Walk & Write Camino
* For women who long to explore life’s great themes
* For women who want to keep good company as they walk the Camino
* For women who long to clarify their direction and reset priorities
Camino 2025: walk and write the final stages of one of the world’s most iconic pilgrimages
Sarria – Santiago de Compostela, 11 days, 115 kms
Accompanied by award-winning author, journalist and writing specialist Dr Stephanie Dale
Walk & Write Camino is an opportunity for women to engage in inspired, purposeful time out from everyday life.
Pilgrimage is the art of ancient travel. Our pilgrimage ensures you have a cosy bed at the end of each day and a delicious local meal waiting for you.
Sleep soundly in medieval farmhouses and castles, renovated for warmth and comfort. Relish the freedom of having your luggage transported for you. Enter one of Spain’s great cities in the footsteps of millions of pilgrims who have walked this way before you.
This event offers facilitated writing sessions and writing guidance along the way, in cafes and beside gentle streams, in forest glades and among ancient ruins. Our writing sessions are designed to help you clarify your ideas, remove obstacles and navigate clear pathways forwards as you walk and write your way to Santiago de Compostela.
This is an exclusive event. There are 12 places only. You and a merry band of twelve walking writing pilgrim buddies: Sarria to Santiago de Compostela.
WALK & WRITE CAMINO DATES
28 APRIL – 8 MAY 2025
Who is Walk & Write Camino for?
Walk & Write Camino is for:
- women who want to share their Camino experience with an inspired band of merry pilgrims
- women who want to explore life’s great themes in writing as they wander the lush landscapes of Galicia
- women who long to write and have yet to put pen to paper
- writers seeking to overcome writers’ block
- women who want time to themselves to reset their priorities and make a mud map for life post-pilgrimage.
“Wonderful journey. The days were full and allowed enough time to reflect and restore our bodies and minds. Loved the quality, intimacy, history and comfort of the accommodations. Fabulous journey thanks to Steph and the team. The writing component was integral to the transformation that occurred along the way. Stephanie’s beautiful way of facilitating these conversations is special. Thanks Steph for your wonderful way of being and inspiring us on our paths whatever they may be.”
Lea, Melbourne, Australia
When you are in a car, beautiful places are a moment;
if you stop the car, they are a cluster of moments.
When you walk, beautiful places are an eternity carved into the soul.
What can we expect at the end of our day’s walk?
Pilgrims at days end need two things: a warm bed and a delicious meal – and we’ve got you covered!
Walk & Write accommodations include a castle, a monastery and a 300-year-old farmhouse, all renovated for the warmth and comfort of modern pilgrims.
Your luggage will be waiting for you, along with a warm shower.
Once we’ve cleaned up, we will feast on local cuisine and raise our glasses to a toast at day’s end.
How do we know we can rely on our accommodations?
Walk & Write has again partnered with experienced travel company, World Expeditions, to organise this trip. We have runs on the board!
What previous Walk & Write Camino participants have to say
9 out of 10
“Enjoyed the walk in a new country, the beautiful countryside, the gracious people, the new sights and experiences. Enjoyed meeting our group members. We bonded well together. I learnt a lot about myself and the journey of others. I enjoyed the whole experience and writing really enhanced the overall journey.”
Kerry, Walk & Write Camino
10 out of 10
“I found the journey enriching and stimulating. Loved traveling the route of the ancients. Coped with the walking well. Valued the opportunity to explore writing and found the writing workshops an excellent way to start the day in a reflective mode.”
Jo, Walk & Write Camino
10 out of 10
“Tramping through forests, muddy lanes, greeting others, pilgrims stopping for coffee and pilgrim passport stamps … how special is that. The writing was an added bonus. Ideas to get/keep you thinking, writing ideas you can use not just on the Camino.”
Michelle, Walk & Write Camino
10 out of 10
“Loved it all – stone houses, castles, stone hospitals. Fabulous! I had a most wonderful time and, with Stephanie’s help, managed to climb the wall of my writer’s block. I have written enormous amounts since the Camino.”
Sue Gunningham, author, Walk & Write Camino
Your Walk & Write Camino writing specialist
Your Walk & Write Camino journey is accompanied by pilgrim veteran, IWWI founder and writing specialist Dr Stephanie Dale.
Stephanie has twice walked the Camino Francis: in 2005, from St Jean Pied du Port to Santiago de Compostela (800kms) and, in 2019, from St Jean Pied du Port to Finisterre (900kms). In 2007 she joined her son on the middle leg of his 7000km pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem. Stephanie walked 1500kms across Italy and through the Balkans, before the snow-bound mountains of Macedonia put an end to her overland journey. Her best-selling travel memoir My Pilgrim’s Heart chronicles this journey.
Stephanie has a PhD on the relationship between wellbeing and writing.
I can’t begin to describe how this process of writing has impacted on me. It has reached the depths of my being. There were days when I wanted to not even go there (the writing that is) so I was encouraged to write it down which helped immensely!
Stephanie far exceeded my expectations as a guide in this journey. She knew what questions to ask and explained the process in such a professional and spiritual way. It is obvious to me her role in her chosen journey is where she is needed through the world, encouraging us to put words on pages. I commend World Expeditions on hiring her as our facilitator.
Walk & Write Camino FAQs
Why would I choose Walk & Write for my Camino?
- writing while we walk exponentially amplifies the pilgrim experience
- having a skilful writing facilitator with us makes possible undreamed writing potential for each pilgrim
- our writing facilitator has extensive experience of pilgrimage: this means she understands the interwoven journeys of the new writer, the experienced writer and the pilgrim
- writing deepens the pilgrim’s experiences of both the journey and life in general
- the deepening experience of writing while we walk establishes lifelong friendships.
Do I have to be an experienced writer to make the most of this experience?
Absolutely not! Everyone is welcome. New writers, experienced writers, writers who are not yet confident enough to call themselves a writer. Our program is about your individual pilgrim journey.
Most people want to record their pilgrim journey in some way. Many people have a writing project buried deep in their heart they have no idea how to begin or perhaps even that it’s resting there. This journey will tap that dormant idea.
This pilgrim writing adventure is for those who want experience writing as a pathway to everyday wellbeing, unlock their inner writer or break through writers’ block.
Do I have to walk with the group the whole time?
Our pilgrim writing journey is a self-guided pilgrimage. This means it’s completely up to you whether you walk with the group or wander on alone. In our experience, some in our merry band of pilgrims will enjoy time alone, as well as time with the group, meeting up in coffee shops and at various waymarkers along the trail. We’re easy. If you want company along the way you will find company along the way. If you want the day to yourself you will have the day to yourself, confident we will meet up with you at designated meeting points.
What kinds of writing do you cover?
Walk & Write Camino is designed to open your senses to experiencing whatever it is you’d like to write. Past pilgrims have explored travel writing, blogging, social media messaging, food writing, fiction, short stories, memoir, letters, speeches, family and community histories, landscape, architecture and journaling.
Walk & Write Camino costs, logistics & other FAQs
The logistics of Walk & Write Camino have been organised by adventure travel specialists World Expeditions.
World Expeditions organised previous Walk & Write Caminos – the sublime feedback we have received on previous Walk & Write adventures is due in no small part to the expertise of this team.
To speak to a World Expeditions representative about Walk & Write Camino 2025, phone Jaclyn on +61 2 8270 8400.
“Amazing experience, beautiful countryside, so nice chatting and meeting pilgrims from other countries along the way and learning about the others in our group. Accommodation was outstanding every time. Loved it all – very comfortable – loved that most were located out of the cities. Castles were amazing – so historical. My main reason for the Camino was the walking – the writing overcame my expectations and was on my mind all through the day. Writing really lifted my spirits. It will be a big help to me in the future.”
Previous Walk & Write Caminos
The experience of writing the pilgrim journey embedded ongoing transformation in the lives of Walk & Write pilgrims:
- “I used to wake in the night an worry about things. Now I reach for my pen and paper and in minutes I’m curled up and back to sleep.”
- “I used to have to control everything in my family. I’ve learned what is my business and what’s not, what is mine to help with and what is theirs to work out for themselves. Writing during the Camino freed me to get on with my own life.”
“Before the Camino I spent ages trying to write the final chapter of my book. It was the hardest chapter for me to write and I had a severe case of writer’s block. Every morning, after our Camino writing session, I’d turn over ideas in my head while I was walking to our next meeting point, and I’d sit there with a glass of wine and write non-stop until the others arrived. It was wonderful. By the end of our Camino I was ready to return home and put the finishing touches on that elusive chapter.”
Sue Gunningham, author
