The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

I was in Courtenay, BC, halfway up the eastern edge of Vancouver Island, browsing travel lit at the Laughing Oyster Book Shop when Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path caught my eye. There’s a distinct look and feel to the genre amongst publishers – compact trade paperback with an agreeably textured cover in muted outdoor colours – mossy green and seaside aqua. This, combined with the book having received a couple of literary prizes, made me want to give it a go. As I waited in line by the cash register, I read the back cover blurb:

“Just days after Raynor Winn learned that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, was terminally ill, they lost their home and livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they impulsively decided to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall. Living wild and free, at the mercy of sea and sky; they discovered a new, liberating existence – but what would they find at the journey’s end?”

Despite a seemingly grim premise for trekking the UK coast, I had to smile. This is a part of the world that I love and know well. I’ve scrambled along much of that coastal path for my Gone Viking expeditions and was certain I’d found a kindred spirit. But first I had to set aside a nagging inclination to judge. Unavoidable bad luck aside (fire, flood, and other disasters) I tend to doubt individuals lose everything through no fault of their own. In my experience, it results from an accumulation of poor decisions and personal denial. Harsh, perhaps, but this is what I’ve seen. Many times.

However, I felt this was a great opportunity to look beyond a self-serving back story and simply enjoy the adventure as it presented itself on the page. Which is what I did, finding Winn to be a skilled and competent author with a good eye for detail and social interactions. She captures the natural world well and relays it in an agreeable manner. And despite an understandably myopic view of the situation in which the protagonists find themselves, the author consistently finds glimmers of promise, resulting in reassuring optimism and a satisfyingly sanguine conclusion.

Since travelling the South West Coastal Path, Raynor Winn has become a regular long-distance walker and writes about nature, homelessness and wild camping. Her first book, The Salt Path, was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Biography Award. In The Wild Silence, Raynor explores readjusting to life after homelessness. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Moth.

Title: The Salt Path
Author: Raynor Winn
Publisher: Penguin Books, 2019
ISBN: 9781405937184
Pages: 275 pp

Bill Arnott

Website

Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of A Season on Vancouver Island, theGone Viking travelogues, andA Perfect Day for a Walk: The History, Cultures, and Communities of Vancouver, on Foot(Arsenal Pulp Press, Fall 2024). Recipient of a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society for his expeditions, Bill’s a frequent presenter and contributor to magazines, universities, podcasts, TV and radio. When not trekking with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, where he lives near the sea on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land.