I did the English leg of the Camino de Santiago – starting in Reading

The UK section of the pilgrimage runs through Berkshire and Hampshire to Southampton, where the faithful would set sail for Spain. And it’s now all waymarked

The man hammering a roundel to a fingerpost between an ancient wood and an electricity substation just outside Silchester was deep in concentration. He seemed both happy and dismayed to see me. “You’re early! I’d better get on with it! Buen camino!”

It was a chance encounter but, as it happens, David Sinclair was waymarking the route I’d set out to follow. I’d just pipped him to the “post”.