Today we left Hotel Suiza at 8am. Martin was very keen to make sure we had all crossed the road safely before he let us set off at our own pace. For a while I chatted with the Sangria group, about this blog and whether I needed dot pay them commission for the mention. Then as usual we reached a hill and I upped my pace. As the hill levelled out I kept expecting them to catch me as my pace wasn’t that great - the blister on my little toe was really painful and I had shin splints which were really burning. There also seemed to be quite a lot of downhill sections which I recognise are my nemesis and my walking poles are my best friends. 4km per hour got me to a coffee stop around 9.30am - this was not a recommended stop but I was feeling rebellious. As I sat outside enjoying my coffee I waved to fellow pilgrims from our group but they didn’t see me as it wasn’t the right stop (good job I don’t mind being ignored). I started again and surprised 2 of the Sangria group as I came up behind them. As we reached the official stop I carried on, on my own but was passed by lots of keen Spanish students and other people fitter than me. The blister on my toe was really starting to make its presence felt and I was conscious more of my physical aches and pains than anything else. There is one young man, who I think might be part of the school group who seems to run ahead and then pause and run ahead and pause. He smells strongly of cologne so he leaves a waft behind every time.

There were a few interesting sights, like the bar absolutely covered with empty Pellgrino beer bottles, and the Wall of Wisdom which invited you to consider questions about your attitude to religion, spirituality and god.

I walked pass a couple waiting at a bus stop having given up for the day, which was a shame for them as the next little section was beautiful. It was beginning to rain and so everything was damp and I was walking through a eucalyptus forest - there have been quite a few but the wet was making them smell wonderfully of eucalyptus and ferns.

Although I have stubbornly refused to have my phone accessible for the WhatsApp messages (because I don’t want to be tempted to answer it if it rings) I did pause at around 14.5km to check I hadn’t overshot the stop. 500metres further on and I stopped at the cafe, where I found Johanna and Mandy who were enjoying coffee and cake. We all kicked off our boots and I did some remedial work on my blisters. Silly feet photos ensued.

It started raining as we left the stop and I really found the next 8km increasingly painful. Just as we set off down the hill with encountered a lovely Scottish man who we have seen most days, he is travelling with friends and driving the campervan ahead, walking back to meet them and continuing on again, therefore pretty much walking the Camino twice.

It was raining more and more relentlessly and if I hadn’t been walking with the others at that point I would have shelved all ideas of keeping going and sat down under a tree and cried. The wetter it got the more my hip started to hurt. Mandy is good at the power of positive thinking but by 21km we were really wondering if the instructions were wrong. After a couple of false hopes -the just round this corner type - we finally arrived in Amenal the intended destination for the group today.

A lovely pizza place, 20mins without my boots on, some iboprufen and we set off again. Up hill and I was out-striding the others but this time was happy to pause for them at the crest of the hill. What I was surprised about was that my hip had stopped hurting and more importantly I felt that I had new feet.

The weather was great for ducks, or as my husband would put it ‘liquid sunshine’ but dressed for a day sailing on the Norfolk Broads I was dry, warm and happy (well at least on the inside). There were very few other pilgrims walking, most of them seemed to have gone in out of the rain so we were free from the ant trail which was good.

As we walked passed the airport we grabbed our cameras to take a photo as we heard a plane preparing to take off, only to realise it had gone up in another direction, although to be fair I would have probably had so many rain drops on the camera lens from pointing it upwards.

The next stretch was the main road, which was a bit dull but as we turned away from the road we walked though a very pretty village with some slightly confusing signs. We determined that we needed to head up the steep hill (what a surprise) and this one was steep even for me. Some more forests and lots more rain then the final stroll down the hill into Lavacolla, down, down, down, as was the rain. We finally found a square that looked like where Martin had told us we needed to head for. I gave Mandy the camera to get the drowned rat picture outside the bar, but I think she had rain on the brain as she was pointing the camera at herself.

Order the taxi was comical, whilst I could remember jo necessito un taxi por favor, I then had to resort to hand signals to get the person behind the bar to phone it for me. I did feel for the poor bar owner as we trotted out to the taxi leaving massive puddles of water on the floor. Lo Siento - Adios, I won’t be back! The taxi driver couldn’t understand that we didn’t want to go on to Santiago - maybe he was doing a good trade in collecting drowned pilgrims who had given up.

Last day is now only 11km and we should make it in time for the mass at 12noon - maybe when I get there I will figure out why it is so important to me!