Smith's Journeys

We thoroughly enjoyed the last few days coming into Santiago de Compostela.

Yellow arrows were more frequent as we travelled north, as were the number of pilgrims.

We mainly stayed in private hostels but occasionally when there was nothing left we used the albergues.

We passed many well-disciplined groups of European scouts, some kids quite young maybe 9-11 yrs.. They walked long daily distances mostly in great spirits. We only came across one group of stragglers who were lying down on the bitumen of a small forestry road. They were immovable to my suggestions that a logging truck would flatten them even more.

We pushed the last kilometres as it was very busy.

Much is made of the story of St James bones being bought to Galacia and the rare possibility that his bones ended up here and being carried to Santiago de Compostela. They were supposedly held in this coffin.

We were two of the 1524 that arrived that day. Due to the high numbers, they hold a second mass at 7.30pm which we managed to attend.

Here is a clip of our view of the botafumeiro

We met another couple of Kiwis who were also cycling. We kept bumping into them so arranged to meet for a celebratory meal in Santiago. We had tons of fun together.

Finisterre

Before we left Santiago we wanted to take the journey to the end of the known Roman world. Finisterre or Fisteria. The day was hot and clear and we had unforgettable vistas of the northern Galician coast.

One of the many Roman bridges.

Old village with water-powered mills that used to grind the corn.

We became very good at spotting the waymarkers. They weren’t always as easy as this one.

The Ezaro Falls are dramatic as they plummet from high granite crags to drop into the Atlantic.

We could see similarities between here and central Otago.

Finisterre was dramatic and moving as pilgrims who had walked the last 80+ km from Santiago struggled up the last long incline.

Where the movie The Way ends

The dramatic monument that recognised the thousands of volunteers who came to this coast to help clear up the massive oil spill that followed the Mirador disaster in 2002.

Click here for the video clip of Finistere (3.60 minutes)

Cheers