O Pedrouzo to Santiago de Compostela
Arrival
- Distance
- 19.4 km
- Climb
- 318 m up, 345 m down
- Ground
- 260 to 370 m
- Time
- 5 to 6 hours
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Underfoot
- forest, dirt, urban
Where this day sits on the Camino Francés
Above, the highest and lowest ground of each of its 33 stages. Below, the word each day is given.
From open-pilgrimages: each stage's highest and lowest ground and its interior theme.
The day
The last day. Monte do Gozo — Mount of Joy — is where medieval pilgrims first saw the cathedral spires and wept. Today the view is partially blocked by buildings, but the emotional weight is the same. You walk through suburbs, past an airport, through parking lots. The Camino does not give you a cinematic ending. It gives you an ordinary one. And then, suddenly, you are standing in the Praza do Obradoiro, looking up at the cathedral, and everything you have walked crashes into this moment. Most pilgrims stand in the plaza and do not know what to do with themselves.
What pilgrims often meet here
- Walking in the dark to arrive early
- Tears upon seeing the cathedral
- Feeling lost — 'Now what?'
- The strange emptiness of not having to walk tomorrow
- Post-Camino depression beginning within hours of arriving
You have arrived. But have you arrived at what you were looking for?
The ground
Forest paths, airport area, then increasingly urban. Monte do Gozo (Mount of Joy) offers the first view of Santiago's cathedral spires.
The light
Sunrise and sunset in O Pedrouzo depend on the day you walk.
Walk it with Pilgrim
In Pilgrim's Honor mode you can walk this stage as it is drawn here, and save its maps for days with no signal. The morning opens with this day's word, Arrival, and its story. When you arrive, it asks the question above, and you can answer out loud. Your walk stays on your phone.
With Pilgrim on your phone, this opens the stage, ready to begin. Without it, you'll see the stage and where to get the app.