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The Pilgrim Route – Camino – stretches from Hamar in Norway, down through the Low Countries of Netherlands and Belgium, into France and right down to the Pyrenees where it crosses into Spain and traverses northern Spain from East to West. Other routes begin in other parts of France, Spain and Portugal but all converge in the Plaza Obradioro in front of the huge Cathedral.

So the Diocese of East Anglia would celebrate its birthday by inviting its people to journey to Santiago. Pilgrims may walk, cycle or ride a horse, but in order to prove that they are pilgrims they must walk at least 100 kilometres, cycle or ride their horse at least 200 kilometres. Brochures went out to the parishes and two groups of walkers were assembled. A third group would fly directly to Santiago and the three groups would assemble together for a great celebration in the Cathedral on September 20th 2001.

Of course such an event took much planning and organisation. We would need a “back up” vehicle to transport luggage from place to place along the route, and to pick up any injured pilgrims. We would need someone who knew how to treat the injured – blisters, muscle aches, general weariness. Such a walk is a great challenge to the body in these days of lazy travel. In the Middle Ages people walked everywhere and would have taken a great deal of time to complete such a walk. We had five days. Our route needed to be at least 100 kilometres.

We flew into Oporto in northern Portugal on September 15th and had a four-hour transfer to Samos in Spain, arriving at our hotel at around 10.00pm. After a very long but welcome meal we went to bed to get up in time for Mass at 8.30am at the local 6th Century Monastery. After breakfast we were bussed to Sarria to begin the walk. The first way-mark was at the point where we were dropped – 112 kilometres from the Cathedral in Santiago. We would now count our way into the distant city.

The terrain was not at all as we expected it to be – there were dry stream beds strewn with rocks and boulders, stretches of sandy surface, gravel, tarmacadam, crazy-paving, farmyards and field tracks. The scenery varied from beautiful rolling hills to wide expanses of flat farmland and forest to sandy wasteland. Every corner showed us a new vista. The walking was hilly – both up and down – and we found the downhill more of a challenge to joints and muscles than the uphill.

Each night we stayed in a small family run hotel in a new village location. Accommodation was excellent, food very simple but plentiful and the company of our fellow pilgrims outstanding. We became very mutually supportive of all of our colleagues in the group and exchanged news and experiences over our evening meal each day.

In the morning the “back up” bus would take our luggage to the hotel in the village where we would stay that night. The two “back up boys” deposited the luggage outside our rooms and took the luggage of the other group on to their next destination too. Then they returned to “top up” our water bottles and attend to any wounded walkers. In the evening our “nurse” conducted a foot clinic in each location – dressing blisters and administering to the suffering!

The distance we walked each day varied – the first day we walked 21 kilometres, the second 24, the third 29, the fourth and fifth 19. Twenty-nine kilometres is almost 18 miles! On the final day, knowing that we had nineteen kilometres to walk before eleven thirty, John and I left the Hotel at Arca at six o’clock in the morning – in the pitch dark! There are no lights along the camino and parts of it are through densely wooded areas and deserted countryside. Just as well we had a small torch then! As we walked away from the hotel we passed the Refugio where the pilgrims who go “on spec” stay, and we were joined by three Polish students (one of whom we knew as we had seen her each day) who had no light at all. They joined us and shared our meagre beam until we were on the outskirts of Santiago and it became light enough for them to see their way.

The camino is full of incidents of helping and accommodating fellow pilgrims. It is a very social experience and also great fun. It helps the pilgrim to appreciate the different levels of ability and different reasons people have for making the pilgrimage.

So we arrived at a café on the outskirts of the medieval city of Santiago de Compostela. This was a rendezvous point for our group and we arrived at about 10.45am. The group was all gathered by 11.30am and ready to walk the final stretch of about one and a half kilometres to the Cathedral. We were all very elated to have come this far and still be in such good spirits.

The group that had been a day ahead of us and the group of pilgrims who flew directly to Santiago were already in the Cathedral – saving seats for us all. We entered by the north transept door – led by Bishop Peter – and they cheered our entry. It was very moving.

We were the largest group of pilgrims that day (one hundred in total from the Diocese of East Anglia) and Bishop Peter celebrated the Pilgrim Mass at noon. There were groups of pilgrims from Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Albania and Portugal as well as others who were not in groups. So Mass was in Latin so that all were accommodated. The Bishop preached in English and had a translator who gave the sense of his sermon in Spanish. As we were the largest single group of pilgrims we were invited to lead some of the singing and we raised the roof of the North Transept in our enthusiasm.

Then at the end of the Mass the real spectacle of Santiago was enacted. In the Middle Ages pilgrims walked from the northernmost parts of Europe and from the south, east and west and were sometimes walking for weeks or months without the opportunity to change their clothes or take a bath! Imagine, then, the aroma of the pilgrims when they arrived in the Cathedral. Damp clothes, sweaty feet, no bath – rich aroma! So the cathedral administration decided it would have to sweeten the air. A giant censer (called the Botafumero) was produced - a censer is an incense burner with a lid on it, which is fired by hot charcoal. Grains of incense are placed on the hot coals, yielding a sweet smelling smoke. The censer is swung (usually it is small enough to be swung by hand on a length of chain) to distribute the smoke. This censer is suspended from the roof of the Cathedral on a length of rope as thick as a man’s arm. There is a series of wheels and pulleys in the roof and the rope is fed through them and returned to the ground, where it is hauled upon by six or seven strong men. This causes the censer to be propelled from its position close to the floor in front of the sanctuary, upwards in an arc, to the ceiling of the south transept, down through its position close to the floor, and upwards in an arc to the ceiling of the north transept. In all, the distance on the floor is about 50 or 60 feet. When seated or standing in the transept, the effect of this is so exciting! However, you cannot help ducking as you see this giant bowl of smoke and fire coming towards you, rising above your head and dropping like a stone once it reaches the end of its swing! Spectacular!

The botafumero is not swung every day now, but may be swung on request and payment of about £130. It is also swung on certain feast days. So we saw it by paying for it on the Thursday of our arrival in Santiago, but then we saw it again the following day since it was the feast of Saint Matthew who was also an Apostle (a special friend of Jesus). So two for the price of one. Following this spectacle we left the Cathedral and made our way to the Pilgrim Office. We handed over our stamped passports for scrutiny and passed the one hundred-kilometre test. We were then given a certificate that showed our name and attested to the fact that we had completed the walk. As we left the office we all congregated at a bar in the street and drank to our success. Photographs would suggest that we were probably a bit hysterical at this point! We spent an enjoyable day winding down after our exertions and exploring the amazing sites of this city built in the Field of the Star to support a legend that cannot be proved or disproved. The power of faith never fails to amaze!

So this was the pilgrimage. Before we set off, John and I decided that as this was such a great undertaking for us, we would like to be sponsored for a charity. As many people know, our daughter Rachel died very suddenly in September 2000. She had, as a child, been very ill and had been operated on and nursed and cared for over nineteen years by staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. This wonderful hospital had allowed us to share twenty-nine years with our daughter instead of losing her at three months or five years old. We thought that this would be a good cause and that people might give as friends and colleagues of Rachel, John and myself, in memory of Rachel. So we set about getting sponsorship and were truly amazed at the response. We very soon had pledges amounting to £1000. But more amazement was to follow. As we have been collecting the money, since our return, we have been given more than was pledged (sometimes twice as much!) and money from people who did not pledge but wanted to support the cause. We both feel very humble that the response on behalf of our daughter and the wonderful work of the hospital has been so great. We had a wonderful and very fulfilling time and are full of gratitude for the great generosity shown by our sponsors.