Ellen S - Camino De Santiago Journal - 2024

Day 49: The End of the Earth

Elevation gain=1371 feet

What an incredible day! We got up at 0445 for an early start. Breakfast in the room.

The streets as we left Cee were so quiet. An occasional streetlight showed our path and gave us views of the ocean as we rounded the coastline.

In the next town, we left the road to climb a rough cobblestone path uphill. It soon joined a road that we followed to a town with a pretty church. Unfortunately parking is in demand in this town, and the front of the church was a parking lot.

We continued up and down hills along paths that followed the coastal highway. The light grew. Sunlight touched the forest treetop. The woods were a mix of pine and eucalyptus plantations, adding a pleasant aroma.

We did one very steep drop and climb that might have connected to a rocky patch of beach. We reached a large beach of sand. The tide was out, but we opted to stay on firmer ground. Last evening, we had gone to the beach in Cee to dip feet in the ocean. The path we took stayed in parkland near the beach, with nice shade, benches.

Eventually we reached the town of Finesterre (aka Fisterra). A short break in a cafe and we started up the final miles. The route thru town was fairly well marked. Once beyond town, the path followed a road at a steady incline to the lighthouse that marks the end of the world as people in the Middle Ages knew it. This is Europe's western most piece of land.

The weather was pleasantly cool and the wind was quite strong. We got photos at the 0 km marker. Wandered past the lighthouse where a cross marks a grave? to Sanchez, who died at age 32. There were lots of people hanging around initially, but the crowd thinned, probably because of the strong wind.

So we made it across Spain. Hard to say how we felt, but most long distance hikers will know that it's a happy and sad time. We are glad to have had this adventure with few problems. Sad that the beauty of the experience is over. Happy to give our bodies some time to recover from the pounding of the Camino surfaces. But already missing the chance to walk and discover more!

We finally turned around and headed back to town. Tried to get an earlier bus than we had booked, but they were full. They even had to delay our planned bus to bring in an extra to handle the number of people wanting transport back to Santiago.

Back in Santiago, the now usual chores. Buy food, start organizing our gear, get cleaned up. Back in our hotel, we hope to catch up on some sleep!

Entry 54 of 54
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