Day 26 – Vilanova de Arousa to O Faramello – 10mi/16km
This last day of the “Spiritual Way” follows part of the “Ruta Del Mar,” the route that St James’s remains reportedly took in 44 AD from Jerusalem to their final resting place in Santiago de Compostela … on a boat!
We woke up at 6am for our 7am boat ride. I had initially wanted to walk that day, which would’ve been a grueling 35 km, but the boat ride ended up being really cool. First, we sailed out into Vilanova’s bay and saw both the sunrise and several mussel fishing boats doing the their daily work. Currently, 80% of Spain’s mussel fishing is done right here! Second, we saw two islands with much native plant life; they are now national parks. Finally, the last part of the boat ride took us past dozens of stone crosses that commemorate the path and its history. The only negative was it was BLOODY COLD on that boat – it was a chilly, windy morning and we were moving fast!
After the ride we got dropped off at Pontecesures, about 25km from Santiago. It was only about 9am and we had plenty of time to walk to Santiago today if we so chose. But we decided to do only 10km today to O Faramelo. We were all ragged and needed a shorter day, and we wanted a tiny bit more time to enjoy each other’s company before we inevitably split up in Santiago. There wasn’t all that much to do, but we did stop at a cool lunch spot called Mamba Jamba, which had a “wall of wishes” made out of ribbons that various guests wrote on and tied to the place’s fence. I took a little time to write one and read some others, and many were poignant. For dinner, at a small place called Casa Javier, Lis and I split a MARVELOUS paella. Tomorrow we’re in Santiago!
David’s Observations
This Camino has definitely not been good for sleeping in, but today was especially important to wake up since we had a boat to catch at 7!
This route actually includes boat ride to retrace the waterway route of Camino inland towards Padrón. The ride was really scenic and fun, albeit on the cold side.
Once we arrived at the destination, we were a bit chilled and warmed up at the first cafe we could find. The wind chill was probably in the 50s. We could take our time today since we had less than 20k of walking to do.
The plan was to walk past Padrón and north to make the walk to Santiago on the morning shorter. It’s hard to believe there’s only day left, but me and Nilanj will walk three more days to the coast after.
This is one of the small towns where you either hang out in bed or at the local bar and restaurant, and we definitely did both. After a nap we slowly convened at the restaurant for drinks and dinner.
Tomorrow is the last day walking together to Santiago and it doesn’t really feel like it. I’ve found that you can’t really prepare for the end, it just happens. We’ll enjoy the day together and then go our separate ways.
