Fromista to Carrion de los Condes

The Sound of Music is an institution in my family and so you can imagine my delight when Martine told us we'd be staying in an albergue attached to a convent that evening.

A convent with actual nuns, and not just any nuns, SINGING nuns.

I arrived to troubling news from Don that Martine was sick. This news was confusing at first, how could Martine aka La Machina, be sick?

He told me she was sleeping and in a quiet room with Janne and Rick. I checked in (with a nun!) and went up to find my bed (top bunk *sigh*).

I got chatting to Daniel, a lovely Irish guy we met a few days before, in the hallway. This is when Martine appeared, looking so unlike Martine, it really scared me.

We went straight back into her room and I soon discovered she wasn't sick, she was really sick.

Now, what you have to realise here, is that for the past two weeks, Martine has been looking after me every step of the way - from making sure I had a bed reserved, to buying me food, to sorting out my blisters.

And here was my gorgeous friend, shivering in her sleeping back, looking and sounding like death (sorry Martine!)

After everything she'd done for me, this was an opportunity to try to repay some of her endless kindnesses and so I went about doing what friends do, nothing special, just a few pharmacy runs, but by this point, I knew how good it feels to know someone is looking out for you when it matters.

I told Martine that instead of walking the next day, we'd stay behind together so she could recover and I could look after her. She agreed immediately, which made me realise how poorly she must have felt.

Later in the shower, I contemplated what it meant to me to miss a stage of the Camino. I have real issues with feeling like I have to earn my achievements and I worried skipping a day would take the shine off reaching Santiago for me. But when I considered the alternative, leaving Martine on her own, I realised that actually there was no choice at all, and the feelings of worry left me.

Martine was absolutely determined to see the nuns sing, so with her wrapped up in blankets, we made our way into the dining room, where about 15 pilgrims were gathered in front of four nuns, each with an instrument.

Song sheets were handed out with songs in many different languages and together we sang, and laughed and shared our stories.

The nuns asked us all to introduce ourselves with our name, where we were from and why we were on Camino.

I was annoyed at my own answer to this question. I said 'I like a challenge' - which is the kind of crap you say in a job interview. I didn't give freely to the group (other than signing with gusto) and I think this was maybe a missed opportunity. To be fair to myself, that is why I started Camino, but it has become so much more to me. Maybe I didn't have the words.

We sang 'You Raise Me Up' - this was covered by Irish boyband Westlife in 2005 and ever since, I've always found to be overly sentimental, but when we sang the line 'You raise me up, so I can walk on mountains' - I thought of all the mountains I'd climbed physically and emotionally up to that point, and began to cry. Pretty standard Claire behaviour really, but it was lovely to share that moment with Martine as we sat there holding hands.

In the course of our friendship, Martine has done a pretty excellent job of raising me up day in day out, and now I was the one being leaned on. It felt good to be able to offer love and kindness to my friend when she needed it.