Walking the last leg of my pilgrimage with Harry
Nearing the end and I find myself facing west, facing home.
I dropped down off the trail just shy of Finistere to rest in this quiet cove. I came across so much beach plastic debris and felt my heart breaking. I don’t recall this even as recently as 2010, when I was last here. I took many pictures to record what I saw here on the coast and to save my last memories of the walk.
Here I met a fellow perrigrino (pilgrim) resting on the rocks, watching me with curiosity. I learned that this was Harry from Austria and that it was his fist view of the ocean. I sat down and explained my project to him. He shared his firewater whiskey with me and we became instant bf’s. We decided to join together as we began our walk of the final stage of the camino; a long walk up the beach. Along the way we stripped down to our undies and jumped into the Atlantic. Harry quickly learned how to duck under a wave. After we found an alburgue we took a quick shower before our final step of our pilgrimage, ending at the lighthouse. Here pilgrims traditionally burn their shoes. It was nice sharing the my last night on The Camino with Harry. Instead of burning our shoes we drank firewater as we watched the sun slowly set in the west.
The West. My thoughts again are leaning toward home; my heart open in recognition and joy.
