Episode IV: A New Hope

“Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.”
– Dory

We’re feeling pretty good this morning, so much so that my fellow pilgrim is even willing to pose for a “before” photo (we shall see if I’m allowed to get the applicable “after” for comparison). With her are Stickey, and L’il Stickey, who, she will tell you, have made this journey possible, especially the hill grinds. Sorry boys, this is our new family.

While there is a fair amount of distance to cover today, with the exception of a pretty steep drop to the coast at the end, the trail is a little more on the level side. It is also largely away from the road, which hasn’t always been the case (walking on a narrow shoulder while semis and busses blow by you isn’t what they show in the brochure). The scenery has been wonderful along the entire route, but today has been my favorite.

Part way into our journey, we come to a fork in the road. One path leads south to Finisterre, while the other goes north to Muxía. A road connects the two so a lot of hikers will hit them both in a loop and then walk back to Santiago de Compostela, but I get the stink eye for even thinking such a thing (how does she know?), so we take a left here and stick to the original plan. As my anti-sherpa gleefully points out here, we are also less than 30km away from our goal!

We’re perilously close to the death zone once again but, finally, we make it over the last ridge and get our first glimpse of the Atlantic. It may not look like much, but off in the distance here you can see our destination for today (a town called Corcubión), Finisterre, and way out there, the tip of the peninsula that marks km 0. Plenty of steps still in front of us, but thee is a reality now that we are actually going make.

One side benefit of long days on the trail is that, when you do finally stop to eat, everything tastes better. I suspect this isn’t actually the best hamburger in the world but I’d fight you right now if you said otherwise.

Oh, and that “after” photo? I did get it and it looks awesome!