About the book
Pilgrims to Compostela simply start walking; they stay in refugios and carry a passport or Credencial del Peregrino that is stamped along the Way.
Walking is physical and it reminds you of yourself in the world – you hear your breath and the scrape of your boots on the track; the straps bite your shoulders; you feel and hear your heart beat. You can move as fast as only you can move, and what you see while walking becomes infused with what you remember.
One day Catharina van Bohemen left her Auckland home to fly to Spain and walk the Camino de Santiago. Her journal was the most important thing she carried.
With great skill Catharina blends personal memoir – particularly influential childhood experiences and the importance of family – travel writing, and spirituality, both observed and her own. She also has a fine ear and eye for the absurd and Towards Compostela is studded with comic descriptions of pilgrims she met as she walked the route. Her writing is singular, questing and surprising in all the best ways. — Kate De Goldi
