Today, after an earlier start (the cafe opposite our accommodation didn’t open up as advertised!), we took it slowly, making the most of our shortest stage of the week. The way has been gently up and down, a mixture of roadside paths and tracks through farmland and woods. I’m fascinated by the frequency with which it seems that we are wandering through someone’s farmyard or sharing something isn’t quite a road and isn’t quite a path with cars, bicycles and dogs.

Many of the most rural stretches consist of sunken lanes with sides so high that I feel like a hobbit … a comparison that seems even more apt when we stop for second breakfast!

Some of the albergues that we have stopped at must be thriving, as there is clearly a lot of investment in them - most are sparklingly clean with recent refurbishment in evidence. But, more importantly, there has been a genuine sense of being welcome and valued and not just for the money we will spend. Whether they are busy or not, with the odd exception, we have been greeted with a smile and genuine interest in our journey … and then sent on our way with a wish for a ‘Buen Camino’.

For the first time today, we have come across an open church - it has been one of my only disappointments so far that so many churches have been locked closed. I had hoped to sit for a few moments in each church as I went to remember a few of those on my prayer list - instead, I have been praying as I walk. But at midday today, I was afforded a few minutes in front of the altar of the church of S Xulian de Camino to take out my notebook and remember each person by name and to light a candle for those whose memory I have been asked to keep.

Occasionally, we have come across folk selling stamps for our ‘credencials’ alongside the path or encountered small shops with stern instructions that stamps are only available if you buy something. It has reminded me that in Jesus’ time too, the business of pilgrimage was a mixture of the holy and the commercial! Perhaps another component of a true pilgrimage is the ability to disentangle the one from the other and focus only on the external elements that feed the inner journey.