Racing the weather - and saying goodbye
The 2 (short) days walk from Finisterre to Muxia was eventful in an uneventful sort of way.
For those who may not know, the two coastal towns of Finisterre (or Fisterra) and Muxia have in recent years become towns that pilgrims like to visit when the Camino is done. Some walk (90 km), some bus, and some do a combination. The two towns are about 30 km apart so it has become increasingly popular to walk between them as well.
In my times in Spain I have:
- Bussed to Finisterre 3 times
- Walked to Finisterre 3 times
- Walked to Muxia 1 time
- Walked from Finisterre to Muxia 2 times
As I said this walk was eventful in an uneventful kind of way.
Event 1 - I lost my Tilley hat. No big deal, but it’s been a friend on the last three Caminos, so I’ll miss it. Someone emailed me later that day and said “your hat is on a post about 4 km from Finisterre!” Unfortunately by that time I was 17 km from Finisterre, and even a faithful Tilley hat is not worth retracing 13 Camino kilometres!
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| Farewell, old friend |
Event 2 - lost my backpack - thankfully only temporarily. Apparently when the lady from Hostel 1 called the backpack taxi (yes there is such a thing) she told them the wrong address for Hostel 2. And apparently the backpack taxi driver didn’t read the directions I had written on the backpack.
After figuring that all out the company owner very graciously brought the back from his house/office to my hostel (40 km) and all was well!
Event 3 - at our albergue in Lires (read “middle of nowhere”) the sign said “dinner served at 7:30”. We went at 7:35 and were told we’d have to eat in a hurry because tonight they close at 8:00???? (Apparently this is company party night, and they forgot to tell the people who make signs saying “dinner is at 7:30”)
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| Don’t trust everything you read! Fake times! |
Event 4 - since dinner time was confusing we made sure to check on breakfast time the next day. “Certainly sir! Breakfast is from 8:00 to 11:00”. (It matters because this is the last cafe for 17 km and we have one banana between us.).
Down for breakfast in the morning. Find one lone security guard to tell us “I don’t know why, but no one showed up for work this morning. Kitchen is closed”.
Apparently people in Lires don’t handle the company party very well.
Event 4 - the weather.
Four (count them - four) major weather advisories for our area for the morning walk. Two major “damaging to life and property” wind warnings and two major rain warnings with accompanying flooding possibilities.
So Wednesday morning we RACED the weather. 15 km hike in exactly three hours (in case you are wondering that’s fasssssst hiking times! Muy rápido!!!!)
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| Screen shot at exactly 2 hrs in |
We met many hikers going the other direction and believe me they were NOT doing 5 kph !!
| 80 km/hr sustained gusts Glad it was a tailwind! |
So that’s that. Two days to walk to Muxia, an afternoon and morning to look around, and now we are in a Monbus hurtling/lurching along country roads on the way back to Santiago de Compostela. (It’s amazing how fast a bus hurtles when one has travelled at the speed of a slow walk for three plus weeks.
Tonight we’ll sleep in a 254 bed albergue, (thankfully not all in one room) and tomorrow (Thursday) it’s off to Porto for the last leg of this magnificent grandfather/granddaughter adventure!
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