stilted conversation stopped. We stopped for coffee at the camp site we had being staying at and reached Finisterre lighthouse about 1445 after a good lunch in one of the many little restaurants in the town. As we arrived pathetic fallacy again took over and after a fine morning the wind and rain picked up, nonetheless your stout hearted pilgrims climbed down the cliffs to the place where countless others have burnt their clothes and other items, and burnt our shoes that have stood the rigours of the Camino fairly well since their purchase in Lourdes, but were now becoming very well worn.
After getting our final sello (stamp) from the lighthouse, we returned to Finisterre pilgrim albergue to receive our certificates to mark the completion of the walk out to ‘The End Of The World’.
Jane adds: it’s very nice to have my husband back, after all that walking. Even better that he should burn the shoes, as I’m not sure I wanted to share the tent with them for any longer!

This will be the final post to this blog site (‘thank ****** for that’ cries out our loyal readership!).

We have not formally attempted to do any fund raising on this trip, so if you would like to applaud our efforts, please make a suitably sized donation to a charity of your choice.

Buen Camino!

Link to where we are on Google Maps

5 and 6.09.08 Saturday.

Finisterre.

We have been walking towards the end of the known world now for two days, pathetic fallacy cut in as we arrived on the camp site in Estorde, nearly at Finisterre. We have elected to transfer our base to this remote part of Galicia and to walk on a daily basis until we reach the point of land most westerly in the known world. The problem is that it isn’t! Looking at the map today we realised that Lisbon in Portugal is at least as far westerly as the Capo Finisterre owing to the magic of Mercator’s projection and the position of the north pole re latitude and longitude, although grid lines on some Spanish maps help continue the myth of the Finisterre.
The countryside through which we walk is typical west of Ireland; there is gorse and broom and heather. It is green, and as we know you don’t get green without rain. The night before last and yesterday were dominated by a small deep depression that formed off the coast, and a gale and wind equal to any in the western Scottish Isles.
We survived and are now about halfway between Santiago and Finisterre. Our pace has slowed as we now are accompanied, but allows appreciation of some more sedentary values. On stopping yesterday for mid morning coffee at a tiny bar in the middle of nowhere we were pressed to accept a slug of (probably rum) in our coffee, “for the taste, and the journey”, such is hospitality still in the remote parts of the Way.
The land is very rural, farms and small hamlets only. A sculpture in Negreira depicts a Galician family with the father leaving to find work, but his feet are the roots of a tree. Echoes of Scotland, Ireland and other Western Celtic lands are all around, only the ever present alien Eucalyptus tree and the huge wind farms with their turbines strike a strange note, the mists, damp, and wind are familiar.

Link to where we are on Google Maps

03.08.08 Wednesday.Santiago de Compostela. We have been in our cosy little appartement in Santiago for 2 days now, small but comfortable as long as everyone breathes asynchronously. We have all done the cathedral, pilgrims twice, and the museum of peregrinations, there is a phenomenal amount of carved stone around the town as well as on the cathedral, if old buildings and wood and stone carving are your thing then this place is well worth a visit, the thousand years of pilgrimage to the reliquaries of St James even if the story was almost certainly manufactured have produced a town full of  the efforts of human endevours. In several places the old and the new have been put together with a degree of sensitivity unusual in any cities today. It is also very used to visitors and you could probably find someone to try to understand you even if you only spoke Martian!  We have not had any sun since arriving here and last night a significant amount of rain. We have eaten out mostly and there are a huge number of eating establishments, notable mentions for Café Conga  rue de Conga,  coffee con letche 1 euro with fresh orange juice and a mini croissant thrown in free, and  Casa Monolo in Plaza de Cevantes  possibly the ultimate pilgrim eatery with big portions for 8.5euros for the standard 3 courses with wine and certainly a place where you are likely to meet as we did  many people we had met along the Way. Tomorrow we start for Finisterre and in keeping with our experience so far the rain should stop as maybe it does not fall on the righteous?