Day 73 Cee - Finisterre - The end of the world

Today has been a funny sort of day.  We set off from Cee this morning knowing that later that day we would reach the end of our planned charity walk of over 900 miles.  As we walked we kept thinking that it was truly incredible that we had managed to walk so far.

The weather was once again on our side and we had brilliant sunshine all the way.  After the obligatory climb early in the morning the path levelled off and we had a pleasant few miles before reaching Sardineiro where we stopped at a "chiringuito" on the beach for a coffee.  Beautiful white sands and we were almost tempted to go for a swim!

After another steep climb we had our first sight of Finisterre and its lighthouse in the distance.  What a thrill that was! We quickened our step as the path wound round the coastline getting ever closer to Finisterre.  The path eventually led to a paved walkway which took us right into town.

We had arrived!.........well, almost........the medieval legendary "end of the world" is at the lighthouse in Cape Finisterre, another two miles away.....uphill, naturally!

Reaching the zero marker of the Camino was an incredibly emotional moment.  It had taken us some two and a half months and a few aches and pains to get here!

It is difficult to adequately describe how we feel.  It has been an incredible journey. To walk over 900 miles seemed an impossible task weeks ago and all throughout the walk we have agonised as to whether we would make it or if we would let people down.  Many were the times when we thought our feet would carry us no further but somehow we always seemed to find the strength to continue, supporting each other as required.

Now that we have finally arrived we can think back to Gibraltar and where it all started.  Our initial journey in torrential rain along the coast to Tarifa, walking on the beach,  the beautiful sand dunes of Bolonia and Barbate, sipping sherry in Jerez, the flooded paths everywhere, joining the Via de la Plata in Seville, coming into contact with other "pilgrims" for the first time, forging close friendships with some of them, climbing the steepest, rockiest, most awful goat-track aptly named "Cuesta del Calvario", writing the blog each day, chatting with villagers about their way of life, "talking" with the animals, washing our clothes in cold water, sleeping in bunk-beds in Albergues, arriving in Salamanca where many of our friends finished their camino, getting to Puebla de Sanabria to collect a new pair of boots, having the odd cold shower, blisters, more blisters, even more blisters, the frustration of lack of telephone or internet connections, the amazing sight of the Puente Quinto, climbing the two highest mountain passes in Galicia in torrential rain, more floods, sleeping in very basic mountain huts,

more blisters, dodgy feet, lots and lots of laughter, walking "on top of the world" along mountain crests, getting to know "new" pilgrims, giving and receiving words of encouragement, showing the newcomers how to tend to their blisters, getting lost, having our mobile phones run out of battery or credit or both at crucial moments, the odd row, more blisters, more laughter, arriving in Santiago and its amazing Cathedral, the Pilgrims Mass there and witnessing the swinging of the "Botafumeiro", being told to rest my feet for two or three months, getting ill, both of us getting ill, feeling miserable, getting back on our feet, determined to carry on, more aches and pains, lots more laughter and eventually arriving in Finisterre.  WOW!

One day we may be able to communicate more cogently exactly how we feel today.  For now let us say that we are tremendously proud of what we have achieved so far.  Our only regret is that our fundraising efforts have not yielded the desired results.  That said, this was never just about raising funds for charity.  It was more about remembering friends and family who are no longer with us and sharing our experiences with loads of people in many parts of the world.

We thank you for your support and if you think you have now got rid of us you have another thing coming!  Tomorrow morning we continue our walk towards Muxia and hopefully La Coruna which we hope to reach in about a week's time.  If we achieve that we will have crossed the whole of Spain, something which very few people can claim to have done!  Who knows,  maybe we will be the first! We will continue to post our blog until we finish so please watch this space!

We have drawn our inspiration from our parents, all of whom have always encouraged us to believe that all things are possible.  Also from people like Cristabel Watson who walked from Gibraltar to La Coruna a few years ago via a shorter but arguably more difficult route, in the amazing time of 42 days.  From Frank Gardner, the BBC security correspondent whose fighting spirit in the face of huge adversity shows my "feet" episodes as somewhat unimportant and irrelevant and Rosie Swales whose book " A little run across the world" set us thinking if we could try and do a mini-version.

I'm not sure that we have succeeded, but we have certainly had a lot of fun trying!  We very much hope that our footsteps may serve to guide the many that will undoubtedly follow.