WALK & WRITE
Pilgrim adventure writing for wellbeing
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with Dr Stephanie Dale
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Satisfy your body-mind-spirit in one great holiday!
When you are in a car, beautiful places are a moment;
when you stop the car they are a cluster of moments.
When you walk, beautiful places are an eternity carved into the soul.
Dr Stephanie Dale
ADVENTURE WRITING
The longing is the path. Join us as we explore the world's beautiful pathways, and meet the true writer within. Walk & Write your way home. Guidance, encouragement and support available throughout the journey. For new and experienced writers. Share your triumphs and challenges with a small group of writing buddies. Led by a skilled and experienced facilitator.
YOUR WALK & WRITE FACILITATOR
Walk & Write pilgrim writing adventures are led by award-winning journalist and author, Dr Stephanie Dale. Steph is the founder of the International Wellbeing-through-writing Institute, which offers pathways to writing for new and unpublished writers. She is a veteran pilgrim, who believes in the power of walking and writing for wellbeing.
Read on!WRITING THE WILD
One of the great challenges facing a writer is telling a story that has been told 10,000 thousand times: sunrise, sunset, mountains, rivers, storms. One of a writer’s great pleasures is finding words that reflect fully their experience of the natural world. Open your senses and seek out your deepest connection to the wild, and return to the page with words of satisfaction, originality and beauty.
WRITING IS GOOD FOR US!
Research shows walking is wonderful for the body, mind and spirit. And so is writing! Studies show writing can boost our immune systems, alleviate pain and even increase our employment prospects! Walking and writing together are a brilliant solution for navigating life's challenges, establishing clear pathways forward and bringing forth the transformation we seek on pilgrimage.
WALK & WRITE PILGRIMS
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WALK & WRITE CAMINO 2025
SARRIA – SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
Walk and write the final 115 kms of El Camino!
May 2025 (date to be advised)
An 11-day pilgrim adventure writing experience that will lead you through the final 115 kms of El Camino, Spain’s famous pilgrimage.
Write your journey home.
The walk will include a series of writing workshops in beautiful villages, forests, farms and cities, as well as writing about people and local cultures.
At certain junctures along the way, we will stop, rest and write, beside gentle streams, atop open hilltops, in afternoon cafes and iconic village squares.
Some pilgrims wander on alone and meet up with us along the way. Others walk together, in fluid interchanges of pilgrim buddies.
It’s your pilgrimage, walk it any way you like …
… knowing there’s a warm bed and fabulous meal waiting for us at the end of each every day.
This holiday is organised in partnership with UTracks/World Expeditions.
To speak to a UTracks rep or to book your holiday contact Jaclyn or Allie on +61 2 8270 8488.
“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 Trafford
WHY CHOOSE A WALK & WRITE HOLIDAY WRITING JOURNEY?
Breathtaking moments
Come for a wander, rest awhile and find the words to express your wonder at the new worlds awaiting you.
Writing buddies!
Coffee, cafes, camaraderie and friendship. A beautiful journey, shared.
Stories in stone
Stand by to be astonished by the beauty of Spain's historical architecture.
Catching stories
People have stories to tell, statues have stories to be told! Dive in, let us lead you there.
Writing the Wild
Open your senses, breathe with the forest and let the countryside speak through you.
Exhilaration!
Rest, write and celebrate the colours of the great spinning universe that surrounds us.
Lotsa laughs!
Make lifelong friendships along the journey.
Writing for wellbeing
Learn powerful new tools for clarifying thoughts, solving problems, establishing new pathways.
Surprise!
When you walk, you never know what's around the next corner.
How to pack for The Camino
FREE ebook
The pilgrim’s guide to packing smart
“Pilgrimage is the art of ancient travel, a subpoena from the heart that defies all common sense. The pilgrim is not unlike a comet, burning off all that is futile and unnecessary until all that is left is the essential, unmalleable core.
The pilgrim walks the Earth, walks the wheel, walks the turning seasons, surrendering all of who she is and all she thinks she knows and all she thinks she wants to the road and the weather and the wild spinning universe.”
ABOUT WALK & WRITE
“Walking is the state where the body, mind and world are aligned.”
Rebecca Solnit
Walk & Write is a holiday writing experience for your body, mind and spirit.
Walk & Write combines your love of exploration with your mind’s need for a rest and your creative spirit’s longing for expression.
We work on the principle everyone can write!
Wander with us along the world’s beautiful trails – it’s an ideal way to unlock your writing spirit. We will walk and write in good company, share the challenges and the triumphs of our writing whilst also enjoying the solitude of the writer, resting, pondering, writing.
Walking connects us to the world around us. It heightens our senses. We see things we wouldn’t normally see. Become aware of things we wouldn’t usually notice. Build relationships with the small and significant. Walking broadens our horizons, in every possible way.
Walking is a brilliant way of solving problems and navigating life’s challenges.
Writing is also an effective problem solving mechanism. This isn’t just theory – it’s hard research: writing can help us with everything from raising our spirits to physical recovery to enhancing our employment prospects!
Join us as we write the journeys, the longings, the pathways, the encounters.
Walk & Write will encourage you to sit quietly, patiently, like the hunters of old, tuning your senses to the rhythms of life around you. You will learn to rest in productive time out. You will find your creative rhythm. You will discover new ways to incorporate writing into your everyday life. You will be offered support, guidance and encouragement to write your story, your way.
Walk & Write is an initiative of the International Wellbeing-through-writing Institute, formerly The Write Road, an award-winning health and wellbeing initiative for new and unpublished writers. For more information on the work we do at the IWWI, visit www.iwwi.com.au
“Solvitur ambulando. It is solved by walking.”
Attributed to St Augustine
NEWS & OTHER BITS N PIECES
Briohny Doyle is right
When Australian author Briohny Doyle said ‘there is no way to narrativise your way out of trouble’ and 'I don’t believe any of the wellness gurus’ ideas about your story being your empowering thing', she was right. Story-making, what Briohny calls ‘narrativising’, is not the reason writing is good for our wellbeing.
Really? Story isn't why writing is good for us? Tell me more!
CONGRATULATIONS CATHIE COLLESS!
Cathie Colless came along to a writing workshop to take her mind off the drought, and then joined our online Write of Passage program. She said: ``Diamonds in the Dust would not have happened without Steph and this program.``
Find out more about IWWI writing programs
WHY WRITING WON'T LEAVE YOU ALONE UNTIL YOU DO IT!
The soul longs to grow ... there is a calling within you to write. You know it. You long to tend to it. You ignore it. You are not alone. In ten years of offering writing workshops to new and unpublished writers, I have learned just about everyone longs to write something, and just about everyone needs guidance, encouragement and support to start.
Curious? Read on...
WALKING AND WRITING ARE ACTS OF COURAGE
The unknown is good for us. I know, right? It’s terrifying! At times, anyway. Walking and writing are leaders, both. Where one leads us through the landscapes of the physical world around us, the other leads us inwards, through the landscapes of our own interior. The knowable unknown. The unknowable known.
Read on...
SARAH'S CAMINO BLOG: ROAD OUT OF TIME
WANDERING PILGRIM: Walking is a holy endeavour. Our moving pilgrim bodies bridge heaven and earth as we make our way to our sacred destination. Who, how and what we encounter along the way lies in the mighty palm of Mystery. One thing is certain: our hearts will open.
Read Sarah's Camino blogs
AN INTRODUCTION TO SPLATTING - WHY PEOPLE WRITE FOR THEIR WELLBEING
After ten years of teaching writing for wellbeing, I was curious about the experiences of everyday people who have participated in our programs. I recently did a road trip o find out. Says YEvie: ”Writing helps me find me. Refind me. Let go of shit. If I’m going to get my health back I need to let go of shit!”
Why do people write for their wellbeing? Find out!
CELEBRATIONS!
Congratulations Kate Gadsby on the launch of her first book, Convicts, Capitalists and Corruption. ``Steph gave me direction and the confidence to achieve one of the most rewarding accomplishments of my life.``
Check out Convicts, Capitalists and Corruption!
RAISING VOICES AND VISIBILITY
“The purpose of this work is recovery – recovering human voices that have fallen silent, recovering spirits that are suffering for lack of hope, recovering the will to claim what is rightfully ours.” IWWI (formerly The Write Road) founder Dr Stephanie Dale delivering the keynote address at the CRANAplus national conference in Alice Springs.
Find out more about Steph.TALK TO US
To fine out more about our Walk & Write pilgrim writing holidays contact us!
+64 29 222 0244WE LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU
If you would like more information about Walk & Write pilgrim writing adventures, or you’d like to invite us along on a walk you already have planned, we’d love to hear from you!
All questions welcome!
We look forward to meeting you.
