To the end of the world...and then home

I believe we last left off in Santiago upon arrival. Arwyn and I took one day of rest in the city and explored around. The city was very impressive with grand architecture. Usually, cities will have a center piece for which they're famous, but Santiago was simply made up of these centerpieces.

After the day of rest, on Tuesday the 15th, we woke up early and suited up for rain as it was raining heavily. This rain really tested our resolve. We met our friend Eske from Denmark in front of the Cathedral and slogged out of town. Rain covers and water proof shoes are nice, but I assert that anyone who walks six hours in the rain will be waterlogged at the end. Tuesday was hard indeed. We walked about 25 km and stopped in a small town. The albergue was nice and I cooked dinner for our group. Here, Jasmine- a German friend, joined on.

Happy to be out of the rain

Wednesday, we continued in the rain for the morning and the sun came out as we left a low valley. It was cool having hiked out of the bad weather, especially when you could look behind you and see the clouds below you and imagine the gloomy day going on underneath them. This day was 35 km and long. After getting to the albergue, it was just business as usual, showering, eating and getting to bed with the excitement that we would reach the end the next day.

Thursday- the end of the line.

First sight of Cape Finisterra

The last day was another long one at about 33 km. Motivation had failed us all. Our group grew bigger with the addition of Gerard the Irishman. It was beautiful scenery and rolling hills. On one random hill, you come to the top and can see the ocean in the distance. It rained on and off but with the ocean in sight, no one seemed to mind. We reached the town of Fisterre at about 4 pm and checked into the municipal albergue and I made big dinner of seafood pasta for the ever growing group. After dinner, we all walked out onto the dock and passed around a bottle of wine making toasts in turn of the things we would miss the most, and the things we wouldn't. Then it was to the bar to challenge the locals to some fuzball. We lost terribly.

Sitting on the point before sunrise

Friday morning we awoke at 6 am and walked the remaining 3 km out to the lighthouse. It was a walk up a windy road situated on a dramatic, narrow cape jutting out into the Atlantic. Looking down at the water I could only think how it was not a day you would want to be in a sailboat. It was blustery and gusting with rain coming and going. The idea was to get out there to watch the sunrise but it was just a dark grey morning that turned to lighter grey. We didn't mind; we sat in the strong winds and got rained on and it seemed like the perfect finish to our walk.

After breakfast and goodbyes with everyone, Arwyn and I got on a bus headed for Santiago and undid three days of walking in as many hours. We had a whirlwind run through the city in, you guessed it, heavy rain. We picked up a few last minute things and headed to the convent in town to pack our bags for the flight and used their showers. On our way out the door for the airport we ran into George, the 84 year old French man we had walked with and come to know. Arwyn and I both felt a weight lifted off our shoulders to know he made it all the way and was in good health. We had a 10:30 pm flight to Barcelona where we slept on the floor in the airport until...

Saturday...

Sunrise over the Mediterranean while headed
for Palma

We had a flight at 7:00 am from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca. We rented a car and drove across the island to where Galileo is hauled out. Here we had to make all of our belongings fit into a manageable amount of baggage. We let go of a lot of our things. Whilst packing Aine, the Irish chef and friend of two years, showed up looking for us and we had a good time catching up. After packing we headed for our friends' boat called "Tilly Mint" where we stayed overnight. Bill and Natalie are good friends from the boating world from South Carolina and Paris respectively. We also went out and had drinks with Rob and Desi Leon. Rob is a friend from high school freshman year and he and his wife are in Palma trying to find work on boats. So in the end we all had a big seafood dinner together with all our old friends.




Sunday...
We woke up on our friends' boat and quietly left with our things at 6:00 am (11:00 pm Houston time) and took our rental car to the airport. We had 7 bags with all of our belongings, and with four of them weighing about 50 lbs. Airline travel isn't really set up anymore to travel with this amount of baggage so as you might imagine, it was very difficult to travel with so much stuff. We flew from Palma to London. On take- off we flew over the city of Palma and then down the coast that we sailed so often and then over the mountain range we had hiked this summer. It was beautiful. On landing we flew right down the Thames river and saw the London Bridge, Parliament and Big Ben. We have never been to London so this was a treat.



A rush through the airport with all the bags and we checked back in for the next flight direct to Houston. We flew over my Mom's area in Michigan around 3:00 pm and then over my Father in Chicago around 3:30 pm. If we had parachutes, we could have stopped for a visit.
We cleared into America around 6:30 pm and came through customs to see my big brother David with his wife Kim and daughter Amelia. We rode home in a genuine pickemup truck and had a home cooked meal with Arwyn's parents and were joined by my other siblings Liz and DK with their daughter Jordan. The whole family and a happy ending to this adventure. Now we sleep and plan the next adventure...

Home in the Rogers' kitchen with my family