Walk & Write the Caminowith Dr Stephanie Dale

I highly recommend the 'Walk and Write the Camino' with Dr Stephanie Dale.

Writing and reflection has framed the pilgrimage, extending time like a telescope and intensifying the personal challenges and discoveries. Group bonds form quickly.

The hotels and casas, welcoming. The meals, wholesome and occasionally memorable. The logistics, near perfect. The facilitator, gifted.

An exceptional experience which combined walking an ancient pilgrimage trail with inspiring writing workshops guided by Dr Stephanie Dale and shared with a delightful, creative, supportive group of fellow pilgrims! It definitely exceeded all my expectations.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The holiday was perfect. Beautiful hotels and lovely food all the way. The combination of walking the Camino and doing writing workshops was stimulating and fun. We are now inspired to write. Thank you Stephanie!

A bucket list walk with a wonderful group of women. The new friendships were worth the blisters!

They made an otherwise complex trip seamless. Fantastic group, loved the writing workshops and the Camino journey was a sublime experience.

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.

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 – however 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. 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.

The walking was wonderful, tramping through forests, muddy lanes, greeting other pilgrims, stopping for coffee…it was just so special. The writing component was invaluable. It was given out at measured intervals, which challenged and excited me. I had no idea I could write, let alone that I’d want to write! The chunks were there to tease out your thoughts and challenge, yet they also built upon the previous foundations and ultimately it felt like you had come full circle which was exactly how I felt about the physical walk. Steph’s kind and empathetic way with each individual as they journeyed was such a joy. Writing is the tool that helps, guides and brings to fulfilment what is inside each of us.

A writer’s block of monumental proportions requires an innovative solution. Hence I found myself walking 4-5 hours a day along cobbled lanes and bush tracks that wound around century-old stone-cottages and farmhouses on Spain’s Camino track.

Wandering with my musings between moss-covered dry-stone walls reminiscent of the pathway to a fairy dell, and then on through forests with leafy arms lifted in prayer, offered a possible solution.

For eight days, under the watchful eye of author Stephanie Dale, I joined a small group of pilgrims to walk the pilgrim’s trail from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela.

Mornings began with a workshop to focus us on ‘the story within’, to help us target the muse and encourage us to listen hard to the words our psyche was urging us to write. I participated willingly, listened, breathed, walked and mused. And slowly, a crack appeared in my reticence, and my story began to emerge.

Each morning, walking pole in hand, my stride became more enthusiastic. ‘Buen Camino,’ I called out more sincerely to friendly pilgrims and villagers en route. A four-hour walk followed by a couple of hours’ writing in a coffee shop or bar was exhilarating.

Then transportation to luxury accommodation – a magnificently restored centuries-old miller’s cottage, a nobleman’s house or a restored village hospital complete with chapel. Each accommodation was more amazing than the last – four poster beds, open fires, sherry decanters, Spanish cakes and views of lush green rolling hills and stone bridges.

With each day my slumbering secrets awakened and by journey’s end I had scaled the walls of my writer’s block - my story was laid bare. At the Pilgrim’s Mass held at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela on the last day, having walked 118 kilometres, I sat smiling, renewed and joyful.

‘Este ce mi Camino’ – This is my Camino.