‘Who knows where we’d be now if we hadn’t walked that path’
The Salt Path was a gripping domestic disaster story turned celebration of survival which shone light on the life-changing power of our longest trail.
IT WAS PURE chance that Raynor Winn and husband Moth came to walk the South West Coast Path. “It just happened to be the book my eyes fell on as we were evicted from the house,” she says of the first of several rockbottom moments that propel the story. “500-mile Walkies, about a man and his dog walking the South West Coast Path. And in that moment, it seemed to be the most logical thing to do – to walk a trail, follow a line on a map. Because we were lost.”
Moth’s subsequent diagnosis with a degenerative brain disease provided the impetus for Raynor to write the book, intended initially for an audience of one. “The illness means eventually he’s going to lose his memory, and I wanted to have the story to put in front of him and say, look at this, remember what we did – keep trying.” And what a story it was – inspiring readers not just with the couple’s resilience, but the redemptive power of walking this gigantic, purgative coastline. Along with its sequel The Wild Silence it has proved an enduring comfort to many, and was a lockdown bestseller.
“We’d never even been to Cornwall – we didn’t know the south-west at all” says Raynor eight years on. “We thought it was going to be a walk along the beach!”
But the walk’s length, challenge and unexpectedness were just what the couple needed to come to terms with what had happened. “The constant presence of the sea was enormous – and being at the very edge of the world puts us in a place where we can be very open and reflective. Everyday life on one side, and then that endless, empty horizon on the other. It can feel like your stresses are literally behind you. It changed us – the way we felt, the way we thought.”
When it comes to walking the coast path, they never rush things: Raynor says there’s just too much to savour. “It’s such a long trail and so varied. Some days we walked 10 miles, sometimes two. There are incredible cliffs on Exmoor where you walk around a headland and it feels like you’re flying with the gulls you’re so exposed. Then on the other hand you’ve got a place like Fleetwith lagoon on the back of Chesil Beach, a place of absolute complete stillness and calm. Or just past Land’s End the most incredible blocky granite cliffs where the weather just comes pounding in. I think the thing that sums it up is just a huge sense of freedom.”
Raynor says just as for the rest of the nation, walking has been vital for the couple’s health and happiness during the pandemic, and credits it with dramatically slowing the progress of Moth’s condition. “He’s not as good as he was when we finished the walk, but he’s still in far better health
than he was told he should be. If we’d never have done the SWCP we’d have never discovered the benefit walking could do for his health. Who knows where we’d be now if we hadn’t walked that path.”
So attached to the coast did the couple become, they settled there, and now occupy an old cider farm in a small valley not far from Fowey. They still walk as much as they can – “subject to Moth’s health and my knees” – and in fact are about to embark on their next big British walking adventure, set to feature in a third book, out in 2022. Details are under close wraps but Raynor says her rucksacks are packed, and she’s very excited. “We’re leaving soon and by the time we get back, given the pace we go, let’s just say the apples might be ready for picking.”
You might bump into them – if not on the coast path, then who knows where. It’ll be a nice experience. “People are so nice. I do get recognised now and then, but it’s always lovely, because they want to tell me about their stories, or the weather, or where they’ve been on the path and that’s great. In a way by writing the books I feel I’ve made a very large group of friends, and we’ve all made the same discovery – that walking helps you not to worry about the future, or things you can’t change in the past, and just live in the moment.”