Sea glass is weathered glass. Wave-action and salt water are the forces that give it its frosted look and a satiny feel. It is also called beach glass and even mermaid’s tears by some. It is sometimes sought after by jewellery makers. I have always loved it and been interested to understand the journey from the discarded bottle or broken something to the precious piece of sea glass it becomes. One man’s treasure they say.

Serious sea glass collectors can explain how glass colours are connected to a period in history – e.g. orange glass is connected to the art-deco period, and how certain colours can be dated by their manufacturing methods eg yellow glass had uranium-content up until 1940. Me, I know none of that and am only interested in the joy of finding some. It might make little sense to people that I have come in search of a piece of broken glass that I can’t even keep, but that matters not to me. My joy in finding the beautiful pieces today was worth it to me.

Alone on the beach I was joined by a dog. He kept running back and forth between me and the ramp I had thought I could leave the beach by, then he would run back to the stairs I had descended onto the beach from. He did this several times and when he ran to the ramp he would run back and forth across the entrance to the ramp as if telling me not to go that way. After a few episodes of this I decided to go back via the stairs. The dog then waited at the top of the stairs until I left the beach. I was lucky to meet such a smart dog as when I continued on my walk, I realised the water from the mountain ran out across the ramp, perhaps making it slippery. Also, with my limited understanding of Galician language, I thought the tide was running out when, in fact, it was on the way in. I am greatfull for the lovely black and white collie dog.

Oia has been the perfect spot to rest and reflect on my learnings from on the Frances.

The next stage of my journey will be different as I will be travelling on my own with no one to rely on except myself and maybe a bit of my friend Ms Google. Until then, I have been enjoying the beauty and tranquilty of Oia.