On my last Camino I met a German woman called Annetta.
At the beginning of the journey she was all archetypal German precision in her personal presentation, neat tidy clipped self-contained.
Half way through the pilgrimage I glanced across a village square and there she was: shirt untucked, hair amok, slouching on the ground beside her backpack.
Our eyes met. We cracked up laughing. We were unravelling. Strangers no longer, we recognised each other as human beings on the in-side, released from the unsustainable interior tensions that keep the world at bay and have long outstayed their welcome.
This is pilgrimage. It’s not romantic. It’s funny. And it’s a dish best shared.
Here’s our last Walk & Write Camino: first meal, final meal.
This is what a walk and write pilgrimage does to mature women. Our first meal together in Sarria … and 11 days later our final meal together in Santiago de Compostela.
Walking, writing, laughing, sharing, feasting, meeting ourselves and each other, transforming in good company and delivering ourselves back to acceptable society again. The life of the pilgrim writer. We’re doing it again in the northern spring.
You can come too if you like: www.iwwi.com.au/camino
Stephanie Dale is an award-winning journalist, author, researcher and founder of the International Wellbeing-through-writing Institute. In 2014 she launched The Write Road, a wellbeing-through-writing initiative for rural and remote Australians. She is passionate about pilgrimage, and in 2017 initiated Walk&Write holiday writing adventures.