Hello, I’m back, What’s next and a book everyone should read.
This audio is not a transcript of this post but a compliment to it. The images are mine and while they are not taken along the Southwest coast of the UK, I felt they reflected the mood of what is written here which discusses The Salt Path, by Raynor Winn. Do read on as this is a book everyone should know about.
An extract from the prologue.
“We ran back down the beach, the swash landing far above the shelf and rushing over the sand towards us.
Wait for the backwash then run to the other side of the channel and up the beach.
I was in awe. This man, who only two months earlier had struggled to put his coat on without help, was standing on a beach in his underpants holding an erected tent above his head and a rucksack on his back saying, run!
Run, run, run!
We splashed through the water with the tent held high and climbed desperately up the beach as the swash pushed at our heels and the backwash tried to push us out to sea. Stumbling through the soft sand, our boots brimming with soft water, we dropped the tent down at the foot of the cliff.”
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, Page two.
The beginning:
I can’t remember exactly when or where I first heard about this book, but it had been on my list as a ‘maybe’ read for quite some time because it clearly was about walking. After Christmas, with book vouchers in my hand, I decided to walk into our new local bookshop and it was there ready and waiting for me to buy.
I read the first 22 pages and stopped, saying to my husband you must read this. For the next week, it was read by him with a speed that astonished me, as much as this couple running to safety on the beach.
My husband, who had not read a book from cover to cover in over twenty years, sat and absorbed every page, like the water soaking into the South Coast sand. I knew then that this non-fiction story was very powerful, even before I properly got to read it myself, because of his reaction and the attention it received. He was transfixed, moved, sometimes nearly to tears, as he told me little snippets, not wanting to spoil the story for me. The couple in this novel embarked on an epic journey, walking the 630-mile Southwest Coastal Path.
So, what is so special about this book?
It can be summarised very simply. This is a tale of unbelievable resilience, determination and bravery in the face of the most extreme storms in life. A couple who had lost a legal business dispute, lost their farming business, their home and their life savings in the space of a week. And when you think circumstances couldn’t get any worse, the husband of the couple was diagnosed with a terminal neuro-degenerative illness.
There was nothing to lose because they had lost almost everything:
With £320 left and a barn rental, which meant they were eligible for £48 a week in tax credits, they bought and packed up in two rucksacks, a tent, two light sleeping bags and some essential provisions.
With limited space in mind, they also bought Paddy Dillion’s book ‘The Southwest Coast Path: from Minehead to South Haven Port,’ a small guidebook, with a waterproof cover and an Ordnance Survey Map.
Raynor describes the day they walked away from twenty years of family life, running from the huge chasm that had been left. All they knew was that they just had to walk, to try to process what had happened, to find themselves again, and all that mattered was that they should just start because what else was there to do?
Did they complete the journey?
Yes, they did but I won’t spoil the story for you, you should read it for yourself. They had to walk it the opposite way around from the guidebook because they started with the easiest section first due to the approaching Winter weather. So, they did have to pause and take a break, and what should have been a few weeks took them a year.
At the end of the book, Raynor writes:
“At last I understood what homelessness had done for me. It had taken every material thing I had and left me stripped bare, a blank page at the end of a partly written book. It had also given me a choice, either to leave that page blank or to keep writing the story with hope. I chose hope”
From part six Edgelanders chapter 21 Salted, page 272.
What does this book tell us?
Firstly, to never underestimate the power of walking, Moth (the man in this story) managed to defy all medical odds and walked the path coming out stronger on the other side. More than a decade later he is still alive and started a new career.
That with resilience, bravery, fortitude and courage you can face the most impossible of circumstances. As they walked, they faced hunger, cold, and immense challenges most of us couldn’t have coped with. As they faced the most gruelling conditions, problems,abuse and setbacks, I could feel my brain physically tighten with the pain of the stories’ grip and felt elated when they had a victory however small. It felt so real within the pages.
How did this book speak to me?
Once I had finished it, I thought, how could I ever complain about anything ever again. That my life and its struggles were nothing in comparison to what these two people faced. However bleak or dark your situation looks you have a choice to be the victim or the victor. And how crucially, out of the empty devastating loss, miracles and new things can grow as lives are reborn and shaped into something amazing.
It taught me about the enormous prejudices homeless people face as they were shunned, walked past and ignored as some people withdrew in fear thinking they were no more than criminals, alcoholics or drug addicts.
The amazing power of two people totally committed to each other and a love that endured everything.
What happened after?
We are now reading the sequel ‘The Wild Silence’. And there is one more ‘Landlines’ where they walked from the Scottish Coast back to Cornwall. What I can say without giving away too many details is that they now champion the plight of homelessness. Raynor writes about nature and wild camping and both participate in charity events to raise money for Corticobasal Degeneration, CBD.
What are we now going to do with our own Salt Path?
Having been so inspired by this story, we want to see this path ourselves. We have booked to go to Cornwall in June staying in St Austell, one location near the path. We won’t be wild camping or homeless and we will have more than £48 spending money for the week. In many ways, I think we will feel shallow that it is too easy for us to stand and stare, taking a short walk (as holidaymakers) given our health complaints.
But, I hope we will come away with the enormity of what they did, the respect and admiration, and maybe we can be a little less fearless ourselves in our own lives and be grateful for each and every day with what we do have. I hope so. I will update you once I have read all three and have been on this trip.
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn is published by Penguin Books, Random House UK, 2019 and is being released as a film this year- the Sunday Times best seller and Costa Book Awards, shortlist.
Finally, I hope the people who treated them badly watch this and see their own character starring back at them and will leave a sobering and humble thought.
Until next week….
