May 27th,28th and 29th- Santiago to Finisterre

I had decided to continue the Camino and walk to the sea, The Camino ends at Finisterre which the Romans thought was the end of the earth/world,
I set off around 7am and walked into the main square and past the lovely parador, down the hill and into the unknown, I did not have a guide or at least the guide that the tourist office gives you is basic to say the least, I decided to 'wing' it and just follow the arrows and find an aubergue when i needed one, The first days walk was very nice, Quiet with very few other walkers, Maybe 10 all day max, The way was well marked, One thing to remember is to always look behind as you see some beautiful scenery you may have missed, On this day i watched the sun rise over Santiago, There were some nice old bridges, One bridge i was crossing had a group of school children with a teacher, As i was crossing the teacher talked to the children and they then turned around and made a gap for me to walk through, As i walked though they all started to clap which put a smile on my face, I thought that i would be staying in Negreira which was only around 21km, I noticed that there was a flier on a tree for a new aubergue 11km further, 32km would be about right as the extra walk was 89km and i wanted to complete it in 3 days, Pushing it a little as i was tired from the weeks before, It was strange, as if my body was saying 'hold on we have finished' and my mind saying 'not yet i still want to get to finisterra' My legs were the hardest to get working in the mornings but after some coffee and something to eat i would normally make good time,
Day 2 was not as nice a walk, A lot of road even though country type roads made it hard work and tough on your feet, I ended the day with 28km so well on track, The route was quite hilly with one or 2 very steep and long, The vegetation would change from farm type spring flowers to gorse and heather and in places it was like Scotland,
Day 3 was much nicer with one big exception-rain, The trail was nearly all off road-great but it was raining from the start and was pretty heavy alot of the time, It was 4.5 hours before it even considered to slow down, My feet were saturated infact everything was saturated, I stopped about 10km out of Finisterre and dried my feet and changed my socks as i was very concerned about getting blisters, I made it into Finisterre without any problems, The last mile or so you walk along the beach which is very nice, If it had been day 1 i would probably not have walked with all the rain, It was an extra part of the journey that i personally wanted to do, You have to enjoy the walk or why else do it, The rain was not that enjoyable but as it was the last day i carried on and am very happy that i did, The Camino to Finisterre would be a great walk in good weather but this is Galicia and that means a lot of rain, Once i had got a bed and dried off the weather cleared and i made a dash up to the lighthouse about 3km away, I got the shots that i wanted and watched some people burn their clothes which is an old tradition, The milke marker there said 0 and that means that the trail is well and truly at an end as is my journey, Nothing to do now but to travel back to Santiago tomorrow and spend a couple of days with family before going back to the UK and then home to the States
I will do a couple of future blogs on kit and personal thoughts whilst on the Camino

First sign that i am heading in the right direction

 Sun rise over Santiago as i head West

  Very precise distance markers

 Old Bridge

Bridge where i was clapped

 The Camino shells point in the other direction since leaving Santiago

 The nicest part of Negreira was the exit to the town

 Street sculpture with 2 sides

No idea what this is but i have seen a lot of them

 Storage huts now made of stone and getting bigger

 The lovely foxglove after the rain

 Rush hour on the Camino

 Open graveyard on the Camino

 What way?

Back in the hills means wind farms

 Side of the aubergue

 Left to Finisterre and right to Muxia

 Yellow Hammer on a yellow arrow (wish i had a bigger lens)

 First sight of Finisterre

Lunch with a view

 Halfway to the lighthouse

 Camino ends at the end of the earth

 Yours Truly

 The lighthouse

People leave and burn their 'old life' kit here-a new life begins after

 Dunwalking

 People gathering for the burning

 Weather closing in all too soon

I hope you have enjoyed following my journey as much as i have in walking it, I still have a blog to write on Santiago and a couple of follow up blogs so watch this space

Dave