Stage 51 - Outeira to Santiago (17.5km): 20/10/2014

Well, we made it, despite concerns which each of us had about our own staying power before we set out, but didn't tell the other. As the days went by we became more confident and eventually reached a point where nothing was going to prevent us from walking the entire Camino.

For the final stage Pauline decided to opt for the Camino rather than the roads in the belief that this close to Santiago the paths would be in good shape. The day started out easy enough and continued that way until we completed 6.5km and stopped for breakfast. The bar we chose to stop at was about a kilometre before the one recommended, which meant we hadn't made as much progress as we thought.

After that it was all up and down hills and it took us a good bit longer than we expected. About 6km from the end, in a quiet rural area we suddenly heard someone shout "Paulina". We looked round and there was a fellow peregrina hurrying after us. We quickly recognised Carola from Breschia, who we had dinner with in Cea some days ago. We assumed she was already in Santiago but learned that she decided to rest up at the Cistercian monastery at Oseira. She walks too fast for us and soon went on ahead.

Three kilometres from the cathedral we came to the main railway line. We were heading for a bridge carrying a local road, the motorway crossed the line nearby, it was all vaguely familiar and I immediately remembered last July's rail tragedy. When we reached the bridge we found it covered with flags, flowers, sports jerseys and other mementos for those who died. 

For some reason, much closer to the end, we stopped to talk to a couple of woman who had already completed their Camino. It turned out they were both from South Wexford and we were the first Irish they had met. We bumped into them again in the evening and had a longer chat.

By the time we stepped on to Praza do Obradoiro we were tired and elated, and a bit disbelieving of what we had actually achieved. When we pulled ourselves together we sought out a likely candidate to take our photo. I saw two young women standing close to where I thought would be a good spot for a photo and asked one of them. She took my phone but her friend decided she could do a better job and took over. She immediately lay flat on her back and guided us into position so that she would capture all of us as well as the cathedral spire.

It's no longer permissible to enter the Cathedral with a backpack so we headed for the Pilgrims' Office to collect our Compostelas. We had decided earlier that we would dedicate our Camino to our friend Fr Jim and so our Compostelas carry the notation "Vicarie Pro: Canon James O'Connell".

After that we checked into Hospederia San Martin Pinario, showered and headed for the nearest restaurant. The two men and one woman who later sat at the next table turned out to be three Fahys with links to Headford, Co. Galway and Cahirciveen.

We learned at the Pilgrim Office that there is second Pilgrim Mass each day at 7:30pm so we attended that. 

One guide book gave the number of kilometres each town and village was from Santiago. It estimated that we should have walked 929.5 kilometres from our starting point in Almaden de la Plata. The GPS system that I had recording our daily progress gave a total of 956km. The difference seems to be accounted for by us occasionally taking wrong turns and sometimes having difficulty finding our albergue. The total does not include any walking on our sightseeing days or walks after we arrived at our destination. I'm sticking by 956km.

Crossing the bridge near where the 2013 rail crash occurred

Cathedral main altar

Next: Tuesday: Day One without walking