My Camino covered three goals: Santiago de Compostela, Finisterre, and Muxia. Today was my final walking day, from Finisterre to my last goal Muxia. Somehow you seem to carry the fact with you that it is the last day of walking. I enjoyed it nevertheless very much. The landscape was quite diverse with sights on sea and beaches, fields and forests. It was a nice summary of a lot of the Galician landscape of the past week.

The morning started with a nice sunrise in the distance on a ridge behind the sea. However, it would take a couple of hours before I was actually walking in the sun as I followed another ridge in which shadow I walked for a long time. When the sun reached me I realized that it was actually the first walking day that the sun was predominantly on my right side. So far I have continuously walked westward and hence, the sun was mostly on my left side.

It appeared also to be one of my fastest walking days, within six and a half hour I covered the 33 km for today and at entering the Albergue the hospitalero was surprised that I walked it and did not come by bus. But for me it did not feel as if I had been hurrying, I had a pretty fine pace and took my regular breaks as I normally do.

This stretch between Finisterre and Muxia is a stretch that can be walked both ways. Some pilgrims do Muxia first and then Finisterre and some it the other way around. Halfway today’s stretch in Lires I met the first pilgrims from the other direction. Furthermore, it was a quiet route, many pilgrims clearly stop their Camino in one of the two places and do not make the connecting stretch. The dual character of the route made the signs sometimes difficult to read and there was a situation where I had to look twice to take the right road. Sometimes the signs were very clear: M for Muxia, F for Finisterre.

Walking up to the Virxe da Barca in Muxia really felt special: this is really the end of my Camino. I spent quite some time at the Punte da Barca enjoying the silence and at the same time the noise of the water breaking against the rocks. The Camino is now over, although it is said that the Camino never leaves you, but for now the walking is over. In another century, I would have only been halfway as I would have to walk the way back home too. But for me, after 900 km of walking, it is time to enjoy the benefits of a modern day pilgrim: tomorrow the bus to Santiago, Thursday the plane back home.

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Sunrise

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Seaview

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And for the last day: one muddy path.

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Clear signs: M for Muxia, F for Finisterre.

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The Virxe da Barca.

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My Muxiana, as proof of completing this part of the Camino.