The Salt Path: A Memoir Paperback – March 5, 2019

This memoir snuck up on me. It’s not flashy or dramatic in the way some personal stories are, but that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. The author and her husband lose everything—home, livelihood, health—and rather than fall apart, they set out to walk the entire South West Coast Path of England, living out of their packs.What unfolds is part travelogue, part love story, part reflection on grief, aging, and the wildness of nature. The writing is lyrical without being flowery, and there’s a raw honesty to it that feels both grounding and uplifting. It’s not just about walking the coast—it’s about survival, reinvention, and learning to find beauty and freedom even in loss.If you’ve ever felt untethered, or wondered what it would be like to walk away from everything, this book will stay with you. A quiet triumph of resilience.

I considered putting this book down several times but I typically finish a book if reading for a book club. Then I slowly noticed hidden gems of wisdom and beautiful writing that I didn’t notice at the beginning, it is worth it

I got this on Audible. It's read by the author, charming accent and all, and is, at times, melancholy in tone, but a very lovely and heartfelt tale of two people who are faced with one of the worst dilemmas possible, that of becoming homeless at the very worst of times, and all too familiar in our time. I liked it so well that I bought the sequel, The Wild Silence.

I bought this book in 2021, but only picked it up a couple of days ago to finally read. Part of me is sorry it took me so long to begin reading it, the other part of me is glad that I waited so I can enjoy it now. I love these kinds of books, but there is something about this one that tugs at my heartstrings. Raynor Winn’s writing flows along easily, making the book very readable— some of it sad, some of it maddening, and some of it funnier than heck. While I was reading, I would look on line for some of the places she describes and view photographs. It helped me to better picture their adventure in my head. I even looked up Robert Stephen Hawker and read about that eccentric man. I have bought the sequels to this book and I am excited to read them as well. I cannot recommend this book more enthusiastically!

Allow me to state for the record that what Winn and her husband went through that led them to the path was horrible. There, now for my honest thoughts on the book. It reads like a journal she kept for herself. Hear me out: so much beautiful landscape to detail but I feel her descriptions lacked the details to actually paint the vibrancy of the places they traveled. She nailed the descriptions of hunger and uncleanliness so well but I would have liked to see a similar passion for the places and the long hours spent in the monotony of walking. I hate to say it, I also feel like the booked lacked soul. She touches on feelings, mortality, death, loneliness but I feel like she never truly overturned the stone and became vulnerable to us. SPOILR ALERT: I read to the end to find out Moth’s fate, Winn alluded to in a single line but never a concrete closure. I get the illness was terminal, but what more transpired in between the Path and his ultimate end? How did Winn cope? Or, how is she coping? Moth was such a pivotal person and I was drawn to him. I wanted to feel the pain of reading he had passed or perhaps the joy of knowing he was still giving hell to the trails. Either way, you’ll read the book or you won’t. Perhaps you’ll love it. But now you’ve got my two cents.

I enjoyed the Salt Path, once I got over some of the much less than ideal decision making Ray and Moth Winn make in their lives and on their journey.This is the story of two solidly middle-class Britons who become homeless after losing their farm and Inn business. Moth, Ray's husband, has just learned he is terminally ill with cancer. Litterly huddled under their stairs as the foreclosure agents are at the door, the couple decides to walk and camp England's 600 plus miles of trail known as the South West Coast Path.This is a love story, a story of overcoming adversity, a story of creating a goal and pursuing it and of simple survival. With second hand gear, often not enough food and the strains and blisters that accompany fifty-somethings (one of them terminally ill) undertaking unaccostumed physical exertions, the Winns set out to best themselves and put their situation behind them - one foot at a time.I have to agree with many of the reviewers who underscored bad decision making that brought the Winns to their financial collapse and made harder their outdoor sojourn through south western England. Even accepting that their bad business acumen and inconceivably incompetent interactions with the court system, they do make decisions (or fail to make decisions) that leave the reader wondering, "why didn't you cancel your auto billing," "why don't you just buy some sun screen for your blistered nose (or a hat)," "why buy fudge when you are out of food?"It is a book that my wife and I both enjoyed for the loving relationship of the hikers and their toils and travails along the Salt Path.

Wonderful story. It hit all the right notes.

Such a great book! Highly recommend it.