Ebook The Salt Path A Memoir Raynor Winn 9780143134114 Books

Product details Paperback 288 pages Publisher Penguin Books (March 5, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0143134116

The Salt Path A Memoir Raynor Winn 9780143134114 Books Reviews

• Ray Winn and her husband Moth have lived for thirty years on their farm in Wales. They've raised their children there, but a bad investment takes it all away from them. Then Moth is diagnosed with CBD, a neurological disease that will take away his facilities, both physical and mental, and eventually kill him. With nothing left to lose, the two decide to walk the South West Coast Path, a 630 mile track from Somerset around Cornwall's coast to end in Poole in Dorset.
  I walk trails in the UK myself though nothing of this magnitude. I tried wild camping (just finding a likely place and leaving no trace) on the Great Glen Way. I lasted one rainy, cold night and immediately mailed my camping gear back to the USA, opting for B&B's and hostels the rest of the way. I have some idea of what they went through walking day after day with heavy packs and all kinds of weather. But there are great rewards, and Ray details them in this lovely story. Surrounded by nature and away from everyday hassles allows one to really look inside one's self and see what you're made of. From the book
  "Things we thought we would never be able to bear were becoming less jagged, turned into round river stones by the movement of the path. It was still a heavy burden to carry, but just a little less painful to hold."
  She also writes poignantly about homelessness in the UK and what it means for thousands of people, mostly homeless through no fault of their own. Ray and Moth have little but they always seem to share what they can with others.
  One benefit of walking is the improvement in Moth's health despite the doctor's warnings. His condition is nonreversible, but on the trail, he learns to face his inevitable death and help Ray come to terms with the eventual loss of her loving husband.
  There are many funny moments and beautiful descriptions of the Cornish coast. This is a lovely book and well worth reading. As she and Moth say in the book
  “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.” “That’s a good plan.”
• The medieval peregrinos were often sent on the Caminos to Santiago as a penance for crime. If they managed to get through flooded rivers, rough ranges and the grip of various bandits and other interested parties, to actually reach the city, they were considered absolved. The travellers in this memoir are destitute, homeless, one diagnosed with a terminal nerve disease, in their fifties, and they take to the English South-West Coast path because they have literally nowhere else to go. A very 21st century dilemma, but with a most resolute and heartening response, and almost a fairytale in real life postscript to the actual book.
  In between, the writing is excellent, alive, subtle, unself-conscious, and Winn manages that most difficult of travel memoir mixes, a balance between the landscape, the encounters with others, the internal and personal journeys, and the building of the overall narrative arch. Not telling if they get to the end of the Path, or what happens or has happened when they do. This is a journey that readers should make for themselves. It's worth every page.
• I so enjoyed this book! Whenever I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to get back on the path with Ray and Moth. Ray's writing style is both understated and superb, especially in her descriptions of the coast and the water (I highlighted several amazing metaphors on my so I could find them again). The story itself is one of great emotional and physical hardship, but not without large doses of wry humor and the mundane enjoyment of the little things like at hot cup of tea or a day without rain. While putting one foot in front of the other for over 600 miles, Ray and Moth enter a Zen-like zone of living each day as it comes and appreciating the joy of being together in the moment. As the old saying goes, it's the journey, not the destination, and this book (and the reading of it) is a shining example of that. My best wishes to Ray and Moth, and my grateful thanks for sharing this incredible part of your lives with me.
• A very raw and enticing book. A journey, not just of the South West Path ,which is incredible in itself, but of a couple cheated out of their house, their home and everything that means.....to be stripped of the security we all consider the basic necessity in our lives. They show us how they overcame great hardships with their love and their belief for each other. A wonderful and beautiful story told. A must to read..for all ages.