My watch says I’ve walked more than 46,000 steps today, which appears to be 16 miles or 27km. My aching calves are telling me it must have been more! But here we are on day 6 of the Camino and still hanging in there.

By “hanging in” I mean we’re still walking, despite both of us having discovered a dreaded blister! At the hostel, we’ve spotted a lot of feet decorated with plasters in a variety of colours and plenty of pilgrims walking by in socks and sandals, which is a bit of a giveaway. Unfortunately we didn’t pack sandals!

Our Camino experience is starting to have a rhythm of its own now. We wake up, we fill up our water, re-pack our rucksacks and eat breakfast. Before setting off, we pray to start the day and after that we walk… and we walk.

“Bom Caminho” and “Bom dia” are our watchwords as we pass locals or fellow pilgrims. This morning we met Nathanial from the US with his friend in a cafe at breakfast, another day we were cheered by free spirit, Hennie from the Netherlands, who hadn’t booked any accommodation along the way!

We don’t know what each day will hold, sunshine or showers, steep inclines or sandy paths. Our steps are the constant each day. And as we walk there is time. Time to think, to pray, to stop and notice and to be thankful.

The rhythm of the day includes a stop for a lunch of bread & cheese beside the path or on a bench. Once we arrive at our destination, there’s washing to be done and hung out and a hunt for some food and often a cold beer!

There is a simplicity to these days that I love. We’re simply walking to the next stop along the way. It doesn’t matter when we get there, it isn’t a race. It’s our Camino – we’ll take it as it comes.

I love that there is time to listen to the birdsong, to stop and watch a stork feeding her young balanced on an impossibly large nest high up on a telegraph wire. There is time to notice things when you walk, whether it’s the largest lemons weighing down a tree overhanging the path or the colours of flowers growing in the sand beside the beach.

Today we had a nice surprise when we arrived at the hostel, as we were given two stamps in our Camino passports.

One from the hostel and another to say we were half way to Santiago! That means only about 134 km to go. This was a cheering thought as we rested sore feet, following a rather gruelling day on the Camino trail.

We celebrated by ordering a strange Portuguese variation on a club sandwich called Francesinha… it wasn’t quite what was expected as it turned out to be a very wet version!

Tomorrow we say farewell to Portugal for a while and cross into Spain. Viva la Vida!