We have been following the progress of six of our Year 11 girls and three staff who are walking the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain. Four years ago, this pilgrimage began life as an ERAS-MUS project and the girls were to walk with pupils from schools in The Netherlands, France and Spain. However, the original walk was to take place at the end of March 2020 and you will understand why it had to be cancelled at the last minute. Since then, the other three schools have dropped out but our staff and girls were determined to undertake what is, in fact, a well-known pilgrimage.
The Camino de Santiago, or The Way of St James, can take many routes across Spain to Santiago de Compostela, one even starting in France. Our party started their walk from Sarria and they have walked 125km in five days in order to reach Santiago. On the middle day, the girls walked 27km in the heat, but along the way they have been able to chat to other pilgrims and take in the lovely countryside of North-ern Spain. Today, the group have walked even further covering over 30K and 40,000 steps! Walkers collect stamps on their ‘Camino passport’ to show that they have walked the full distance, and completing this distance means that the girls and staff can receive the official Compostela certificate at the end. On Saturday morning, they will also sing in the Santiago Cathedral as pilgrims enter for the morning service.
Enormous thanks are due to Sra Valois, Mrs Millar and Chaplain Lenny for accompanying the girls on this adventure. This is not your ordinary school trip and in fact, it has been quite a challenge for all the girls and staff. We would like to congratulate the staff, Bea, Harper, Lauren, Livvy, Lucy and Tilly on their remarkable achievement.
