Camino Day 45: Hospital to the End of the World

We're done. We walked from France all the way across Spain to the end of the world-- Finnisterre. The last day was, as always, equal parts challenging, fun, and breathtakingly beautiful.

We caught our first glimpse of the Atlantic at about 10 am, and then wound down the bluffs to the ocean. We followed the coast up and down til midday, before emerging onto a crescent of rippling white sand. It felt unreal. I stripped my boots off, bought an ice cream, and walked the final mile into town with my feet in the surf.

We checked in to a cheap beach motel and saved the final ascent to Cabo Finnisterre for sunset. One last climb, one last sweat, one last walk together in the shadow of the cape and we were there: the zero kilometer waymarker and the place where the sidewalk ends.

We clambored out to the farthest promontory. I read Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, and sang the Pilgrim's song. We toasted our achievement with sparkling sour gummy octopi, and breathed in the salt air greedily. We laughed hysterically and cried with joy. We had made it.

If our arrival in Santiago de Compostella was anticlimactic, this was the opposite. It was joy and triumph and sorrow for the end: complete catharsis. We watched the sun die and, when the ocean had swallowed the sun completely, we stood and made our way back down the hill in twilight-- to the rest of our lives, and the next great adventure.

Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein
(with slight pilgrim alterations and a huge thanks to the poet who helped inspire a little girl to seek the edge of the world)

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the yellow arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the yellow arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.