To infinity and beyond …..never mind that, we’ll settle for the end of the Earth …Finisterre !

I considered changing this title or whether to even write today ….. but decided to go ahead because all in all it has been a very emotional day.

First and foremost I want to say “God bless our Queen” May she rest in peace with her beloved Philip, reunited once more .

Words cannot express how we feel here ….. she was our Queen and we have never known any other true leader. She gave her life to serve us all and we pay tribute to that. One amazing lady remembered for so many things over so many years – but I’d like to think her tea with Paddington bear represented the true Queen best .

Your Majesty, we salute you and we will forever remember you with fondness, reverence and love ❤️

I make no apologies for this – it had to be said – it comes from my heart as do all my blogs .

So to our Camino …. today we started with … you’ve guessed it …. Rain ( oh I forgot to tell you the blessing yesterday was that it didn’t rain at all 👏👏👏👏) We set off from Cee ( pronounced Thee but the Th is soft as in thick – just so you know for future reference)

Needless to say before long we met a hill ( no, mountain ) and it was a climb …I knew that before I got anywhere near it !

Despite these ups and yes, then downs , today felt very different. I couldn’t tell you why- perhaps after four days of so many hard ups and downs, we had become accustomed to this way of life . Or maybe we knew we could only go so far – unless we wished to swim of course! Regardless our journey today felt easier . We arrived in Finisterre in good time, had our customary coffee on arrival to the town and then a beer as we always have done , but then this was no ordinary day, no ordinary journey for Kathleen and I .

Let me give you a brief history of our Camino journey , and how it all started … and I will also give you warning that as this is hard for me to write without shedding tears , it may well be hard for you to read.

The Camino Frances – a pilgrimage from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostella with extensions to Finisterre or Muxia (or both in our case !!) – had somehow got into my blood through various very different sources and was something I felt I would like to do . At that point in time I had no idea how or when I would do it , but felt sure it was something I was destined to do.

Then we lost a very dear friend, Alistair,to prostate cancer , who was ( and still is) the soul mate and life partner of my special friend,Kathleen. At this point , as a friend you feel completely helpless so I had to do something practical and I knew I would walk part of the Camino in his memory and raise money for cancer research . When I broached this with Kathleen , completely unbeknown to me, she knew about the Camino having watched The Way ( a beautiful film with Michael Sheen – please watch if you haven’t seen it already) with Alistair . It was the last film they watched together and Alistair foresaw that Kathleen would walk the Camino ( his only comment was “ please don’t stay in hostels , stay in hotels” ..keep safe)

So Dear Reader , the rest is history … following our beers , we realised that although we were in Finisterre town , we hadn’t finished our Camino . So after 7.8 miles walking , we agreed to head off to the end of the Camino and the end of the Earth – and after what could have been considered a fairly gruelling 2 mile climb, though looking back was, and I quote “ A walk in the park”, we reached the end ….

Then we saw the lighthouse and went just that little bit further ….

All in all Dear Reader – a day full of emotion , yet strangely, a completely fulfilling day . I make no apology for the nature of this blog – you come with us on this journey, and like us with the mountains we have climbed, you have to follow our ups and downs .

Tomorrow is another day … and another blog which I can assure you will be different again ! Probably a hill or two but hey we can do that ….

So, we wish you a good and peaceful night – which will be more than we have ! It’s Fiesta in Finisterre and we ( with the sea view) look out onto the port with a fair, bouncy castle and live band !!! Bring it on !!!