Media (22)
Toward Fisterra, alone: long stage and atmosphere shift.
July 19: departure from Santiago on Camino de Fisterra, arrival in Vilaserío.
July 19 was the day I truly felt the phase change. Leaving Santiago, I resumed walking westward with a very long stage: on paper it looked like about 30/32 km, but on the phone it came out almost 38.5. I arrived in Vilaserío exhausted.
Physical fatigue was evident, but the strongest difference was in the atmosphere: this was no longer the Camino Francés I had lived for weeks. On Camino de Fisterra I found new people, often already in pairs or small groups, and less of that spontaneous continuous-encounter magic I had known before. It felt a bit like returning to the first days: you walk, you greet, but you feel the context is different.
Meanwhile the “old group” was dissolving definitively: Francesco and Andrius were already in return mode, with flights and transfers underway. We updated each other at distance, and even there the same thing was perceptible: the Camino had changed rhythm for everyone.
With Catherine we talked throughout the day. I told her about the stage, the tiredness, and this sensation of “less magic.” She, from her return to family life, was living a similar passage: less trail, more everyday reality. It was one of those dialogues where you understand the emotional side of returning has already started, even if you are still walking.
In the evening, after shower, dinner, and laundry, I was finally on the albergue bed with an emptied body. But inside, the meaning of the day stayed clear: I was still moving forward, just in a different way.
Heavy legs, dry sweat, backpack pulling on shoulders, and that mechanical final-hour stride when you move forward mostly by inertia.
It was also the day I had focused the symbolic plan for the ending: I would run Muxía-Finisterre as the final day of the Camino and as a mental bridge toward the new USA adventure planned for November.
Not all final stretches have the same magic as the first ones, but right there you learn the hardest part of the Camino: continue even when enthusiasm drops, and stay faithful to the direction you chose.
If reading this diary makes you feel the Camino might be calling you, but you still need to clarify a few things, start with the free guide.
Day notes