On August 25th, 2026, my book The Silver Route, Via de la Plata came out on Amazon.
I wrote the book while walking the Camino Via de la Plata. Via de la Plata is one of the longest pilgrimage routes in Spain, stretching for about a thousand kilometres. It starts in Sevilla, in the Andalucía region, and moves north through Extremadura and Castilla y León, ending in Galicia, or connecting to the Camino Francés, depending on the path one chooses.
This road’s history stretches back over two thousand years, to Roman times, when it linked the south of Spain to the north for traders and troops. One long-held theory says its name comes from the Arabic “al-Balat,” meaning “the paved road.” Over the centuries, Balat wore down into Plata, the Spanish word for silver. The silver never had anything to do with it. But I love how a road got its name through a slow drift of language, and still carries the wrong word a thousand years later.
I wanted to walk this Camino in 2023, but at the last minute, I chose to jump on a bus and do the Camino Português instead. At the time, I wasn’t sure I could handle the long distances between towns, cities, or villages, where there might be nowhere to fill my water bottle or get anything to eat. Then there was the heat, which in my mind made that Camino even harder.
The Day the Walk Almost Didn’t Begin
So, on the 31st of August 2025, there I was again, in Sevilla.
The night before, I had shaved my head to face the shame. Shame had been on my radar for a long time. Now, standing in the same city where I’d once turned away from this Camino, I was ready to walk, but still full of resistance.
Then came another obstacle: my bank card wouldn’t work at any ATM. With the rising heat and zero cash in my pocket, one thing became clear: the walk wouldn’t start that day.
What I’d been feeling for days suddenly seemed like more than bad timing. It was the same resistance that had quietly urged me to rebook my flight and skip the walk altogether.
Turning back wasn’t an option. A new plan had to take shape.
The next day, before sunrise, I was on my feet and moving. Two backpacks were on my back.
A Day-by-Day Account
This book is a day-by-day account. It follows the walk from Day 0 in Sevilla to Day 31 in Santiago.
Each day holds three things: the story of what actually happened on the road, a short reflection I call “The Great Mystery”, and a question I leave for you, the reader, to sit with.
I didn’t write this as a polished, looking-back kind of memoir. I wrote it in the dust of each day, close to the ground.
I had something inside me that needed expression. So I walked, I listened, and I got those thoughts down. The result became the book that now sits on Amazon.
Listening Wasn’t New to Me
Talking about listening, “Listen to Yourself” was one of my first interviews for this blog. I did it in Peru, in 2018.
I wanted that interview so badly that when Frederic Swiercz, whom I hoped to sit down with, suggested we meet in a field full of thorns, I said yes. I knew that field, and I should have said no. But I went against my inner knowing just to have that talk with him.
Into the field I went anyway. By the end of it, my white pants were full of thorns, and I was furious with myself for ignoring what I already knew. I called that post “Listen to Yourself”, and that day, I very much did not. That is the whole irony of it.
So here is what a thousand kilometres, and a field of thorns, taught me.
Resistance is not one thing.
Sometimes it is fear, trying to keep us small. Sometimes it is our body, trying to keep us safe. Learning to walk through the first kind, and to stop and listen to the second, might be the whole work.
I am still learning the difference. Today, I would not walk into that field. That much has changed in me.
But I am sure that everyone’s path to that lesson looks different. Still, I believe one thing holds true no matter the path: learning to discern between the fear of an old pattern, carried in the body, and the quiet knowing that says, “No, don’t go there.” The work is to recognise what belongs to the past, learn to undo those patterns, and become quiet enough to hear when the body’s no is actually intuition.
You can find The Silver Route here on Amazon.
And if you decide to read my book, I would love to read your review. A fully honest one.
I am Parisa Radpey, the writer of these pages and founder of Dhyana Donya Movement & Health. You can read more about me here 👉 my background
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I would love to understand the people I am creating this work for a little better. If you have a few minutes, take my short survey here — it truly helps me understand the needs of real people and what they face on their journey, so I can shape my work around what I hear, rather than simply assuming what might be needed.
You can also find me across social platforms, or let my Spotify playlist move what words can’t. And if you want more, I also write for Wise and Shine Zine, and my latest blog post is called Listening to the Heart: The Story Behind Lau Suna.