Many years ago following a holiday in the Spanish Pyrenees my dear sister Kanchan sent me a copy of a book by the Brazilian author Paulo Coehlo, the Pilgrimage, a book about his experiences on a journey through northern Spain on the route to Santiago de Compostela. The story of his journey was in part adventure and partly a spiritual discovery of his inner self. My sister is incredibly in touch with her own spirituality – but I’m not.

The book however, did appeal. The route to Santiago de Compostela can start from many different places, it is a pilgrim route to the shrine of St James. Some starting points are in France others in Spain though traditionally all pilgrimages would start from home. The Camino (Way) de Santiago if walked from St Jean Pied de Port in France is some 500 miles long and would take more than a month to walk. With a love for Spain, my dog Charlie a beautiful Hungarian Vizsla and a ‘like’ for walking I harboured romantic thoughts that Charlie & I would make this journey, alas it was never to be.

As with most modern working lives and commitments time never allowed, and Charlie grew older as did I and, and so we never did. We lost Charlie aged 15 in 2016, but the thought of walking a long trek with my dog remained…