18.8 mi (30.21 km), 2572 ft gain (784 m), 2244 ft loss (684 m)
Santiago de Compostela (Libredon Rooms) to Albergue alto da Pena
In 2015 when I completed the Camino Frances the one thing I regretted was not having enough time to continue on after reaching Santiago to go to what was traditionally called in the early days of pilgrimages “the end of the world” – Finisterre, Spain as it was thought to be the most western place on earth! So this time I added a couple of days buffer plus I ended up finishing Camino Primitivo a couple of days ahead of schedule so time enough to walk to the ocean. Funny thing though I wasn’t really sure I wanted to! To start up again after finishing your pilgrimage in a city like Santiago was mentally tough to do and what made it tougher the forecast was ugly. I’ve completed 4 hiking pilgrimages that all ended in iconic cities like Santiago, Fatima, and Assisi and have never walked post pilgrimage ending so this was a first. But not knowing when I’ll be here again I decided to go for it and I think for a change – my physical condition helped my mental – since my body was well adjusted now it helped me mentally to come around. The weather was terrible – it came in waves of grey, drizzly, hard rain/wind, dry period – rinse and repeat all day! But besides the awful weather it felt good to walk again and the path was very peaceful unlike the final 2 days when we merged with the Camino Frances route. So all in all I was happy I was walking and having the opportunity I didn’t have 7 years ago. Also I ended up at really nice albergue with an amazing homemade meal for 10 euros with all the vino tinto you wanted of course! One of my original Camino Primtivo family friends ended up here also Matte from Poland so that was a nice surprise – otherwise that original crew is spread out all over at this point:)
dam2015caminodesantiago 