The authors present their journey through the development of an action research project based on collaboration between university health lecturers and a practice development and research nurse in an NHS Trust hospital. The project was designed to raise awareness and improve the practice of all staff in relation to the dignity and respect shown to patients and their visitors in the hospital. The authors describe how this project developed from what was essentially an education-based action research project centred on a programme designed to address the issue of dignity and respect, to one focused on seeking to facilitate institutional change within the hospital. In the process of undertaking this project the authors, as co-researchers, have journeyed together between the "Education Zone" and the "Health Zone" and this experience has formed the catalyst for analysis of a variety of critical incidents that challenged their thinking and behaviour as action researchers and as educators. They use the analogy of journeying into unfamiliar territory to convey their experience and although this project involved the collaboration of health and education professionals, the issues it raised may have resonance for other action researchers seeking to collaborate across organisations. (Contains 1 figure.)