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Paper short abstract

Walking Camino del Norte—zooming in on geological textures, zooming out to deep time–is a reading that discloses and illuminates nature’s agency through multiscalar readings. Mythical, historical, and ecological layers converge, making walking a narrative practice entangled with the more-than-human.

Paper long abstract

This presentation explores walking as a narrative method and reading practice, focusing on how embodied movement through landscapes can generate ecological insight and create relational connections with the more-than-human world. Drawing on a pilgrimage along the Camino del Norte in northern Spain, I examine how the act of reading while walking—both literally and metaphorically—can open up new modes of engaging with nature as an active participant in narratives.

The Camino del Norte offers a layered terrain where geological formations such as "the flysch" cliffs between Zumaia and Mutriku reveal deep time and planetary history, while medieval architecture, mythological traces, fantasy, and contemporary pilgrim narratives intertwine across the path. By zooming in to the micro-level of textures, fossils, and flora, and zooming out to the planetary and evolutionary scales, I investigate how walking can become a multisensory reading practice that situates the human walker within a broader ecological, mythical, and temporal web.

Through this approach, I ask: In what ways does nature act as a co-narrator in walking narratives? How might walking and reading landscapes together generate alternative understandings of environmental meaning and agency? The presentation contributes to discussions on narrative ecologies, pilgrimage as environmental engagement, and the speculative potential of walking as a method for ecological storytelling.