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"Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall. Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea, and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable and life-affirming journey. Powerfully written and unflinchingly honest, The Salt Path is ultimately a portrayal of home--how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways"--… (more)
cbl_tn: Faced with the loss of their farm home and Moth's newly-diagnosed degenerative brain disease, Moth and Raynor Winn set out to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path. Sixty years earlier, Maine farmer Annie Wilkins made a journey on horseback from Maine to California under similar circumstances. Both are stories of resilience.… (more)
A long distance walk undertaken by Ray and her husband when everything that possibly could go wrong in their lives had gone wrong. They'd lost the home which they'd lovingly built up over many years, their livelihood, and in Moth's case, his health. He'd just been diagnosed with a rare and terminal degenerative disease. They were the wrong side of 50 years old.
They decided, in one sense, to walk away from their problems. To walk the South West Coast Path. They equipped themselves on a minuscule budget with no experience on their side, and set off. Theirs was a new life of wild camping, few opportunities and little money to be well nourished. Dirty, unkempt and always hungry they survived, and increasingly thrived. Overwintering thanks to a friend who offered accommodation in return for physical work, they accomplished the second part of their journey in the spring, and by the end they had a plan, and a piece of luck.
This is part travelogue, including atmospheric writing about the terrain the pair tramped over: but mainly an account of the journey towards a new life of couple who rose above destructive and unimaginable adversity and found a new way towards their future. ( )
Raynor Wynn through some bad circumstances ended up homeless. Her husband Moth was terminally ill, and their friends and family were struggling too so they could only stay at homes short term. As their life came unglued and everything, they worked for was taken away, Raynor and Moth took all they could carry or afford and walked the Salt Path. The path is 630 miles long and is above the ocean and follows the South West Coastal Path and the English Channel. With a favorite guidebook, and the tiny bit of money they could get every few weeks for food, they pushed on. This journey is a metaphor for life that when the worst happens all you can do is put one foot in front of the other and move through it. There are lessons here, surrounded by beauty and the goodwill of some people they met along the way. There is ugliness too by some people and their preconceived judgement of homelessness. It’s not a long book only 270 pages. I couldn’t stop reading it sometimes crying, sometimes laughing always wondering where their journey would end. Hoping that Moth’s health would hold out and a miracle would arrive to give them hope. I just ordered her next book too. ( )
Raynor Winn and her husband Moth experienced a major financial setback that resulted in the loss of their home and livelihood. The very next day, Moth was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease with no cure. With no home and no jobs, the couple decided to walk the South West Coast Path from Minehead to Poole, passing through Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, and Dorset. Because they have no money for hotels or campgrounds, the pair plan to wild camp along the trail. Winn’s memoir tells of their adventures on the path, and of coming to terms with Moth’s illness and with their homelessness. It’s a moving reflection on life, love, aging, resilience, and the restorative power of nature and physical activity. The audio version read by the author made this an extra special experience. ( )
The Salt Path is a book I've wanted to read for a while. Being ill myself for six months and love walking I found now was the time to read it.
The story is a real life event following Raynor and husband Moth. They lose their home and business, and to top it off Moth is diagnosed with an incurable disease. With nothing left they decided to go for a walk and wild camp along the south west coast path.
I quite enjoyed the book and felt for the couple very much. In darkness there was light and their journey certainly had its moments. The narrative is very descriptive and at times a bit rambling and repetitive. I enjoyed the characters they met on their way and the kindness that people can share.
I am so glad I read this book. For me it was the walk and the power walking can have. This book is truly inspiring. ( )
While some might be daunted at the prospect of walking, for weeks on end, staying somewhere different every night, while keeping themselves fed and watered, it is simply a matter of careful planning.
-Paddy Dillon, The South West Coast Path: From Minehead to South Haven Point.
Part Three: The Long Fetch
Often, for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has not already marked.
Prologue: There's a sound to breaking waves when they're close, a sound like nothing else.
Chapter 1. Dust of Life
I was under the stairs when I decided to walk.
Quotations
Packing a rucksack when you're fifty just isn't the same as when you're twenty.
Thirty years on and I had the aches of twenty years of manual labor, damage that never quite heals but stays malevolently in the background. (p. 22)
"I think I can feel homelessness now, like a balloon cut free in the wind. I'm scared.
"I'd hug you, Ray, but I can't sit up."
"Shall we eat the meatballs? I'm sure they weigh the most." (p. 41)
The path led into the valley and down to Culbone Church, the smallest church in England, ancient, and once the site of a leper colony. I sat in the graveyard and let the utterly peaceful place wash over me. It was profoundly spiritual, nothing to do with God or religion, but a deeply human spirituality. (p. 45)
"Do we have a plan?"
"Course we do. We walk until we stop walking, and maybe on the way we find some kind of future." (p. 48)
Rather than layers of sweaty salt, my legs were crawling in ladybirds.
But they were too special and the shiny red wonders too numerous: there had to be more to it than that; they had to have a meaning for us.
No, I couldn't be scientific about it, and clung to the myth of the lady bird bringing good luck, carrying it with me in a rosy, spotted glow. I watched the pink aura lift from Moth and tried to believe in miracles. (p. 79)
I knew then that I was one with everything, the worms in the soil, clouds in the sky; I was part of it all, within everything, and everything was within my child's head. The wild was never something to fear or hide from. It was my safe place, the thing I ran to. (p. 113-114)
The path had taught us that foot miles were different; we knew the distance, the stretch of space from one stop to the next, from one sip of water to the next, knew it in our bones, knew it like the kestrel in the wind and the mouse in his sight. (p. 140-141)
Last words
All I knew was that we were lightly salted blackberries hanging in the last of the summer sun, and this perfect moment was the only one we needed.
"Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall. Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea, and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable and life-affirming journey. Powerfully written and unflinchingly honest, The Salt Path is ultimately a portrayal of home--how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways"--
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Wikipedia in English
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They decided, in one sense, to walk away from their problems. To walk the South West Coast Path. They equipped themselves on a minuscule budget with no experience on their side, and set off. Theirs was a new life of wild camping, few opportunities and little money to be well nourished. Dirty, unkempt and always hungry they survived, and increasingly thrived. Overwintering thanks to a friend who offered accommodation in return for physical work, they accomplished the second part of their journey in the spring, and by the end they had a plan, and a piece of luck.
This is part travelogue, including atmospheric writing about the terrain the pair tramped over: but mainly an account of the journey towards a new life of couple who rose above destructive and unimaginable adversity and found a new way towards their future. (