Santiago de Compostela

O Pedrouzo – Santiago de Compostela – 18km

I am writing this a day late as I never got a chance to write yesterday. Sooo many people to catch up with.

So I started the day by getting up early and setting off at 7am. 18km to gobble up and get to Santiago asap. Didn’t meet too many people I knew and stopped at a couple of cafe’s for food and drink. About 6km to go, my friend Jonathan caught up with me and we walked into Santiago together. As we walked in through the outskirts of the city you could feel the buzz. Suddenly the spires of the Cathedral could be seen in the distance and loads of people were marching towards it.

We walked towards the tunneled entrance to the cathedral square and could hear the bagpipes in full flow. Not too long now.

We finally got there. I looked up at the cathedral and just felt amazed by it all. There were loads of people already in the square with local Spanish groups all singing and marching into the square. This was it. 800km of hiking, sharing dorms with complete strangers from all over the world, attending to injuries and blisters, making friends and leaving them behind to make new friends, searching for accommodation, multiple boozy nights and pure grit to get through each day – all done!!

From speaking to people who had walked from St Jean, most were of the opinion that it was almost an anti-climax to finish. We all enjoyed each others help and company along the way that in fact, I haven’t met anyone who wanted to go home. Most are only going home because they miss their family or have jobs to do.

I went to the Mass at 12pm and really enjoyed the experience. It was mostly in Spanish language but you kinda got the drift. I was exceptionally lucky to witness the Botafumeiro – the spreading of the incense in the cathedral. What a magic experience it really was.

When Mass was over I met a lot of people I knew from various stages including Kylie who had just done the last 100km+ with her husband who had flown out to join her. They are a great couple and of course we had to get one last selfie

About 10 minutes later who did I see but my old pal Bengt, who had got up early and arrived before most. We went to a restaurant and had a fabulous salad and a beer. Then Jonathon joined us too.

We went to get our compostela’s and then left to get cleaned up at our albergues/hotels.

On my way back I heard a crowd shouting my name and looked over- it was another group of married couples just a little older than me, who I had spoke to nearly every day at different stages. They kindly bought me a couple of pints before splitting for dinner. The craic was mighty though with American lady Tonja telling us a story about her knicker accident 🤣🤣

After getting checked in and cleaned up, I met Bengt at a craft beer bar for a couple of pints of a strong IPA. Then we met Jonathon at an Italian restaurant for pizza.

Everyone feeling exhausted we went to our beds then. Myself and Bengt were booked on a trip to Fisterre (End of the world) and Muxia and had to be on the bus at 9am. Jonathon had already booked his own trip so would not be coming with us. I got back and thought, don’t be a sad-sack, you’ve just done 800km, go out and celebrate. So I looked up google for some clubs and found one playing dance music. Spruced myself up and decided to write my blog before I went out. Well that was the end of my party night! I fell asleep writing and woke up at 6am this morning fully clothed on top of the bed. 🙈 I always do this!! My wife Marissa used to be angry with me for falling asleep on the living room sofa and then coming to bed at the crack of dawn. Now she just lets me carry on as I do it that often 🤪

All in all I enjoyed today. To finally reach Santiago in 33 days is good going. If I had to do it again I definitely would not hire a bike. That was just too painful and I hated being a nuisance to the walkers when they had to step aside on the trail to let me past. I would do it at this time of year again but would change about half the gear I had on this camino, and maybe bring a bigger backpack just for comfort of packing things and taking them out. My 33L Osprey Talon pack was superb but it was always so tightly packed and took too much time to pack it correctly.

I’m going to do a page on gear when I get home on Monday. Just some advice on what I have experienced with different gear. Bye for now! 😴