Day 5 was always going to be a challenge. After a lazy evening in the sunshine yesterday, we left the albergue as the sun was rising, knowing that we had 26km to cover before our last night’s rest.

The morning was overcast but very pleasant as we continued on through fields and farms. A second breakfast of tortilla was followed by empanada for lunch - the cafes and bars were fewer and further between today and many were either closed or closing as we passed. In fact, although the map showed a long string of villages to pass through, we barely touched many of them. And then the Camino started to follow more closely the main road to Santiago … just as the rain set in. So this afternoon has been 13km of getting our heads down and just plodding.

It seems extraordinary that tomorrow we will be in Santiago - I’ve only been walking for just short of 100km so far, but it feels like it will never end. I can only imagine how my friend is feeling as she contemplates the last 20km of nearly 800km since France.

Today feels as though it has, in some ways, been the essence of pilgrimage - aching feet, miles to cover before bed and time both to think and not to think. The steady rhythm of my feet has got me here and has freed up my mind to travel here, there and everywhere.

Tomorrow, we will finish our pilgrimages - and perhaps start to make sense of what we have achieved.