After the challenges of each day on the Camino, my guides were so enthusiastic about the excitement of reaching Santiago de Compostela Cathedral that I began to think I might want to try it, despite not being religious.

A few years later, I and a friend of mine set out on the Portuguese Camino de Santiago from Barcelos.

I thought I was fit despite having chronic back pain; however, nothing could have prepared me for how completely worn out I would be at the end of each walking day.