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Signpost near Santiago Airport
There is still some way to go - about 14 km. Fin
Today started walking through eucalypts, feeling a bit homesick. They are grown as a plantation timber around Arca. The tall, straight trunks and the leaves and bark on the path made if feel very much like walking in bushland around Canberra. There are plantings of different species almost all the way into Santiago itself along the Camino.
It was hard to decide whether to push, or just take it a bit more slowly. There were going to be at least two sessions to cover the 20km or so into the cathedral, and finding somewhere for coffee proved more difficult than it ought to have. At what I thought was the obvious town, only the panaderia (baker) was open - the bar, cafe and supermarket were all closed. A kilometre or so further on, in an even smaller village, I found a place open and stopped there.
Then it was on the Monte de Gozo, where one can get their first views of the cathedral if only the trees weren't in the road. Stopped there briefly and by the bottom of the hill was into the urban outskirts of Santiago. The trail into the city is reasonably well marked,
and there were plenty of people walking in, both pilgrims and others walking in from San Marcos, the village near Monte de Gozo.
I stopped to photograph the cross at the Puerta de Compostela at the edge of the old city, then started into its streets. Coming out of a particular plaza, I knew that I should be quite close, and ran into a young woman I had last seen three days ago, and who told me she had finished yesterday. When I asked how far it was to the cathedral, she pointed out the building next to us. We were standing next to it.
After that anti-climax, she showed me the way to the pilgrims office, and by 1.30pm I had completed the formalities and been given my Compostela.
Next came the visits to the cathedral, and the long queue to see the reliquary of St James, and then I went out for a meal, and some moments of quite reflection which were interuppted when Chris who had now been joined by his wife, Jeremy, the two Belguims and several Germans entered the cafe. Sat with them until their food arrived, and called it a night
and went back to my hotel.
Mixed Feelings
Even now, a day later, I'm not sure I can adequately describe completing the Camino.
Certainly there was a feeling of some accomplishment. I had walked across most of Spain - over 800km from the French border to Santiago. Every day for the past 33 days, I had woken and dressed in the dark, packed up and left the albergue before dawn and walked between 20 and 30 km by myself for most of the time. There were many days where that was not an appealling prospect.
It hadn't snowed, but I had been out in most other weather conditions along the way. When someone wanted to watch the news to see what the weather was going to be like the next day, I looked puzzled. 'Will it make any difference?' I asked, 'We'll walk in it anyhow.'
While I walked alone, I shared my Camino with many others, just as they shared with me. I think the strongest feeling I had was sharing that final moment outside Santiago Cathedral with Kathryn when she told me I was at the cathedral. 'You're here. You've made it. I'm so
pleased.' They meant so much coming from a fellow pilgrim, someone who knew the physical and mental demands that this really meant.
As I came into Santiago, I thought a lot about the support I got from my family and friends both new and old. I know that there were times when it would have been much more difficult to go on if I had not known that they were there willing me on. I am grateful for their support and encouragement along the way. Thank you for offering it so freely and willingly.
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Jeff
non-member comment
well done
Well done, Doug, glad to hear you made it safe and sound.