The tent was a bit of freedom. We didn't have to participate in the silly wake up at 4am to race to the next albergue. Part of the camino experience is letting go a bit, and the tent helped with that. If the albergue had spaces, then that was great, and a shower especially was welcome. If not, there was always the tent. We could take our time, experience whatever came our way. Nights in the tent without an albergue, I think was 7 or 8 nights, and one or two nights, just sleeping outside a full albergue in the open. We never had problems with the Guardia Civil, and never were moved on, but possibly we were just lucky, and I've heard that between Sarria and Santiago, pilgrims are much more likely to be moved on. Sometimes, in whichever village we were in, we just asked at the local bar where the best place to camp was, and then we weren't worried.