Finisterre… When we first decided to come to Spain to do the Camino I discovered there is an extra stage that is not officially part of the Camino, but which many walkers do after reaching Santiago de Compostela. Some symbolically burn their walking clothes to signify the end of the pilgrimage. The story goes that St James, or Santiago as he is known in Spain, had a few behaviour management issues and, even worse, had collected only a few converts. As punishment, he was banished to “the end of the earth” to convert the heathen. So he set out towards the west and ended up at Finisterre – “finis” – end; “terre” – world – on the north West Point of the Iberian Peninsula, in what is now Galicia. This translation now gives special meaning to the Finisterre Range, on the Huon Peninsula in PNG – was it named after Finisterre, Galicia or because early explorers thought they had found the end of the world? My sources described a spectacular coastline, as well as wonderful seafood restaurants, so I decided that we should go to Finisterre on the day after we arrived in Santiago.
Nancy arranged a driver and recommended a seafood restaurant and on the Sunday morning five of us set out for Finisterre. Our driver, also Jose, had grown up in London. He was very friendly, knowledgeable and had a very British accent. He was a very good driver and his minibus was very comfortable! We hope we were in for a great day! We were all happy and felt a sense of great accomplishment after our walk. I could even describe our mood as euphoric!
The drive did not disappoint. The coastline was even more beautiful than I expected. To start with we drove through farmland and more Tassie blue gums. Then we hit the coast and drove through picture postcard fishing villages. We stopped a couple of times for coffee and to look around. Then we reached Finisterre! Unbeknownst to the others, John had chilled the bottle of Rose that we had bought way back on day 3 at the winery tour (with the gorgeous Jesus – described in an earlier post). As we arrived we realised we needed glasses, so we bought some souvenir shot glasses to toast our success. It wasn’t until after we parked and were walking out to the cliff face that we realised we didn’t have a corkscrew. However we found we had the only bottle of wine with a screw top that we’d seen in all of our travels in Spain! Surely a sign celebrating our success! After toasting our success and having several shot glasses of Rose we threw some pebbles into the Atlantic and took some photos.
The next stop was lunch at the restaurant that Nancy had recommended. The place was very busy so the only available table was in the bar. They gave us the menus which were only in Spanish and none of the staff spoke English so we really had no idea what was on offer. In the end the very patient waiter brought us one of each type of clam on the entrée menu and took us into the kitchen to see the fish to choose. We ordered clams & a fish, but weren’t sure whether we were getting 1 fish or 4! The clams were fantastic, especially the razor clams. And only one large fish arrived, cooked over coals & it was magnificent, especially washed down with some excellent vino blanco. It was truly a delicious, wonderful, fantastic meal and one that I’m sure the five of us will always remember.
After lunch we walked on the beach out the front of the restaurant and I took some more photos – of course. Then it was time to head back to Santiago. We stopped at an old bridge and mill, some parts of which dated back to the Romans. The day was the most perfect post-Camino day that I could imagine. Our euphoria increased as the day progressed and I will always think of it as a very special day spent with new friends.
Talking the walk: A non-believer's journey along the Camino de Santiago 