I had a trip booked to Fisterre, and Muxia today and had an early-ish start at 9am. Thankfully I didn’t go out last night after all or this could have been a struggle. Bengt had also booked the same trip and we met at my hotel to walk to the pick-up point.
It was great to be sitting in a bus for a day and not having to walk too far, but my legs had an unwanted energy in them and it was difficult to relax them.
First stop was a place called Negriera. I missed the explanation of what it was but it looked interesting and took a few photos.
Next stop was Muxia. This was my main reason for taking the bus trip. The scenery was amazing and I took a good 15minutes to sit on the edge of the rocks and watch the waves.
Muxia, I’m told, was the name of a group of monks who had a chapel in the area many centuries ago. There is a chapel on the rockshore called “Santuario de Virxe de Barca” I had a look inside and loved the place
St James was trying to teach Christianity to the locals in this area without success, so the Virgin Mary appeared on a ‘stone boat’ to comfort him. There are some stones near the chapel that are said to be the remains of the stone boat. Legend has it that if you walk around the stones 9 times you will be cured of something or other. Well, being brought up as a presbyterian and being told that Mary was a virgin and arrived on shore on a stone boat just didn’t quite convince me to walk around a stone 9 times. Like come on!!! I’ve just walked 800km and admittedly thats probably a little crazy, but I still have half a brain that can help me figure some things out on my own. 🤷🏻♂️
Anyways it was lovely to experience this place. It really is a very tranquil place and yes I did say a wee prayer for my family and friends – something I found giving me a little internal peace on this adventure.
Next stop was Fisterre. A lovely harbour town with lovely expensive cafe’s and boats galore belonging to the wealthy. I went searching, without success. for a supermarket in the hope that I could buy an Apple charging lead as I had to borrow one from a German lady in the busy. She was so kind to give it to me but was extra grumpy in demanding it back at this stop. It was a Sunday and there was some kind of festival/march on in the town with fireworks going off left right and centre in broad daylight. It sounded like I was caught in a war-zone and quickly looked around to see if anyone was scattering. Panic over! Keep on eating my expensive pizza!
I met up with Korean Chan, who I walked with several times in the first few weeks. Chan and his girlfriend where having a very adventurous meal of squid or something.
We said our goodbyes and goodwills and back on the bus again to the “edge of the world”. Cabo Finisterre. Nice location but not a patch on Muxia.
There were a few other stops at a waterfall, an Horreo – (an ancient way of storing animal grain- this one was the longest in Spain at 32m long- and not an animal in sight 🤦🏻) and a stop at an old church that had been demolished several times by the French and rebuilt again. It was a nice trip but myself and Bengt kept dozing off to sleep in the bus as the Spanish guy drilled on and on about Galicias history. He asked me a question about the percentage of forestry in Ireland- Do I look like the kinda person who knows every statistic going in my country?? Google it sir and the truth will be told 😝
We got back at 6:45pm and I texted my Austrian friend Christian to see if he wanted to catch a beer. Christian just finished today and we met up for a couple. It was great catching up on his journey. He’s a very funny guy.
Back to the hotel then to get my stuff ready for going home. The load of my pack decreased by about 2.5kg due to the stuff I left behind. Went to my bed and fell asleep instantly. Tiredness is catching up on me very quickly.
El Camino de Santiago 