My final day on Camino at the end of this journey of almost two months. Today was a long day. I’m not quite sure why I planned it this way, but it’s quite a long day. It’s 28 kilometres from Fisterra to Muxia. Twenty-eight kilometres for me is really right at the upper end of distance in terms of, you know, getting sore knees and that type of thing. There are some big descents and ascents as well, so this is probably going to be one of the hardest days on my Camino, but it’s the last day.

As it turned out, it was a lovely day of walking. I managed to find a great place in Lires halfway, or just before halfway, a fantastic place to have a second breakfast. My first breakfast was in my hotel room that was sardines on pan integral (nice whole meal bread). I find that the sardines and the oil and the bread give me a good kickstart and lots of energy for the morning and it did. So, I left the hotel at 6:30 and by the time I got to Lires at about 10:30, I was certainly ready for something else, and I found a great place for breakfast. After that it was a fairly steady climb towards Muxia and then a very steep descent down into Muxia. That was the bit that worried me. I was afraid that my knees would give out, but with some tight strapping on my knees and some painkillers, that was all great. Then after I checked-in in Muxia I went for a walk out to the Chapel on the Rocks because that’s a great place to finish it for me, you know, and it was.

There was a lot of tour buses there, unfortunately, and a lot of noisy tourists, but I found some space on the rocks to reflect and think about my journey. I was just filled with a sense of gratitude. Gratitude for those who had helped me undertake this journey, those at home, and at work who were stepping up to cover for me, if you like, while I was away. A deep sense of gratitude for the people I met along the way, locals and other pilgrims, and a strong sense of contentment, but it was now over. It was now time to go home and put into practice what I’ve learned on this Camino. There was a huge lesson on this Camino.

Just before sunset, which is at 10:00 PM tonight, I walked back out to the little Chapel on the Rocks, just north of Muxia. There, like a couple of dozen pagan sun worshippers, pilgrims were dotted across the rocks as they sat watching the final limits of daylight as the sun went down and the sun went down for the last time on their pilgrimage. This is a fitting enclosure for my Camino.

Finally, if you’ve read my blog, it’s called Robs Camino, but the subtitle is searching for Santiago. I think this time I found what I was searching for and the big realisation for me was that I don’t need to come back walking Caminos all the time searching for answers; the answers are back home. The very strong realisation that I had on this Camino about two weeks ago was that joy and happiness in life comes from those around us. I’ll expand on that a little bit more on one of the YouTube videos, but that realization was very strong and I don’t need to come on Camino all the time to find that. I now understand that I need to bring that with me back home. So, it’s been an incredible journey, 1,200 kilometres, 60 days, a long way. I’m not sure if I ever thought I would make it, but it’s been a fantastic journey. I really need to go home now.