Still in A Coruna!

The government website to complete my Passenger Locator Form had crashed and I didn't have the right documents so I had to return to the hotel and get a 'trusted family member' as per British Embassy advice in Madrid to access the site in UK and email me the confirmation.

Then at considerable expense, I had to rebook my COVID fit to fly test, the flight and another 2 and 8 day COVID tests and neither the previous appointments nor the flight were refundable. An unexpected additional cost...but I hope to be able to return soon.

A Coruña

A Coruña

My visit to A Coruña was not quite as planned. I had traveled on a Sunday from Muxia to A Coruña and turned up at the medical laboratory on the Monday morning for my PCR test only to find it had closed down so I spent the day finding another testing laboratory...only to discover that Tuesday was a bank holiday and everything was shut so I had lost two days of sight seeing so I could only see the outside of buildings, not the insides.

                                       

A former palace now the local TV station offices.

The bandstand  opposite which made me feel at home because there is one in my local town centre and another in the park.

The former dancehall next to the palace, now a hotel.

One of the marinas with the harbour office obscured by masts and the skyline of the waterfront.

An art deco style building also displaying a typical feature of Galician architecture of glass enclosed balconies.

The Captain Generals palace but in 1763.

Igreja de Santiago, an 11th century church and the oldest in the city.

Convento de Santa Domingo.

Those green frogs get everywhere...the Iberian Frog, in Spanish and Latin La Rana Iberia with a distribution area of northern Portugal and Galicia. 

                                                
An unusual statue of General Jose San Martin to be found in spain as he together with Simon Bolivar was instrumental in liberating much of South America from Spanish colonial control and every town and city has a square or road named after him.

A post box but this one is blue with a yellow symbol instead of the standard yellow with a blue symbol. Next door is a kitchen oil recycling collection point where households can pour their cold waste oil into a plastic container and drop it into the red box to be recycled.

The main plaza and...

...the royal palace.

Nothing exceptional about this building other than you can't escape the scallop shell and arrow as it is an option on ElCamino de Norte and Primitivo routes.

A splendid art deco style building built 1912.

The opera house...

...and beside it a granite cliff with a water feature called the Cascades where water is pumped to the top to flow down the cliff face.

El Camino Irlandais to Muxia Lires to Muxia

El Camino Irlandais to Muxia 

Lires to Muxia 

It was another day of stunning Galician scenery with views across the bays and quiet forests paths.

Another view of the scenery.

One of several bays that the trail passes.

My final marker at ground zero in Muxia.

The rather ugly modern sculpture at the end of the trail next to the last pylon.

The traditional and older end of the trail in Muxia at the  Sanctuaria de Virxe de Barca. 

The belfry, a separate building from the church itself.

And a picture of me at the end of my walk after 760 kilometres walking north from Lisbon to the northern coast of the Iberian peninsula.

El Camino Irlandais to Muxia Fisterra to Lires

El Camino Irlandais to Muxia 

Fisterra to Lires   

It was a late start to the day as al the early slots for breakfast were taken so I was schedule for 8.30am and luckily, I wasn't in a hurry as it was an easy 12.5 kilometres through farmland and forest with only one steep ascent.

There were way markers, the usual granite pylons but without the distance. The path was walked both ways so where the kilometres had been along El Camino Portuguese, it was either a sign saying A Fisterra or A Muxia.

The scenery is beautiful with many vistas on which to feast the eyes.

One drawback was that I thought that I might be walking the trail by myself and see no one else. Just ahead of my as I was leaving Fisterra, I could see more than twenty pilgrims, walking in ones, twos and threes. There were obviously a group and several had the same yellow T-shirts on but wearing rucksacks, I could only pick out a few of the first and last parts of the words. 

I passed several small groups until I had heard that they were speaking English with Irish accents. I caught up with David and Frankie from Dublin an Kilkenny and discovered their story.

They were walking for FocusIreland, a charity that is challenging homelessness and changing lives. They help families to keep their homes, single mums with children and homeless youths who have all faced homelessness through challenges not necessarily of their own making. They had started in Santiago de Compostela, with an aim to walk for a week via Finisterre to Muxia.

I wished them a Buen Camino and walked ahead. There was more stunning scenery, a few fields and peaceful forests that also provided shade against the strengthening sun as it climbed higher into the sky. I didn't see any other pilgrims walking in the same direction but I did see a few walking towards Santiago de Compostela.

I could hear the waves crashing against the coast as the trail was never far from the shore with several signs pointing to nearby beaches. I followed one track towards the shore and thought that there was a fish farm.

On closer inspection, it turned out to be a sewage treatment plant and the idea of a dip in the sea suddenly seemed less enticing. 

But the estuary was still pretty with views down the river from the last bridge out to sea.

Despite its beauty, it is still undeveloped with many sites that anywhere else would have been built over. There were plenty of fish in the water with fishermen trying their luck. I could see fish in the clear waters, see some of their dorsal fins as they swam near the surface and saw many at the surface gulping air. 

Cancelling the swimming idea wasn't such a loss when I reached the mouth of the estuary and saw the rip tides and cross currents. It wasn't a safe place to swim and the waves were quite strong.

A last look at the Atlantic rollers crashing onto the beach and it was time to return to the hotel.

El Camino Finisterre to Muxia Cee to Fisterra

El Camino Finisterre to Muxia 

Cee to Finisterre

Just like man hole covers are not one of the top choices of focus for blogs, soles of footwear are also unusual centres of attention outside cobblers conventions but just to make a point, these are the soles of my walking boots with worn away heels and the depth of tread is a long way past their MOT acceptability criteria. They have served well but will not be making the return journey to UK.

Similarly, my trainers have also served well and have suffered the rigours of the gravel of El Camino. I bought an identical pair and you can see the difference between the new and the worn out trainer. These too will not be making the return journey to UK along with a T shirt that has become very thin through repeated washings and the effects of sweat, strong sunlight, sun cream and deodorant. Plus a pair of socks that have lost most of their wool content and were held together by the man made fibre content but when the number of holes started to reduce as they were joining up, it was time to say goodbye.

I started out before dawn to escape Cee, up into the hills to reach Finisterre. 

An iconic vehicle and rare to see one outside of France.

Finisterre, the end of the world as thought by Romans with the town to the right and the end of El Camino Finisterre on the far left...another three kilometres out of the town centre.

The final marker at ground zero with the distance shown as 0.0kms with the lighthouse in the background.

And a selfie of me hunched over the final marker after a walk of 730 kilometres.

The lighthouse.

Another of those distance posts.

I walked away from the noise of crowds around the tourist stalls at the end of the world and found a quiet place to sit and listen to the crash of waves against the headland, the bird calls and to comtemplate.

El Camino Finisterre to Muxia Mazaricos to Cee

El Camino Finisterre to Muxia 

Mazaricos to Cee 

A big sign just in case you had forgotten where you were.

It was a very atmospheric walk up into the forest with mist and low cloud all around

Someone had big feet and a reminder that links with a notice to say no muddy boots inside, you take the off and leave them outside so apparently muddy boots are not allowed but smelly socks are okay.

This whole section is a pleasant amble through beautiful rural landscape.

Nice vistas.

Panoramic views.

Through forests.

At last a view of the sea at Cee.

Part of the harbour at CEE.

The man made jetty for larger boats.