THE SALT PATH

As we all have had some experience of taking stock of our lives, especially in darker days of the pandemic, a missed opportunity choice for you and your club should include 'The Salt Path'. This is a couple’s true tale of survival when they unexpectedly find themselves homeless and penniless in their fifties. It is a unique story of change, hope and fresh beginnings.

Following a bad business investment, Ray and Moth (it does take a while to get used to his name!) lose their beautiful farm in Wales. Moth is also diagnosed with a terminal degenerative disease and is for the most part in excruciating pain. With everything lost, they make the remarkable decision to walk the 630 mile South West Coastal Path. 

Living wild, they endure the heat, storms, hunger, all set against the stunning backdrop of this unique coastline, much of which will be familiar to many of us. The book is honestly written as Ray has time to contemplate, reflect and reassess their lives. Living on a diet of noodles, pasties, fudge and making a cup of tea in a pub last all evening, they encounter both hostility and random acts of kindness along the way. More importantly, through the healing power of nature they enjoy a renewed strength of love for each other.

This book did divide the Den. Whilst some of us saw it as a remarkable achievement of survival against the odds, others were frustrated by some of their actions and questioned how such a grounded couple would have ended up homeless, without any support from family or friends and how their choices resulted in their misfortune of circumstance. 

Shortlisted for both the 2018 Costa Award and The Wainwright Book Prize.  The story continues in Raynor Winn’s second book 'The Wild Silence' out now.