Day 1:
We start early. As luck will have it’s drizzling. We move seemingly easily into pilgrim mode as we have to quickly get used to what it feels like to have kilograms of mud stuck to our shoes. We walked just 12kms on the first day, wearing in our shoes and getting acclimatized.

It’s a shock having to share a small room with seven other strangers with very little personal space. I have a few items of clothing and some basic toiletries. This is going to be a challenge!

We have Paella, bread, salad and red wine for supper followed by a walk around the town. I sneak back into the dormitory with two of my fellow pilgrims. We have to be quiet so we don’t wake our already comatose fellow travellers. I lay in my bed, not yet ready for sleep, listening to the sounds from the smoky bar downstairs. I squint through the crack in the wooden shutter, the night sky is the most beautiful indigo blue.

Day 2:
I set off early, walking with Stella, my new walking companion. We chat about ourselves. We tell each other what made us across the globe to a place without material comforts, to be pushed out of our comfort zones.

We are very proud of ourselves today as we were making good progress and ahead of the group. We take a wrong turn and before we can correct ourselves the whole group has poured past us. The Camino has a way of teaching you what you need to learn. It is a great leveler.

We arrived in Hospital de Orbigo after what feels like an eternity on foot. We settled into a small, clean Refugio with a wonderful mural on the wall in the courtyard, forcing our sore and swollen feet to the nearest grocery store to buy lunch. We rest on a bench watching the town folk setting up for a medieval festival the next night. That evening we enjoyed fresh, locally grown vegetables, chatting to German and American travellers and enjoying a bottle of fine Spanish vino.

Day 3:
I decide to walk alone, the sun is out and we walk through vineyards, across oat and cornfields. Meandering streams trickle through treed plantations and in places through shaded undergrowth.

Along the road people have painted hearts and arrows on the signs and built heart shaped shrines or stacked rocks to commemorate their journey. This is wonderfully inspiring as it reminded us of our personal missions on this journey. We arrived at Astorga. A fortress town with an ornately decorated cathedral every nook and cranny sculpted with precision.

The highlight of this town is the Gaudi Palace, which sits high up surveying the surrounding countryside. We sat in the streets in the shadow of the cathedral eating chocolate before joining the nuns inside for a reading of the rosary. That evening we catch a taxi back to the medieval festival with its jousting and the costumed parades through the streets.

Day 4:
We catch the taxi back to Astorga And start walking from there, Florlyn, my new German friend and I set off at a good pace. I have been thinking of the movie 'The Lion King' this morning. My favorite character is Rafiki, a baboon. I find a stick today that has a baboon carved on the top with red eyes. I know immediately that this is the stick for me.

We walk a long flat road for a couple of kilometres and then we start to climb, my legs are starting to get stronger, but this is the first of the uphill and I find that I am taking a bit of strain.

We push on, the spring flowers are changing from yellow and blue to pink and white as we climb, climb, climb. We reach the next village called Foncebadon. We end up staying in a large dormitory with 36 beds. There is very little space and when I get a chance to get to bed there are already about six people snoring.

Day 5:
When I get up I find that, even though it is early, nearly everyone has left, I quickly gather my things, some of my washing is still wet and I drape it over my back pack. The sun is rising over the dense, dewy hills as we prepare for the ascent to Cruz De Hierro (Iron Cross).

In the group we all get a chance to talk about what we want to leave behind, it is very moving and I linger behind while the rest of the group leaves so I can say a final goodbye to the cross I have been carrying.

As I depart, despite my 10kg backpack I feel suddenly lighter and a new sense of purpose washes over me. We walk down to a little village El Acebo where we find a luxury chalet at the top of the hill. I have soup and trout for dinner and fall into bed. I open the roof window and sleep beneath the stars.