Day 23

We left nice and early again to start the last day of our walk. 

The view was amazing once again.  

We thought about riding these horses the rest of the way, but settled for just petting them. 

So we continued walking. 

We had walked close to 15 km when suddenly the ocean appeared in front of us. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I am pointing at the ocean, not the sky. 

We were halfway there (fisterra was the destination). 

After stopping for lunch near the water we continued walking. We left the coast for a bit to walk through some woods. 

Then again, white suddenly, we were back by the ocean. And we could see Finisterre across the water. 

With our destination in sight, but still close to 10 km to go, we kept walking. On a trail,

Then a road,

And then sand. 

We had made it to the beach!

The walking seemed to go quickly after that as we searched the beach for scallop shells while we walked. 

We reached Finisterre and got our certificates of completion and then dropped off our bags at an albergue and continued on to the faro de Finisterre. The lighthouse a the end of the world. 

The zero kilometer mark. We made it to the end. 

This bronze boot sat on a rock at the edge of the world. 

And these were the shoes that carried me there. Brooks pure grit trail runners. 

A cross:

A pile of abandoned boots from pilgrims. 

Mark left a Utah sticker. 

It was a beautiful spot to end our walk. 

It is tradition to burn something at Finisterre. We burned letters we had written. A new beginning at the end of the world. 

We sat and watched the sun start to set. 

I liked ending our camino in such a beautiful place, even though the camino was more about the walk than the destination. 

Ending at the ocean, where we could not walk any farther, made the walk feel complete and purposeful. 

Though my feet will be happy to not walk 15 plus miles a day, I will be a little bit sad to stop walking. I guess that's why so many people we met along the way had done more than one pilgrimage.