Day 31: Outeiro – Santiago de Compostela

Tuesday 1st May 2018

17.7 km (864.9 km)

Don’t listen to advice…

After a leisurely start today we marched towards Santiago de Compostela safe in the knowledge that we were only 16km from our final destination. Unfortunately, our host from last night gave us quite a lot of false information. He said the route was much easier than yesterday (he obviously has not done any of it) and directed us to a coffee stop at the halfway point. His description sounded idyllic; over streams and then to a perfect spot at the halfway point…luckily I read between the lines and we stopped at the only coffee stop along the way which in no way equated to his description.

Perfect last day

The walk today was lovely though, walking along a forest track between eucalyptus trees, surrounded by houses snuggled among vines…all in brilliant sunshine. The route was pretty undulating which made us wonder if the host from last night had done any section of the route…given that so much of this Camino is completely flat today was a hard day in comparison!

Arrival

The approach to Santiago was deserted which is odd given that we knew what was ahead. Even as we approached with the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in sight we saw no one. We passed through the Messina Arch and still not a rucksack in sight. Then we arrived in front of the cathedral and as if by magic there were throngs of pilgrims. We tried to go and collect our Compostela but the queue was around the building so we left it until later. At 7 pm we had to queue up or give up so we queued for a good hour and now both have our Compostela…I’m sure Dan is very proud of his 🙂 I can’t believe the difference in numbers in two years, it is rather alarming! Anyway once the blisters heal and the memories start to fade I presume I’ll be back for another Camino, there’s one from Paris…