Walking the Camino

A joyous celebration of the call of the road…

Walking has been the constant in Ailsa Piper’s life. Setting down one foot after the other takes her to a transformative-and transcendent-place.

Her bestselling memoir Sinning Across Spain was inspired by the tradition of medieval walkers who were paid by others to carry their sins to holy places. The cargo included anger, envy, pride and lust. She hiked alone through the endless olive groves of the Camino Mozárabe, from the legendary southern city of Granada toward the centuries-old pilgrim destination, Santiago de Compostela, in the far north-west of Spain.

In dusty pueblos and epic landscapes, miracles found her. Angels in both name and nature eased her path.

When faced with the untimely death of her husband, Peter, her ‘true north’, Ailsa returned to the Camino trail, this time in France, to walk through her sorrow.

This second pilgrimage is the story of a walk where the burden is her own grief, not the sins of others, and which ultimately sees her walking into life and hope.

Also available as an audio book, narrated by Ailsa herself.

“Sinning Across Spain celebrates the blessing of bathtubs, the benediction of bunions, and the simple act of setting down one foot after the other.” – The Age (14 May 2012)

“Ailsa Piper’s personal journey ticks all the boxes of good travel writing . . . It is beautifully crafted and stays true to an excellent, perhaps brilliant, central theme.” – David Scott, Launceston Examiner (30 Jun 2012)

“This account is filled with landscape, history, philosophy, friendship, hospitality, poetic self-expression and albergues (pilgrim inns). The road is old, but the journey in Piper’s words makes fresh reading.” – Barbara Baker, Good Reading (1 Jul 2012)

“She allows readers to share her joys and frustration; the beauty of the landscape and villages along the road, and the kindness of strangers.we can laugh and cry with her; share her pain, and appreciate the simple things that can lighten the load.” – Jenny Conroy, Senior Lifestyle (1 Aug 2012)

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