Off to Finesterra

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Saturday 9th October

It was nice to get up and get ready to start walking again! I was up at 7, had breakfast at the albergue, and by 8.30 me and Amanda were ready to head off. Amanda is an english chick I had met a few different times along way, she had stayed at the same albergue as me last night, and we had decided to head out to Finesterra together.

We were prepared for rain, and also possibly some thunderstorms, as that was the weather prediction for the day. We put on all our rain gear and had our packs ready for a rainy day, but it was overcast when we departed with no rain to start. We were very pleased.

We set off towards the cathedral as that was to be the start of our camino to Finesterre. And we were just about to head out of town, walking past the very plush five star Catholic Hotel, when we saw Johan. Soooo perfect... he was the one person I still needed to say goodbye to and I had been very disappointed that I hadn´t seen him yesterday. It was really lovely to be able to have a quick chat and say goodbye face to face. I will miss him....he is such a wise and insightful man... and was so generous with me on the camino.

Once we had finished our good byes, me and Amanda headed off. It was an extremely pretty walk...through forests.. and little villages... we saw very few people and felt so happy to be finishing off our camino in such a positive way. It made me realise how much I had not enjoyed the last few days of the camino going in to Santiago.

We had a lot of climbing to do, and we walked 36kms all up, so it was quite a tough day. Although, it was warm and sunny and it hadn´t been warm for days!

We talked alot... Amanda is writing a book and is very into topics related to women...so we had some great conversations. And we realised that a couple of times we had had some quite similar experiences on the camino.

We arrived at our destination... Villaserio... about 5pm. Had a quick sleep and then had dinner in the bar. At the bar Amanda banged into Pablo, a spanish guy she had met before. He was very nice and interesting, and they chatted alot.

Off to bed. So nice... only three of us in the room and lots of cosy blankets to keep us warm tonight!! I had a wonderful sleep.

Sunday 10th October

Up about 8am... no point getting up too early as it was still dark. We headed off and saw Pablo emerging from his albergue. We had a quick chat with him and then headed on our way. Once again we felt so happy...it was wonderful to be on the road with so few people, and those we did see were genuine pilgrams. And again, the weather was great!! Perfect for walking!

After a couple of hours we stopped at a bar for breakfast. Its amazing how good food tastes after a couple of hours of walking. We were joined by pablo and a couple of other travellers. Then it was off again. We had to walk 40kms today..so we needed to keep on going. We had a couple more breaks along the way. Saw lots of cows on the roads today. and also alot of dogs... interesting.

The last few hours were quite tough... we were getting tired and ready to find accomodation. We finally arrived at Cee, our destination. It was amazing to get to as we had to come down to sea level from the 300m we were walking at. It seems to be a very pretty town. We had to walk another km or so to get to the albergue, which was a little tough. But we made it. I showered, and amanda was a bit tired, so I went to the bar next door for dinner. It was great and I got very good service. I am constantly stoked with the service I get with my terrible spanish. Then back to the albergue for a bit of internet catch up time. I also phoned Friday, I had checked online and although we were still the 10th, he in NZ was already a the 11th, his birthday.

Tomorrow we will arrive at Finisterra. So excited!! The end of what has been a totally amazing journey!!

Monday 11th October

Well, there was no choice but to be up and about early this morning. The same leery rowdy men who had been awful and loud last night, were up early and making as much noise as possible again. We got up, packed, and then went next door for breakfast.

After breakfast we hit the road. It was a little rainy, but not too bad, and we knew we didn't have far to go now. Surprisingly, it was a little difficult getting out of town, as the signage was terrible. We think we went the wrong way at one point, but were very soon back in track. I think the walk was only about an hour and a half. Definitely no more then two hours.

We stopped at one little beach along the way so that Amanda could release her pent up excitement about finally being at the sea and have a little paddle.

The view of Finesterra once we got near it was stunning. We met Emily, Amanda's friend, walking toward us on the final path and then we met Mirkosch, who was waiting for us on the beach!! Very nice to have a welcoming committee for a change!!

Emily took us to the hostel she was staying at, which was also the one I'd been recommended. I checked into a two bed bedroom in the hope that I'd have it to myself for at least a night. The hostel was great, a kind of hippy set up. The place really felt like home, it had a meditation room, and they did shared dinners. The hostelers were also really nice.

Once we'd checked in, we went back to another place Emily recommended, the local hamburger bar. It was a fab spot, and it was so wonderful to have hamburger and fries for a change. We stayed there for quite a while, chatting and eating.

I was pretty tired from not having slept the night before so went back to the albergue for a sleep. I had a good couple of hours, much needed, and I felt heaps better.

Emily decided to head off that afternoon, so we all said goodbye to her. Then I had to take my phone to the mobile phone shop as my charger had died. They couldn't sell me a new charger, but they did let me use their charger to charge my phone. Very nice. I'm really not sure you'd get that kind of help in NZ.

Later that night we all (me, Amanda and Mirkosch) went for dinner. Hamburgers again!! This time at the place next door, not nearly as good, as the owner wasn't all that friendly. Then we wandered around a bit, and went to another bar for a drink. We were having a good chat about relationships and other deep and meaningful things with Mirkosch. About 9pm I hit the wall and decided to head to bed.

My journey had finally ended, I felt really happy and complete at Finesterre. I was really satisfied, and at the end of the day I think the exhaustion had finally caught up with me.

Tuesday 12th October

It was wonderful to feel that the camino was finally over. Doing the walk to Finesterra had been the best decision and meant that my camino ended really well.

It was also great to feel settled for a change. I was definitely staying another night in Finesterra and maybe more.

I slept in a bit, but got up for the breakfast in the kitchen. They put on a great breakfast, and one of the hostelers, I can't remember his name but a lovely guy with a wonderful calm energy, served me what I needed. I felt very spoilt.

Amanda had obviously got up early and headed out. So I went on the internet and started arranging my flights, to Madrid etc. Unfortunately, it did make me realize time was running out, I only had a couple of weeks left of my holiday.

Then Mirkosch turned up at our albergue as he was going to move in for the night. He was full of stories from the night before, he's had a big one. He had lots of gossip, but the big news was that it appeared that Armando had turned up in town with another group and a girlfriend.

I did a load of washing and wandered to find our local beach. I don't think I went the most direct way to the beach, but it was an interesting walk. The beach was gorgeous! As Jens had said in an email, a little like the west coast beaches of NZ.

I was a little angry when I headed to the beach, but it was amazing how my newly found strong sense of myself and the energy of the beach calmed that down really quickly. I walked back to the albergue feeling very good and calm.

Amanda still wasn't back, we were going to do a bit of a debrief on our conversation, but there was no hurry. I decided to go for a walk into town, and on my way saw Amanda at our local hamburger joint. Armando was also there, and some other people I hadn't met before. Mirkosch joined us before too long and we sat there most of the afternoon eating, drinking and talking in the sun!!! It was wonderful!!

Mirkosch mentioned he was going to walk to Muxia the following day, so although I didn't need to walk any more I thought I'd go too. I was keen to check out Muxia and another day walking would be nice.

We all decided to head to the beach for a bit. It was such a nice day and the beach was really beautiful. We all went down together and then each did our own thing, thinking, swimming, soaking up the sun, walking, whatever took our fancy.

Then we went back to the hostel to get sorted out, tidied up, before getting ready to go and see the sunset. The Finesterra sunset is said to the be highlight of the place, and it was predicted to be a good one that night as the weather was so clear!

We headed back to the burger joint to pick up takeaways and wine before heading to the lighthouse for the sunset. The lighthouse is where everyone goes to see the sunset. However, at the burger joint the owner told us the very best place to watch the sunset was from the beach we had just been at. He even showed us on his computer, to prove the point. It was great news as we loved the beach and it was closer than the lighthouse. As we now had a little more time we decided to eat at the restaurant and then just take drinks to the beach. We had another really nice time at the restaurant and headed to the beach just in time for the sunset. I had a couple of glasses of wine, the first drink for me for a while and a bit of a treat for me. It was a really gorgeous sunset, beautiful. And once the sun had gone down we stayed and watched the stars for a while. It was a really great day and a lovely evening. A very good ending to the camino.

Unfortunately, that night I didn't have my room to myself and my companion snored all night. I'm absolutely done with not getting a good nights sleep and having to put up with snoring. No more, dammit!

One thing I must mention about my time in Finesterra. I very luckily got to see a few people again - Annie and her uncle, Will and his gang, and Heidi from Hawaii.

Muxia

I was up pretty early, no point trying to sleep with a snorer. I went downstairs for another lovely breakfast. Then it took a while for the others to get up.

Once me and Mirkosch were ready, we said our goodbyes. Goodbyes were starting to get easier by that point, we had said so many, and headed off.

The way was quite well signed to start and really pretty. Not many places to stop for breaks though. Just as we were starting to get desperate for food we finally found a restaurant for lunch. It was a nice spot, so we stopped there for a while.

When we headed off again, the signing was terrible. I really wasn't sure we were heading the right way quite a few times. We had to keep stopping cars on the way, to check we were going the right way.

We spent alot of the walk talking about the camino, the people we had met and doing a final debrief. It was a perfect way to get clear on everything before going back to the 'reality' of life.

Because of the bad signing, I think, we ended up getting in to Muxia later than expected, about 6pm. We walked around town a bit, ended up at the only albergue in town, which was brand new and very nice. And then went out for dinner. The town was deserted, it felt a little like a ghost town. We found a place that was open for dinner, and the two lovely ladies that ran it looked after us very well.

I slept very well that night.

The next day we had to leave the albergue. So we took our stuff and went to find somewhere for breakfast before searching for a new place to stay. We were near the hotel that had been recommended, so we decided to check that out if it was open. It turned out to be open, and serving breakfast. So we had breakfast, checked out the rooms, and decided to check in.

We then went for a walk to the church on the sea. Very dramatic positioning for a church. We then went to the pilgrams office to get our compestella, use the internet and check out the bus times back to Santiago. On our way out we banged into Will, good news, as I could borrow his ipod charger. While my phone was charging, me and Mirkosch did a little more sightseeing. Back to the internet cafe to say goodbye to Will. We ended up having lunch with him before he headed back to Santiago.

Back to the hotel, I used the terrace on the roof to do some thinking and rituals around what what is next for me. It was good to take some time for me again. Then a little nap and then dinner again.

Once again, a bad night's sleep. For both of us, it really felt like the room had bad energy. Weird!

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