Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Can't describe what an amazing feeling it was to stand on the cliffs at Finisterre! The moment I had been dreaming of for 5weeks! Of course arriving in Santiago was also amazing, although it wasn't the end for me as it was for most people, there was such an incredible atmosphere in the city- I arrived at the Cathedral at exactly 12 Midday, just as the Pilgrim Mass was starting and it was a beautiful and emotional ceremony, even for non-Catholics like me! It was so funny to see so many people in lycra and grimy trekking clothes in such an amazing and historic cathedral, however they didn't swing the 80kg incense burner that day- apparently they did the following evening but I missed it!.
So after a bit of a break I picked up my Compostela- proof of pilgrimage, hugged the statue of Santiago in the Cathedral for good luck (this is a tradition I didn't just do it randomly) packed my pilgrim pack again and headed off for the final 100k to the coast at Finisterre. For some reason I thought it would be a really easy few days- actually in my head I thought it would be all downhill! It was in fact a tough few days walking and very hot until the last morning when there were supposed to be amazing views of surrounding mountains on the last stretch to the sea- it was incredibly foggy and you couldn't see anything! Until Columbus made his little voyage people thought that the cape at Finisterre was really the end of the world (hence the name Finis- terre) and descending on the path towards the sea in heavy mist you could definitely imagine the pilgrims of the middle ages feeling they were heading towards the end of the world. However the mist started lifting and the Atlantic eventually came into sight- the view I had been waiting for for so long! It was a few more hours to reach the cape of Finisterre and by time I arrived it was glorious sunshine.
Another tradition (after more than 1000 years of people walking the Camino there are many traditions!) is to burn your clothes on the cliffs at Finisterre, to symbolise the end of your pilgrimage and that you were now a brand new person... and also people probably used to all have lice etc by the end of their pilgrimages! I had also been planning to do this for 5 weeks, but unfortunately another pilgrim 6 months ago burning her clothes started a forest fire and burnt down half the trees on the cape, so it is now strictly banned....grr health and saftey. But after 900 kilometres, 5weeks of borderline heat exhaustion, blisters, illness and injury, nothing could spoil the feeling of arriving at my destination- the END OF THE WORLD!
The Camino was an incredible experience and one I will never forget, thank-you SO much to everyone who sponsored me (page still open for the next few months everyone else!) and all the words of encouragement from back home really helped me keep going! Of course thank-you to all the other pilgrims I met along the way- from Romania, Korea, Germany, Venezuela, Brazil, France, Canada, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Holland, Italy, Ireland...and the rest(!)-you're all amazing and congratulations to everyone else who completed their own Camino, however long or short. Everyone keeps asking what my next challenge will be, would I do the Camino again etc....having been fairly sure that I was done with walking for now and that my only challenge for the forseeable future would be surviving my Ryanair flight home...well I've read about a pilgrimage to a mountain in Tibet that is holy to 3 of the worlds religions and involves several days trekking to get to, then you walk the circumference of the mountain (60k or so) in one day....I'm tempted...Himalayas 2012 anyone?!
