Upon awakening my phone was telling me it “felt like” 4° outside! Needless to say I was not in a hurry to leave this morning. Crazy when it hit 34° just a few days ago.

It was a short walk along the coast to Corcubion which was shining prettily in the early morning sun. It just turned 8am and I was lucky on a Sunday to find a cafe just opening, lucky as I’ve only a small bag of nuts on me and I don’t think there’s any stops on the 13 kms between here and Fisterra/Finisterre. The pananderia truck arrived just as I did and brought in nice fresh bread and pastries so I bought a nice, fat croissant “To Go” to see me through the morning.

It was a bit hard to find my way through Corcubion, though not all the arrows were hard to miss! This one led thru a very narrow passageway between very high old stone walls which brought me to an extremely steep (what else?) hill into the trees and out of town. It’s a great clear day today and contrary to what to the phone predicted, a very pleasant temperature. I had a nice but extremely stilted conversation in Spanish with these two gentlemen, they’re from Sevilla, just doing the week from Santiago to Fisterra.

We descended to a beautiful little cove with a few houses and a hotel with a gorgeous location. Then along to the next town which, of course, had open bars so I needn’t have worried about starving but as I was presently self-sufficient I found a lovely bench by the sea to have my breakfast.

This is a tremendous walk so far, has a little bit of everything: towns, forest, hills, views. If anyone was coming this way, say in September, this would be a good Camino-in-a-day walk.

A final little climb into the woods and along a sunny path lined with ferns. I pass a German lady wearing a heavy cotton cassock and trainers. I didn’t ask why but as she was wearing real clothes underneath I thought 1: how hot it must be and 2: how difficult to take a sneaky pee in the woods!

9 kms – the path opens to a spectacular vista, the whole Finisterre peninsula is laid out before us and it’s glowing warmly in the morning light. The long walk from town to the lighthouse can be seen to the left.

Another knee-breakingly steep but thankfully brief descent brought the nun and myself below the highway to enjoy another delightful view. The ocean is crystal clear with nothing visible on the seabed. Even from high above I can spot the few bits of seaweed at the waters edge.

The way drops down to sea level and I walk along a nice boardwalk and flagstone path along the spectacular beach. Those with stronger hips could walk the low tide line while I contented myself with the sturdier way behind the dunes.

11:20am 13.8 kms I arrived in Fisterra. Checked in to my hotel, had a refreshing beer & tortilla de patatas, then continued on the 3 kms to the lighthouse. Tradition says one should time it to arrive at sunset but that’s really late at night here at this time of year, and then it’d be a long walk back in the dusk, and you can’t take a picture of the lighthouse looking into the sun!

There’s a steady stream of pilgrims marching up the long slope to the lighthouse with me and lots of bus tourists up there as well. I had my obligatory photo taken with the 0.0 kms marker though my Way isn’t yet finished as I’ve two more days walking to Muxia. I could easily do it in one day but I’ve got two nights to fill before my final reservation in Santiago so I’ll take it easy, maybe have a later start in the morning if it’s going to be so cold again.

Fisterra has changed quite a bit in the 15 years since I’ve been here last. Then there was tons of construction going on and while that seems finished, what remains is lots of restaurants and bars and hotels. It wasn’t my favorite place before and it hasn’t become one now but it’s fine for a night.