May 17th – Norwegian National Day – started with brilliant sunshine and a wonderful breakfast on the terrace overlooking the sea, with coffee, juice, yogurt, fruit, bread and honey. Happy Norway Day! Yes, I had brought two flags, one for Eurovision and one for this day.
Leaving cute Corcubion, we headed straight into the green path and up, up, up! It wasn’t long before we could spot the lighthouse headland though, now all we had to do was get there.
We stopped for a snack and a paddle at Estorde beach, the best ever lunch stop. While we had our Aquarius, the people from the boat in the photo jumped in with their two dogs and swam ashore to play on the beach. Pilgrims from the bar just before ours did a mass run-in, splashing and squealing, and posed for endless smiling selfies. Nanci had a paddle in the sunshine and looked for shells. I could have sat there for hours, perfectly content.
From there the path carried on through populated areas and shady forests, up and down steep hills and across busy roads. Then, finally, we emerged on Langosteira beach and could see the town just beyond the sweep of sand, with the headland, the westernmost point, rising just behind it.
I was most disappointed to find that the tiny bar just as you come out of the woods and enter the beach, was gone! it was now just a circular stone platform with some edges to sit on. So rather than stopping there, we took our shoes off and walked towards Fisterra along the water’s edge, paddling and picking shells and just enjoying the moment with no hurry in the world.
Our first hotel had cancelled on us, but I had found a last-minute room right in the centre, with a balcony and sea views. And blackout blinds for nice lie-ins and to keep the heat out.
After dumping our packs we went straight for food and an ankerbier, one of the few places I knew would be open in the middle of the day. There we met and sat with the Hawaiian lady with the Pilgrim House poles, who had arrived the day before. Apparently she’d stayed at an albergue up by the lighthouse? At the other tables were a Hungarian Serb, a Canadian Scot walking his third camino with two German brothers, and a Galician lady for local colour. And a Slovenian man who travelled with lightweight shot glasses and some firewater from home, which he happily shared with the others … then came the cremas, the hiervas, and then the German-Canadian outfit started on the tequila …
We took the sensible approach, and as dusk approached we went back to add more layers and meet miss Hawaii to go and watch the sunset from a beach on the other side of the headland. It was windy and cold, and I was so glad I had been carrying my padded jacket all this way.
After the sun had gone down, we headed back for a late dinner, hoping to find it in the Library bar. Unfortunately they served no hot food, which was what we needed after a cool sunset watch, so we ended up randomly entering a pasta place through a window halfway down a stairway in a narrow alley, and had pizza and celebratory drinks with miss Hawaii. The place was full of groups of pilgrims elated to be there and sad that it was over, people catching up and saying goodbye, ordering shared desserts and more wine, laughing and crying and exchanging photos and social media details.
As camino days go, this one was lovely from start to finish. I’d do it again tomorrow.
Somewhere Slowly 