Padrón to Santiago – last leg!

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And we’re done!

The official distances recorded on our Compostelas is 634km for Lori and me and 116km for Melinda, David and Denise!

This walk has been a phenomenally challenge for all of us. Lisbon to Porto for Lori and I was a complete challenge and one that I think is going to take a while to rationalize – it is in every way NOTHING like what we had expected and yet there were moments of true beauty. Porto to Tui the countryside improved and the walking became more like what we had been hoping for. With Melinda, David and Denise joining us in Tui, the walk took on another dynamic and we walked the last 116km as a group- we laughed and talked and groaned as hills seemed to appear from nowhere – but most importantly Galicia, mercifully looked after us with mild days, cooling winds and shady paths.

We have seriously confronted our own challenges and the walk that Melinda and Denise have done makes anything I have experienced pale in terms of fortitude – David has faced his own issues (and I continue to stir him about soaking his feet in thermal springs) but he could do the entire distance without a doubt.

And as for my walking buddy – Lori continues to remind my that when I am ten years older I have to think back to the time of me pushing her to go for “another walk” within 12 months of completing 800km and to remember what it would have felt like for her – the truth of the matter is that she can leave us all in the starting blocks – it has been a joy, again.

Well -that is it. We are in Santiago, we have had beer (the first for some of us), we have our Compestellas, we’ve had tapas and we’re packing up the walking gear and posting it home in the morning. Lori flys home next week and the four of us head to Croatia for a swim and to eat fish.

So that leaves only one question that none of us has been game to ask…what walk next….?