The Salt Path

Raynor and her husband, Moth, are destitute. Moth has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. They have lost everything; house, work, and income. They have nowhere to go.

So they decide to go for a walk; a very long walk; around the coastline of the West Country following the South Coastal Path. Raynor shares with us, in poetic detail, the minutiae of their struggle, both physical and emotional. As they battle with the force of nature’s elements, something starts to happen.

They begin to identify a way forward and Moth begins to feel stronger. This true story will inspire you.… show more.

I picked this memoir up in Glasgow’s International Airport, desperate for something to read on the long flight back to Denver. The title is what drew me. It, too, promised a road trip of a different sort: A walking-the-path story. I started reading while waiting for my flight and was immediately engaged.

Past middle-aged, homeless hikers, this Welsh couple, husband and wife, strikeout to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path from Somerset to Dorset. The husband has been recently diagnosed with an incurable disease. They have lost their home and farm, and they decide to set out walking. Because… show more.

I love The Salt Path because I connect with the struggle of the couple in their fifties walking day after day on the South West Coast Path, an English footpath, as my husband and I had just finished walking the Grande Randonnée (GR5) in Europe.

We walked as part of our adult gap year. They walked because they became homeless. Winn’s poetic writing brought me deep into their trials of homelessness, illness, and quest for what is ‘Home”. 

I was absorbed by the almost fairy tale story of people falling on bad luck, feeling they have nowhere to turn to, so set out on a journey, and it is the journey itself that saves them.

The act of walking, of being in nature, and of letting go of the known. I found it inspiring. I have done a few long walks myself, and reading the Salt Path felt I wanted to do more.

I also love this book because it speaks to slow tourism - exploring your own backyard.

Even if you haven't walked the South West Coast Path in England, if you love reading about nature, adventure, and true, inspiring journeys, you'll love this memoir.

The writing is excellent and the story is heartfelt and totally memorable. By the time you finish reading, you’ll feel like you’ve just walked the 630-mile path along with Raynor and her husband!

An actual travel book, i.e. a memoir of real life, though it becomes a 21st Century fairytale. Starting bankrupt and homeless, Raynor and her husband "Moth" walk the UK South-West Coast Path as a last resort: the story opens into a wealth of journeys, geographical, social, emotional, and with Moth, astoundingly physiological. And a travel book's ideal mix of geography, history, incidents, encounters, emotional and physical landscapes, are all conveyed through a single but effortlessly lyric writing style. 

This travel memoir is profoundly engaging. Before reading it, I had never thought of the archetypal Trail—that magnetic beacon of healthy recreation—as an actual home for those who couldn't afford a house or apartment. It is precisely Raynor and (husband) Moth's precarious economic situation that gives a cliff-hanging appeal to this tale of hiking the South West Coast trail through Somerset, Cornwall, and Devon. At quaint village stores, this couple doesn't just resupply with noodles, tea, and Marmite. They actually pick up their weekly dole check, which isn't always enough to keep them in Cadburys. On the Salt Path, British… show more.

In their 50s, Raynor and Moth Winn suddenly lost their Welsh farm, home, and livelihood. Simultaneously, they were given Moth’s fatal diagnosis of a rare degenerative disease. Deeply in love for 32 years, this unconventional couple faced the loss of everything they’d loved together, including Moth’s life. While Raynor and Moth chose to walk the 630-mile West Coast Path in the south of England, my husband of 37 years and I traveled England and Europe in search of a place that spoke to the poetic longings of our souls. When my husband’s health also disintegrated, I needed the same resilience… show more.