Made It (Day 34)
Yesterday I went walking into Santiago and completed my Camino de Santiago French Route. It concluded with 512 miles hiked and 1,088,312 steps. It was 34 consecutive days of hiking with the longest days being just over 20 miles and the shortest days being around 10 miles.
A nice hike but the last 2Km seemed to take forever
Yup. Hills.
I started the day in the dark to get to where my friends were staying to meet up and get going.
Leaving town in the morning. It was just myself and a couple of other pilgrims.
Right outside of town the trail turned into the woods and it was dark AF.
That’s what I could see. My headlamp is kick-ass but wow, it was dark.
I was thinking how strange it would be to take my first fall on the last day. Or to get lost on the last day. Or to get eaten by the rare Spanish Grizzly Bear on the last day. Thankfully none of these things happened and I made it out of the woods and into the light. After we met (and had another coffee because that’s why this hike rules and I won’t do the PCT or AT) and continued on the walk got quite nice.
A camino statue on the way. No ideas who or what it was for. This is kind of a choose your own adventure statue. You could make your own narrative and go with it. I went with St. Wilbur the Flatulent. I’m also a child.
The woods aren’t nearly as scary when the sun is up
We stopped one final time for our late morning coffee (again, not having readily available coffee is bullshit and that’s why I’m in awe of the PCT and AT hikers. Those are the real heroes) and we found the most camino pilgrim inspired sign ever:
That’s right, they had to put a sign up in a fairly nice cafe to not pull your shoes and socks off in the restaurant. And they had to do it in multiple languages because at this stage nastiness knows no nation. I will miss this aspect of the camino. When it comes to appearance the amount of shits given begins decreasing on day two and ends at a point where people have to make and post a sign like this.
Finally we entered Santiago and……….walked for another hour to get into old town and the cathedral. The last 2Km seemed to take about 4 hours and was through all of these traffic circles and then winding cobblestone streets. Eventually we heard bagpipes (there’s a lot of Celtic heritage in the Galician region of Spain) and after we passed the piper in a tunnel we came out into the Cathedral square.
Yay!
It was spectacular. The square was crowded with pilgrims and everyday tourists milling around. Many pilgrims sat on their packs in the square just absorbing everything. I found Michele and got to hug and kiss my wife for the first time in 36 days, and that was spectacular. We took some pictures and wandered around a little. I bumped into some other walkers who had been in our “camino orbit” and exchanged congratulations and hugs.
Just like that it was over. I haven’t had the time yet to digest what it’s meant to me. At this stage I’m like most of my gear (gear review post coming in the future) - still operational but pretty worn down. Both physically and mentally. I think in the next couple of days it will sink in what I’ve accomplished and what I can take from it. I’m already having a hard time wrapping my head around not having to walk tomorrow. Or not having to wash my socks and liners in the sink tonight. I might pin my underwear to my pack tomorrow on the way to the airport for old times sake though.
Every journey ends somewhere and my camino journey ended in a remarkable cathedral square with new friends I’ve made and my best friend of 20+ years. It’s not an overly dramatic finish but a pretty damned good one nonetheless.
Thanks for coming along.
