The Salt Path by Raynor Winn book review

'...we made tea. Moth found a hairy wine gum in his pocket so we cut that in half.'

The South West Coast Path stretches from Minehead in Somerset down  to Lands End and back to Poole. 630 miles, a lot of steep paths.. I've only done teeny bits and taken the bus back home or gone to a Youth Hostel. (I love Tintagel Youth Hostel.)

Raynor and Moth have are homeless. They are fifty and the farmhouse they've built from a ruined shell which is also their business where they let the  barn to guests has been claimed by bailiffs. Oh, and Moth is not a well man in fact he has been told he has only two years to live.

They undertake their wild camping trek out of inspired desperation. They have to carry their tent, thesleeping bags which are light but flimsy and a minimal amount of belongings. They have £48 tax credit a week between the two of them in 2013 and often fill up on fudge bars and noodles. Raynor's hair becomes a 'birds nest'. Dampness from mist, rain and sweat, hunger, longing for a hot shower this is the everyday texture of life. They also learn that when they chat to strangers about their trip, if they say they are homeless a lot of people bolt.

On the good side sometimes they meet kindness and friendship and get given free stuff. And then, I guess, the sheer satisfaction of doing it. Sometimes the wilds are wonderful.

'..the seals continued to call, low and repetitive occasionally silenced by the sharp cry of an oystercatcher, I pulled the sleeping bag out and wrapped it around me as a glow began to shape the eastern headlands one by one until the moon was dimmed and the fog began to lift.The gull calls changed to daylight volume and lights came on in the farmhouse....'

Raynor Winn knows how to take the reader along with her. She's good at writing about the land and about the couple's varied human encounters. There's also a surprising amount of humour. Well worth reading.

 

 

 

 

Comments

That paragraph you quote near the end is wonderful. We've walked quite a lot of the Pembrokeshire coastal path, Llŷn penisnula, and the Glyndŵr Way inland in mid-Wales, but that paragraph makes me realise how much more I would get if actually out there at dawn, and all day long. Rhiannon

 

 

Now you've made me want to go walking in Wales!

interesting elsie. the book gets mentioned by Mariella Frostrup iin her colum because it resonantes with so many middle-age (middle-class couples) feeling middle-class angst and empty nest syndrome. 

 

Ouch! I'm middle-aged, assuming I shall live to 106 and I'm essentially middle-class. Empty nest and angst ridden, yes that too. CM you are stabbing me with your pen and my blood is spattering the keyboard.

The Salt Path has become a book club favourite and Raynor Winn gets asked to give loads of talks, maybe that backs up your views.

Still think you might enjoy reading it.smiley