A book about living or travelling somewhere wild, camping, settling somewhere new

I love 'Wild' by Cheryl Strayed - also a movie with Reece Witherspoon but the book is much better!

An Embarrassement of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof

Archipelago by Monique Roffey

I adored Driving over Lemons

@PeonyFlush72 have you read the other three books in the series (A Parrot in the Pepper Tree, The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society and Last Days of the Bus Club)? I loved them all and they really are comfort reading. I read the final one during the pandemic, when I was massively in need of something lovely, escapist, travel-related (as we couldn't) and comforting and it really hit the spot. Such lovely books!

And if you loved DOL, have you read Annie Hawes' Extra Virgin, Ripe for the Picking and Journey to the South? If not, do. They're in a similar vein, but about her buying a little rundown house in Liguria.

I also loved Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Three men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome is good fun. I'd also recommend Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I loved Dervla Murphy's Eight Feet in the Andes about exploring the Andes with her 9 year old daughter and a mule.

I really enjoyed this… https://www.summerfieldbooks.com/product/burn-a-story-of-fire-woods-and-healing-2/

I agree . I hated salt oath, they weee so annoying

In danger of making the South West Path sound like the M25…there is also The Electricity of Every Living Thing.

It’s by Katherine May, who wrote Wintering, about her decision to walk the SW coastal path while coming to terms with the fact she is being diagnosed as autistic as an adult. It’s very interesting digging into the “why” of walking and also a person who is introspective about understanding themselves better.

'500 Mile Walkies' and 'Boogie up the River' by Mark Wallington.

Man walks the South West coast path with his dreadful dog and then goes off in search of the source of the Thames, again with dreadful dog. Haven't read them for years, but they were both very very funny, soothing in their mundanity and really honest.

'Swimming with seals' by Victoria Whitworth - clever and full of reflection

In some ways it’s one of the most interesting things about the book — rather like reverse threads on here, or the ones where a poster is so enmeshed in their own view of a situation that you inevitably end up speculating about how the other person involved would describe the same events/dynamic.

I’ve found myself wondering whether her blaming, explicit or implicit, of everyone else comes down to the fact that Moth (whose decision to back his old friend’s business without reading the small print about liability is what lost them the farm, though presumably Raynor agreed) is diagnosed with an incurable degenerative illness the same week they lose the case, so she can’t blame him.

And she has to close off that possibility for the reader, too, hence the Christ-like depiction of Moth at the start, having just lost the farm, but still approaching the opposition’s barrister to shake hands and tell him he’s only doing his job.

And then that anger she can’t express to Moth, whose fault it is, gets directed at the employee in the council housing office (also just doing her job) or the consultant who gives him the diagnosis (also doing his job), or anyone walking the southwest coast path in a way she considers too ‘easy’ or too regimented etc etc.

I've had the Salt Path on my tbr pile for years but I'm scared I'll throw something.
She sounds like such a chancer.

I bloody hope Scully doesn't do the parody voice thing she did with Margaret Thatcher. I couldn't listen to it.

I've just started The Salt Path inspired by this thread. She's annoying me already. Just take some personal responsibility woman.

Homesick by Catrina Davies

Nowhere for very long by Briana Madia

The way home, and Moneyless man by Mark Boyle

'As I walked out one midsummer morning' by Laurie Lee. Lovely writing. He walks and busks his way across Spain

@LaPalmaLlama I totally agree re the Salt Path. I found her too 'holier than thou'. It put me off.

Paddle to the Amazon - Don Starkell

Horse Boy - true story based around a father taking his autistic son across Russia to meet the horse tribes as he realised his son had an affinity with horses.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson is great. Covers the Appalachian Trail, the opposite number to the PCT in Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Heard that Gillian Anderson is in the Salt Path adaptation- she's going to have to find her inner scruff!

There's always...

They I’ve just seen that a film adaptation is being made, with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs!

I reread on the back of this thread, thinking about this, and one of the things I noticed first time around was how ungracious she is about friends who actually help them. Jan, the friend who, at the start, has them sleeping on her floor for an unexpected fortnight after Moth is too ill to start the walk as planned, and who keeps their van for them and drives them to the starting point, is dismissed with ‘glad to be rid of her squatters’.

And Polly, who lets them stay on her farm for the winter in between their two stints on the path is depicted as a slave driver, expecting too much work from a seriously ill man, and as sneakily showing their converted shed to a potential paying tenant behind their backs. Yet she’s in the acknowledgements.

I can absolutely understand that, unexpectedly homeless, you would resent people who are suddenly your benefactors, but these people didn’t need to help, but they chose to.

@TheInfusionist I really like the look of books 2 and 3 on your list. Off to investigate!

Has anyone recommended My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell yet?
Excellent book and one of my favourite book titles too. He grows up on a Greek island and is fascinated by nature.

Beautiful descriptions of nature, a fascinating moment in history and brilliant depictions of a fairly eccentric family. Funny and relaxing too

Growing Goats and Girls by Rosanne Hodin

Miraculous Abundance: One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers, and Enough Food to Feed the World

A Wood of One's Own - Ruth Pavey

Went to London, Took the Dog - Nina Stibbe