Only two days of walking left, so let’s start the day with a very steep slippery downhill and then a long climb to get back on the Camino, just for giggles.
Sun shine over there, rain on our heads. The joke is that as soon as Ken takes off his rain jacket, the rain starts up again.
We are so close! Just over 31 km to go!!!
That’s the place we stayed in last night, way over there.
Them thar’s some pretty big boots to fill!
Trust Ken to find live music along the way. James from Australia gave Ken a private violin concert. I only caught the tail end of it but it was a magical Camino moment for Ken. Ken also introduced James to the song “On the Road to Santiago” plus some French tunes.
Left to Finisterre. Right to Muxia.
How exciting to come across a donativo! I bought the double shell on the end plus a banana and a drink. These donations are such nice surprises. Seven euros for what we took.
And now we find out about the wolf posters. I think. The English translation of who the Vakner was is below. A pilgrim from the 1490’s claimed to have met ferocious beasts at this crossroads.
The Snax and Teensy very bravely tried to protect me from the Vakner by biting his toes. My heroes!!!
This is the important crossroads where left goes to Fisterre and right goes to Muxia further up the coast.
Make up your mind Scott!!!
I love how there are taxi stickers plastered everywhere. I know from experience that as a pilgrim you have days when you are just done – there is no physical or mental motivation to help you put that one step in front of another.
Oh oh! Can we go left so we can go downhill…instead of right to go uphill? No? Waaaah!
Walking through a large clear-cut. Spain is planting so much Eucalyptis because it is so fast growing. Antonio says its used for furniture and also to make charcoal / pellets for heating. But it is a non-native species. species so the environmentalists don’t like it. Plus it is extremely flammable so between all the Eucalyptus and pine they are planting, these are forest fires waiting to happen. The saving grace is this region (Galicia) is very wet…very rainy.
We’ve been walking dirt tracks and all of a sudden there is this random beautiful sidewalk in the middle of nowhere and only about 20 feet long. Ken thought it meant we were getting close to a town with a beer…and when he saw there was no town and no beer, he went “waaaah “!
A lunch spot out of the rain.
These are the flowers from the Eucalyptus trees. The tops look like acorn tops.
Another smile moment – a man and his dog. The dog was splashing happily in the ditch and the man in question was walking along singing at 7the top of his lungs. Very badly i might add. Video below – its quite charming.
The ocean comes closer.
As weird as this sounds, I’d rather climb a hill than walk down a hill of this length and grade. Really hurts the feet and if you have a bad knee or two, watch out!
Just about at sea level.
Scott’s a meanie. I have glasses that turn dark in the sun. But if you put something on part of the lens it stays clear while the other part turns dark. Scott deliberately turned one of my lenses into half and half. Hah! I shall have my revenge.
The little dog in the window was guarding his house from the invasion of pilgrims and the big dog, who turned out to be the splashing dog of earlier in the day.
The Atlantic, very quiet in this sheltered bay.
The boys went out for a tapas supper. This was their waiter in the bar.
Ken thought it was pretty funny (and it is) that there are children’s drawings in the bar similar to school kids drawing thank you cards when they’ve been on a tour somewhere. “My Favourite bar Tio Monchin”.
The favourite bar. Note the old stone horreo beside it.
Apparently that was their favourite bar too. Look at those hopeful faces asking to be let in.
Tomorrow is our last day of walking, although we don’t fly home for a week yet. Always a bittersweet mix of emotions – excited at achievement, relief at no illness or injuries, melancholy as the adventure is ending – so difficult to describe.
It’s been very special having Antonio walk with us. He was in Red Rock with us when Peter was born (1990-91 school year) and before his “little” brother Scott was. We get to see other every few years. Not often enough but we are grateful for the time we have together.
VF Britannica Via Campaniensis Voie de Vezelay 2025 