Stage Nemiña - Cabo Finisterre

The eighth and last stage of O Camiño dos Faros comes to 26.9 kilometres between the beach of Nemiña and the lighthouse of Fisterra. It is a day of high difficulty, a constant succession of cliffs and beaches that demands some nine hours of walking, but also the logical culmination of the two hundred kilometres of Costa da Morte walked since Malpica.

The day sets out over the sand of Nemiña and calls for getting across the mouth of the río Lires, a passage best checked against the tide. After crossing the bridge of Vaosilveiro and passing through a stretch of woodland, the path reaches, at 6.5 kilometres, the hamlet of Lires, the last settlement with services before a long solitary stretch.

At kilometre 10.5 the playa do Rostro opens out, one of the most impressive places on the route: a beach open to the Atlantic where the swell pounds without let-up. The path then climbs the cliffs of Punta Mixirica and Mexadoira, passes beside the hill fort of Castromiñán and drops to the sheltered beach of Arnela, at kilometre 16.3.

The last great effort comes at cabo da Nave, at kilometre 19.4, preceded by a sustained climb of 2.3 kilometres. There stand the highest cliffs on the whole route, with a vertical drop over the ocean that sums up the character of this coast. A steep descent leads down to the beach of Mar de Fóra, already on the Fisterra peninsula, and from there you take on the final ramp of monte Facho, with gradients of 18%.

The lighthouse of Fisterra, at kilometre 26.9, closes O Camiño dos Faros. Built in 1853 on the promontory that the Romans took for the end of the known lands, it is the same point at which pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago finish their journey watching the sunset over the ocean. After eight stages following the line of the coast, no ending is more fitting.