Today was the easiest walking day so far. Temperature was cooler because of cloud, the path was under the shade of trees and there were no big hills. The path was mostly compacted clay. It makes a huge difference to your legs and feet depending on the surface.

The very worst is probably ankle deep mud and cow dung. But after that the surface from worst to best is: uneven cobblestones, rocky ground, concrete, asphalt, compacted clay or dirt. The last with a layer of dry leaves is absolutely the best. You can tell what the path has been like by the tenderness of your feet and the tightness of your leg muscles.

We crossed over a huge abandoned civil engineering project today. At first I thought it was a canal, then maybe a motorway. Turns out it was part of the high speed train network, abandoned in the 2008 financial crisis.

We didn’t see our adopted singing children today but did spy the blue stealth bus, lurking in a quiet farm lane.

We had some walking alongside a busy road but the vast majority was through woodland. A lot of eucalyptus again today. Several of the 134 Australian species were introduced here in 1865 for use in construction, for which it proved to be unsuitable. It is fast growing, has no natural controls, drives out local species, messes up the ground with its leaves, nuts and bark and is enormously consumptive of water. Today the only difference we have noticed is the Australians we meet are enormously consumptive of alcohol.

Today was our penultimate day, only 15km to Santiago. We are definitely looking forward to a rest. We have kept fit, healthy and strong but there is an accumulating background fatigue that is slowly wearing us out.

The secret to our camino has been Barbara’s ‘Revive and Restore miracle muscle balm’. She was first introduced to it at the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge. It is anti-inflammatory, muscle building, tendon and ligament strengthening, circulation promoting and scar tissue reducing. It contains organic beeswax, organic hydrosol of manuka, arnica and calendula infused in almond oil, castor and rosehip oils, oils of black pepper, cajeput, elemi, eucalyptus, radiata, ginger, immortelle, lemongrass, nutmeg, peppermint, lavender and vetiver. The 21st century miracle needed to complete the Camino.

Saints are pretty big in Spain. I can only think of two towns in NZ named after saints: St Arnaud and St Bathans.

A brief biography of St Barbara: legendary virgin martyr, allegedly killed ca. 303. Her father imprisoned her in a tower to keep her from men’s eyes. When she became a Christian against her father’s wishes, he nearly killed her, then handed her over to a judge who condemned her to death. A lightning bolt killed her father. Barbara protects against sudden death and is the patroness of things that go boom: lightning, artillery, mines and explosives. Emblem :the tower.

A brief biography of St Paul: Roman, known as Saul before his conversion on the road to Damascus. With Barnabas, took the message of Christianity to gentiles all over the eastern Mediterranean. Missionary and writer. Beheaded in Rome. Emblems: sword and book.

Ipod theme song for the Camino :Louis Armstrong, When the Saints go marching in.

We are travelling in the footsteps
Of those who’ve been before
But we’ll all be reunited (but if we stand reunited)
On a new and sunlit shore (then a new world is in store)

Oh when the Saints go marching in
When the Saints go marching in
O Lord, I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marching in.