The Last Walk

The compromise for not walking straight to Santiago yesterday was that we would leave early, very early today. So we were out of the accommodation at around 05:45, expecting a peaceful final walk.

No sooner had we started walking when behind us in the distance we could hear a lot of loud, excited chatter, which got closer and closer over the first mile or so to the point where we just stopped to let them by. The group was around 35 teenagers, with the rear guard playing music through a speaker. Sounded like they were going to a Taylor Swift concert rather than Santiago.

However, the rest of the walk, mainly in the dark, as sunrise today was 08:51, was peaceful and what we expected it to be. By this time it was raining lightly, which didn't really matter and in some ways fittingly came full circle, as it rained for 5.5hrs on our first day.

Walking into the cathedral square at 10:10 was very satisfying but before we could really take it all in and get any sense of what our emotions were we started bumping into person after person that we'd got to know along the way, who themselves had got in the day before. Which was really lovely, but in some ways that moment of arrival was lost.

So then after dropping off the bags we went to the cathedral for the midday mass, which was standing room only by the start. Then onto collect our Compostela, certificate of completing the pilgrimage and via bumping into numerous other people went on for lunch.

Our fate was sealed when at about 4pm we bumped into the two Aussie women we had dinner with in Roncesvalles, on the night of our first walk. They were sat at a bar with a father and son who had travelled with them most of the way. After a few beers two more couples joined us and after a few more beers we went for a meal and after probably at least one beer too many we wobbled our way back to the hotel.

O Pedrouzo to Santiago de Compostela
Distance: 12.21 miles
Time: 4hrs 15mins
Speed: 2.8 mphRead more