To the sea

Robin and I left Santiago Monday morning under clear skies and temps in the upper 30's. It was a glorious start to our camino to Fisterre. We found a great bar cñlose to our pension and fortified ourselves with coffee con leches, eggs, bacon, and croisants. With all that finally on board we navigated out of the city and out into the surrounding suburbs. Our destination was Negreira, a reasonable 22 kms away. As usual the camino takes you up and down and so we had our climbs and descents as we have come to expect. All went well and we arrived at the municipal albergue in Negreira about 2:30. The albergue is just a bit out of town so we had to walk back about 1.5 k's (round trip) to get a bite to eat and something to drink. We had a Spaniard, a Belgian, a South African, A man from the Dominican Republic, and Robin and I in the albergue that night. No problems and all slept well. The next day the weather continued to hold in our favor as we set off on our longest leg of this camino, 33 kms. This leg also has a lot of climbing so in fact your distance traveled seems greater. Robin and I plugged along and found only one bar open (Maronas) in the entire 33 km stretch. We grabbed a sandwich at the bar and kept right on going until we arrived in Olveiroa at about 4:30. Everything in town was closed withe exception of the municipal albergue and the Pension Casa Loncho where we booked in. We were done in. We had been walkng hard (up and down) for 8.5 hours with hardly a break. As I was taking off my boots outside I asked if it would be possible to get a bottle of wine? No problem and moments later it appeared accompanied by a plate of cold meat and onions and a basket of bread. Nirvana. We arranged for diiner at 7:00 and had a great meal capped with Antonio (the owner) pulling down several unlabled bottles and a couple that you could identify and suggesting that a drink would be in order. We sampled and sampled until the caution flag went up and we begged off for bed. The next morning Antonio had toast and coffee set up as well as a wee drop of the aguardiente (sp) to lace the coffee against the morning chill. Under protest I dumped a good measure into my cup and I must confess I was none the less for wear during the day's walk to Cee. Departing Olveiroa we continued with the same favorable weather pattern that has followed us for days. We walked in high 30's to low 50's all the day. The skied threatened to cloud up as we were crossing the high moors, but as the sea came into view the skies were showing patches of blue. As we desecended into Cee those patches gathered and we walked into town under mostly sunny skies. Tonight we are in the private albergue Camino Estrelas (next to and affiliated with the Hotel Insua). So far we are the only people here and the albergue is spotless. Tomorrow we will set off for Fisterre to complete this camino. Yes, we are loafing a bit, but our schedule allows for that. The weather is expected to change (85% chance of rain tomorrow) but with ponchos at the ready we will make short work of the few kms left. We will spend the night in Fisterre and the walk the remaining 30Kms to Muxia on Friday, where our journey truly ends. I had some great photos to share but this computer does not have the USB port available to users so I'll post them from Santiago. I must admit a special sense of presence as we walkd into view of the sea. Having started so far from this place it seems amazing that Robin and I, still walking, have come to this part of our journey. I can only imagine the impact this had on those pilgrims who walked this same ground centuries ago. It has been a great day. All is well in Cee tonight. Peace be with you.

John