Some come for the walking. Some come for the companionship. Some come for the writing. Others come for the fields and feasts of Galicia.
They all come for the magic of outside days and cosy nights, for laughter and good company, for the transformational pleasure of exploring life big themes as they walk in the footsteps of the ancients.
Wellbeing writing specialist and former journalist Dr Stephanie Dale is a veteran of Spain’s iconic pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.
Stephanie first walked the full 900 kilometres when her children left home.
“I was so bored sitting alone in an empty house waiting for someone to remember I was there,” she said.
“So I packed up and spent 35 days walking the Camino.
“It was an incredible experience – there are so many middle-aged women on that pilgrimage.”
Stephanie said pilgrimage taught her three primary lessons for life: keep going, this too will pass, and “get over yourself”.
“Pilgrimage coded these lessons into my body,” she said.
“I learned to overcome the voices in my head, to confront my expectations and assumptions, and to keep going.
“It’s challenging and it’s exhilarating, and at the end you want to turn around and do it all over again.”
In April next year, Stephanie is hosting a merry band of walking writing pilgrims along the final 115 kilometres of the Camino.
“We are merry because our luggage is being transported and because we know there’s a warm bed and a delicious meal waiting for us at the end of every day,” she said.
“At the same time, we’re immersed in our inner world, as we explore the writing theme we’ve set for the day.
“We walk together, we wander along alone, we catch up in coffee shops along the way. It’s up to us how we spend our days.
“It’s a beautiful journey that’s amplified through writing our way to Santiago.”
Stephanie said previous walking writing pilgrims reported wide-ranging transformational experiences.
“Writing is alchemical,” she said.
“You don’t have to want to ‘be’ a writer to come along, not at all.
“And it’s not like you’re suddenly transformed into a whole other person because you walk the Camino.
“It’s that we find acceptance for ourselves, even love.
“One woman emailed me and said she was sleeping better, because when she woke in the night with things on her mind she’d learned to write them down and then could go straight back to sleep.
“Another woman, a writer, was totally stumped with her writing. She spent her days walking and writing alone, then joined us for meals in the evening. Three months later she emailed to tell me she’d ‘scaled the wall’ of her writer’s block.
“It’s a really special journey, regardless of why women come along.”
For more information about Stephanie and Walk and Write Camino visit www.iwwi.com.au/camino
