My experience has been similar to gnhale's. That when I am at peace, I exude an energy which affects people and situations around me. I can promise you that when I am at peace, my response is quite different from how it would be if I were upset or angry at the time.
I think that is probably why the greatest sages and teachers have encouraged the inner journey, working on releasing the fears, judgments, etc. that cloud our perception of the world, and which prevent peace, love, compassion...from taking hold in our hearts. You can certainly walk to experience that because walking forces you out of your daily routine, and places you in a laboratory of sorts where you experiment with choosing new ways of being and responding. I am sure you have so many of your own experiences to draw on from your own pilgrimage. I am sure you were "walking" with an open heart, exuding an energy that attracted people to you, whether it was to lend you a helping hand or to somehow reveal to you an aspect of humanity that re-enforces your vision of it, OR which offered you an opportunity to heal a perhaps less-than-wanted vision of it.
I'll give you an example. During our walk, because Alberto had less money than I, I decided to join him as he called on churches, monasteries, spiritual centres, etc. to ask for shelter. Although I didn't need to do it, I went with him because I certainly wasn't about to sleep in a hostel while he was sleeping on a floor somewhere. Most priests and monks took us in, and offered whatever was available - usually a church hall where we slept on the floor, on tables, on mattresses, whatever was there. There were some, however, who turned us away. I couldn't understand how they could do that to us when I believed it was their obligation to help people, and especially pilgrims. I struggled with that, and became ever more angry and mistrustful every time we were turned away - even though we were also embraced and helped by so many others.
Of course, much later, I would understand that I needed those experiences to help me heal my own judgments and expectations of how I think things should be and how people should behave. How could I possibly allow peace to take root within me while those prejudices existed? I needed to see those prejudcies so that I may heal them, and walk without judgment or expectation... not only on my walk, but in life.
The inner journey has no end. I continue to walk it today, trying to apply what I learned during our walk to my every-day life, to the raising of our daughter, to my interactions with people.... I believe that is the purpose of pilgrimage, to bring us closer to the highest and best of ourselves (to the Divine within us, however you define that) so that we may offer it to the world; and when we can do that, then we are changing the world. Our energies go out and create ripples whose effects we can't possibly imagine.
Just as I am certain that your pilgrimage did for so many people in ways you can't imagine.
Sorry for the length... I hope it is of some service to you.
With love,
Mony