I take the bus from the rainy Santiago to Fisterra, because I don’t want to walk longer distances with my right leg for the time being. The two kilometres from the hotel to the bus station in Santiago and the same again in Fisterra to my Airbnb apartment are more than enough. Although only 82 km, the bus needs three hours, because it first drives straight to the coast to Noia. Actually, this is not yet the coast, but the Ría de Muros e Noia, a fjord-like river mouth of the Río Tambre into the Atlantic Ocean. Afterwards, it goes north along the coast and at each village people get in and out of the bus. If the weather is nice, this would certainly be an interesting trip. But with pouring rain, fog and water-covered side windows you can only see grey shadows scurrying by. The name Fisterra is Galician, Spanish it is called Finisterre, because the people assumed earlier, this is the end of the world, at least in the west. One only sees the open Atlantic. Also here the weather is not better. First impression: Very maritime and fortunately not very touristy. On the second day alone the weather changes three times during the day between sunshine with blue sky, fog with three meters visibility and rain. The weekend approaches and the weather clears up.
That lifts the spirits after a washing disaster happened in my apartment last night. I had a washing day and everything went perfectly. The machine quietly rewound its program so that I pulled back to my laptop to write and let the TV sprinkle me. After about an hour I wanted to get something to drink from the kitchen, but when I got up I noticed that I was standing in the water. My adrenaline level shot to maximum by the second. The floor of almost the entire apartment was covered with warm washing water. I don’t need to tell the rest. The evening was over. At least my laundry was finished, not only the floor. Saturday was quieter. With my daypack I go to the village center, about 2 km. The walk along the coast to the Albergue Fin da Terra e do Camiño at the southern end of the village is combined with a shopping trip for the weekend. I use the nice weather on Sunday for the very last stage of the Way of St James, as Cape Finisterre is regarded as the actual end of the Way of St James. So most of the pilgrims from Santiago de Compostela go back to Cabo Fisterra. Some still carry out the Jacob’s pilgrimage ritual and burn some of their belongings at the Cape. Although I do not perform this ritual, I feel the genius loci, the magic of the southernmost place of the Galician Costa da Morte (Spanish: Costa de la Muerte), the coast of death, which has already cost many sailors their lives. It is still a dangerous coast today. The last great accident was the accident of the tanker “Prestige” in 2002, whose oil spills still affect the ecosystem of the coast. On a clear day, the light and colours are overwhelming. The steep, rocky abysses at the Cape fake harmlessness in the photos. However, they are so steep and bumpy that it is surprising not to hear of hundreds of deadly crashes of the hundreds of thousands of Jacob pilgrims every year; because nothing is closed off or somehow secured. Without caution and reason it is life-threatening here, but also magical!
