Walking can be both a physical and a mental undertaking – a time for gathering thoughts and centering ourselves. For Catharina van Bohemen, her 1998 Camino de Santiago journey, so beautifully depicted in the Ockham NZ Book Awards longlisted Towards Compostela: Walking the Camino de Santiago, is a pilgrimage away from a crisis in her marriage towards a greater understanding of self and family; for actor and writer Michelle Langstone, in her moving essay collection Times Like These, walking the slopes of Maungawhau is a salve as she bids her father goodbye and strives to conceive. They speak with Carole Beu about journeys taken and wisdom gained.