And ahead of us? The walk, only the walk.
The Salt Path charts the journey of Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, from the point at which they lose everything. A poor investment and a naïve trust in justice over legal process leads to them being forced from their home and their livelihood. In the same week Moth is diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) – a rare disease that causes brain cells to become damaged or die, and that may mean he only has a few years left to live. With nowhere to go, and nothing to do, no plan and no means to recover what was lost, the couple set off on the South West Coastal Path – a 630-mile long walk. If this is a meditation on the restorative process of placing one foot in front of the other, on the power of nature and the beautiful wild to bring us back to ourselves, it is in no way romanticised. Winn is frank about the challenges they faced: aching muscles and joints, screaming hips and backs, the constancy of damp clothes, of battling the elements – rain and scorching sun, being caught squatting in the open, tents pissed on, blisters and dislodged toenails, and worst of all – coveting pasties. Any conversation with strangers quickly turns on the word ‘homeless’ and they find themselves met with revulsion or fear as people quietly back away. On another occasion they’re called tramps and accused of being drunk; social prejudice and dismissive cruelty to the homeless is laid bare. There are plenty of acts of kindness too (some due to a case of mistaken identity), and Winn writes with a sense of humour, tinged with occasional despair at all she has lost and with the fear of grief yet to come. The walk has the effect of easing the passage to acceptance:
…perhaps we were all looking for something. Looking back, looking forward, or just looking for something that was missing. Drawn to the edge, a strip of wilderness where we could be free to let the answers come, or not, to find a way of accepting life, our life, whatever that was.
This is a deeply personal story – earthy and unflinching, and yet there is still wonder at the way things work out (including a tortoise prophecy) by simply walking our own path.
