Lucy Kelly and Hilda Moll of Montagu recently swelled the numbers of Western Cape people to have done the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St James) walking pilgrimage in Spain. The route they took is known as the Camino Frances. It is an 800km journey from Roncesvalles to Santiago, 405km of which they accomplished on foot in 31 days.

It was, they agreed, gruelling and hot for much of the time, but always intensely interesting and spiritual, so that they came back “with much more than we started”.

For Lucy, a Spanish dancer in her younger days and fluent in Spanish, it was a great opportunity to practice her language skills - not absolutely essential for the trip, however, because the camaraderie along the way generally overcomes all language barriers.

The pilgrimage has been in existence for nearly two thousand years.

There are many different routes for the pilgrimage, but the Camino Frances, going through Pamplona, Burgos and Leon, is one of the most popular. Pilgrims go on foot, by bicycle, horseback and even wheelchair.

From January till the end of August this year more than 111000 had done the trip, making it a major cult event and tourism asset for Spain.