SWH2023 Day 71 The End of the World

Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Route: Hike from Fisterre to Finisterre

Location: Hotel Naturaliza, Fisterre

Weather: Mist, rain, wind

Distance: 8.1 km 1h 42m

Steps: 12,812

The mist obscures everything, allowing only a hazy view of the shoreline below. The path slowly climbs to the crest of a ridge, the lighthouse materializing out of thin air. The trail is deserted as we make our way down the rocks below the building. I can imagine we are walking off the end of the earth.

Five years ago, on Canada Day, 2018, we left the front door of our home, cycling alone down the Budapest streets through a cool summer morning. Today, a half-decade later, on a rainy afternoon, we are alone again when we reach the ocean.

And yet, as I look back and remember the journey, it is not the soaring peaks or sun-soaked beaches, nor the many good meals or flagons of wine that come to mind. It is the people, the bike touring company owner in Zagreb providing a lift and talking about his passion for Argentinian tango, a Slovenian girl translating for her mother and sharing her dreams, with a stranger come to spend the night, of a life beyond the mountain hut. The kindness of locals to travelers stranded by a rockslide. A bus driver waiting for us to reach the road and climb wearily aboard. It is the friends that joined us, and in the end saved us during the Via Alpina season, and the joy of sharing a week riding along the Rhone with my eldest. And, of course, the mutinous crew aboard the Bloated Barge reminding me of how nice it is to be alone on occasion.

I am grateful to all of them for helping the trip grow into something far richer than I ever imagined.

There are not enough words to properly express my admiration and appreciation for having Tracey along. After telling me for a year prior to departure that it was a stupid idea and attempting to dissuade me with expectations of disaster and gloom, she somehow determinedly accompanied me for almost the entire trip.

The journey has been exhilarating, challenging, joyous, hard, frightening, beautiful, sad, comfortable, sweet, cold, thirsty, wet, boring, fascinating, astonishing, educational, idyllic, strenuous, difficult, unexpected, constrained, messy, free and always, always, all ways wonderful.

Wonderful. To be full of wonder.

What more could I ask for in a journey? Or a life?

Here endeth the first chronicle of The Slow Way Home

The end of the walk

The end. And the start.

Saltwater at last

Looking ahead to the next leg