Cee → Finisterre
Distance: 9 miles / 14km
Elevation: +1030ft, -1000ft
This morning Tovin and I woke up at the ocean side hostel in Cee. I had set an alarm for 6:50am and another for 7am, but when the first one went off, Tovin changed the second one to be 7:30am. It was still dark out when we woke up, and we started getting packed and ready. The hostel only had a few shared bathrooms and I hate having to wait to use one, so I sent Tovin to “reserve” it for me by waiting in it until I was ready. While he was waiting, he went to the toilet and some old guy walked in on him which was awkward for him but funny to me.
We got walking after getting ready, leaving at the same time as some crowds. There was a big group of touristy hikers who you could tell had just started in Santiago and only carried little tiny day packs. We walked really fast to get ahead of them, and then the first kilometer or so was really pretty, along the beach and ocean through town. After a little bit though, the official trail went up a huge hill and out of town. I think there was a slightly longer route we could’ve taken that went along the coast more, but we took the official route. There was just one really big hill for the day, and it was so awful to climb up and out of. We met a cute little cat along the way which helped, but it still wasn’t fun.
Finally we got over the hill, and then started walking down into our only town with a café for the day. We got there just before the huge crowds that were following us, and both got a café con leche, a tortilla (which came with bread), and then an orange juice to share. The café was really pretty and right on the ocean, and so afterwards we went and walked on the beach and collected some shells for about 30 minutes. We couldn’t check into our hostel today until 1:30pm, and we only had 15km to walk for the day, so we were able to take our time.
We collected our packs again (well, Tovin collected them, he carried my pack all day again for me which was so nice that I could just focus on the hike and reflecting on the last five weeks), and then got going. There was another uphill, but this one wasn’t as bad, and then we meandered along the road and through town for awhile. We met a super cute cat! And then the last part of the Camino went back up into the woods.
It was a really beautiful and mostly isolated path over a ridge through some forest on supposedly old Roman trade routes, and the suddenly we came out of the trees and in front of us was Finisterre, and beyond that, the ocean. I just stopped to take it for a little bit, and Tovin walked slower behind me so that I could walk alone for awhile. It was a big downhill, and then we came onto a 3km long beach with a nice path along it. We both took off our shoes and socks, left our packs on the shore, and went for a walk with our feet in the ocean! It was very cold but super pretty and not too busy.
We went back to our packs and washed off our feet, and then walked the rest of the way to town. We stopped and got a bottle of wine, some crackers and meat, and a magnet at a grocery store, and then went and were able to check into our hostel. It had been recommended to me by Liz as she had stayed here a few days ago, and it was an interesting experience. When we arrived, the guy at the check in counter / dining room table had us take off our shoes and packs, sit down, and offered us drinks or food while we completed the check in process. It was €45 for a private room with an ocean view, and then once we got checked in we changed, Tovin did laundry, and then we went to find somewhere to eat.
I had heard this about a place called Restaurante Lecer that had a pilgrims menu, so we went there. It was a really disappointing experience, instead of a bottle of wine, we only got one glass of wine each, and then the portions were pretty small. I got seafood cream soup and then fried cuttlefish and Tovin got a Galician empanada and tuna filet. It came with bread and boiled potatoes with butter. It was all very good, but just small portions and no desert, even though it was advertised to have it on the sign. After eating we had planned on going swimming but when we got to the beach, it was low tide and just looked and smelled nasty. The way our plans didn’t work out started to put me in a little bit of a bad mood.
We just sat down on the sidewalk and Tovin talked me through it, and then went to an ice cream shop. The ice cream was pretty disappointing too, it looked good but didn’t really taste like anything at all. After we finished our ice cream, we decided that if we didn’t go swimming we would regret it, so Tovin ran back to the hostel to get sunglasses and a towel, and then we walked a kilometer out of town to the big beach again. It was super cold, and even though we both went in to our shoulders (and Tovin went under the water) it still felt nice on our sore feet.
We walked a bit to dry off, then went back to the hostel, changed, and left for Faro de Fisterra, the official endpoint of the Camino. It was a 3km walk there uphill, but the trail was along the ocean and a nice path, and it didn’t feel too bad. We got there and took a couple photos with the final pilgrim marker that read 0km, and then Tovin went off on his own so I could have some alone reflection time. I sat on a big rock and just looked out at the ocean and thought about my Camino experience for awhile, how it was finally over, and everything I did and learned.
After I had sat for awhile, I went and found Tovin, and we went back over to the rock and sat down together and opened our snacks, a bottle of wine, crackers, and meat. He would cut up little pieces of meat and put them on the crackers for me and it was just such a beautiful ending to the Camino. At one point I said “the only thing that would make this better would be a little friendly cat” and then a few minutes later, a little cat came from somewhere!! Tovin attracted it over with some meat and then we fed it a bunch! It was so skinny and scared and reminded me of Pippin. Once it had enough food, it walked a little ways away, and watched the sunset too.
The sunset was really pretty, and throughout it, two different people came up and said they thought we were such a beautiful couple and would we like a photo together, or they had already taken a photo and would we like a copy of it! This has happened to us in Seattle as well, so we must just be very photogenic. Once the sunset was over, we left and walked back into town where we got another bottle of wine from the grocery store, and then went back to the hostel. The sky was lit a red glow from forest fires surrounding the town, but we were told it wasn’t a worry.
We showered back at the hostel, and then hung out and drank our second bottle of wine. I made Tovin go and get some ice because it was not very good at all, but the ice helped a little bit. We were hungry afterwards, so went to a kebab shop around 11:30pm called “Ali Kebab Finisterre” and got a chicken kebab, a beef kebab, some fries, and a drink. We went and ate next to the gross beach from earlier, and then finally we went back to the hostel, and went to bed.
