Thread 11: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...
2nd Observer https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found
3rd Observer https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video
4th Observer ‘I felt I was being gaslit’ – the landlord who helped Ray...
Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn
Thread One www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
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husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
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New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the four Observer items above before posting. There are currently 10 items on The Observer website The real Salt Path | The Observer

To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. We have done amazingly well together for ten very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in a healthy and civil fashion is very welcome.

No saltiness. Keep to the path.

Does stolen fudge taste better?

Cheapest noodles in ASDA are 25p atm, so with COL they would have definitely been about 20p in supermarkets at the time, not sure about corner shops.

I’m not in the UK these days. Are 20p noodles readily available?

Not after Liz Truss’s mini-budget, that’s for sure 😂 But maybe they were readily available in 2013!

TSP recounts how a diagnosis of CBD is given. The only caveat is the Dr cannot be certain about that diagnosis until after death. But it is what the Dr believes and he makes a clear point, in RW's account, that "the best thing I can do for you Moth, is to give you a diagnosis." So I would say this very much presents clear diagnosis in terms of the act of diagnosing. I'm not a medical expert but my understanding is that diagnoses can always change when new signs and symptoms are presented, so a diagnosis is sometimes subject to change if it's a particularly difficult and unsual thing to diagnose. Indeed, if we look at TSP, RW wrote that Drs had initially been led to think TW had Parkinson's disease, but that was later ruled out.

@Sunstreaming
I'm starting to think the whole thing is a much bigger fraud than it appears. Less a case of they did most of it and retrofitted some events, more they did a bit of it and made up the rest.

Eating instant noodles makes good sense if you want cheap lightweight calories that you can eat when wild camping.
The health and environmental benefits of eating industrial quantatities of them are less compelling, particularly if you are a self proclaimed 'eco-warrior'.
The cheap brands are invariably fried in palm oil and harvested from plantations of former rainforest in areas of SE Asia such as Indonesia. Not great news if you are an orangutan in that part of the world!

I have sent you a PM @mauvishagain

From the Penguin TSP page:

"Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years is terminally ill,
the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

The Salt Path is an unflinchingly honest, inspiring and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways."

I couldn't sleep last night so spent some time working on the timeline!

It's now in three sections (posts) as it's now a six page document in Word! 😁🤪😬🙄😮

Yes, Simon Armitage makes an appearance...🧑

1. 1960 - 2013
2. 2013 - present
3. Links to all the references

I'll add a small bit about Sally's job history when I'm next at my laptop.

But RW didn’t write that. And I imagine the position of whoever did would be ‘Well, the author has signed a contract saying it’s true, and I didn’t have enough space on a blurb to say ‘possible diagnosis of something usually terminal but which can only be definitely diagnosed post-mortem’. ‘

One of the things that wasn't quite clear in the timeline was exactly when Rick Stein was at Hayes Farm for the first time. I've got late 2022 / early 2023, as the programme aired 14 Feb 23.

Can anyone narrow this down?

Bill Cole talks about it, and the Walkers leaving, but it's not fully clear exactly when it happened.

These aren't biomedical studies.
They are psychological ones, which is exactly my point.

When me and DH moved in together, I was initially unaware of the 53 packing cases of books that would accompany him. I also had books.

Who really needs a spare room, though?

Mind you this is as nothing compared to an old lecturer of mine where every room in his house was full of floor to ceiling piles of neatly stacked and well dusted academic tomes.

I'm not sure if this has been noticed or flagged before, so apologies if this is a repeat, but I was looking at the 2015 letter again and tallying it with the TSP timeline of medical info.

Something rather interesting came to light.

In TSP, RW wrote about the 2013 appointment with the consultant, mentioning that “endless trips to Drs waiting rooms had begun 6 years previously." Therefore, accordingly, TW first went to a GP in 2007.

Meanwhille, the 2015 letter states that "Mr Walker's symptoms began 9 or 10 years ago...it was not until 2009 that he [TW] attended the surgery for an assessment."

So first of all we have a pretty big inconsistency. But also note the similarity: Both specify that TW first saw a doctor 6 years before the diagnosis.

If RW was truthful about the 6 years fact, then this gives even more weight to the idea that the 2015 consultation was indeed the consultation.

@Catwith69lives

Eating instant noodles makes good sense if you want cheap lightweight calories that you can eat when wild camping.

I'm not even sure it does - of course dried food weighs less, but if you are wild camping and have to carry all the water you need, including that for cooking the noodles, you haven't won anything regarding weight. Or do they cook them in sea water? They never say.
Also cooking needs fuel, and they never seem to have to buy any. The only mention of them not having enough is about not being able to cook a rabbit or seeaweed at one point - can't you eat seaweed raw?

Fair enough. I think they just seemed so sure that noodles were always there and affordable, no matter how tight things got, whereas the little rural shop I’m currently reliant on for anything I didn’t bring with me definitely doesn’t stock them. Though I suppose that if little shops along the SWCP get a lot of LD walkers, that will impact on what they choose to stock?

But did have enough space to write: unflinchingly honest/inspiring/life-affirming/true/coming to terms with grief/ the healing power of the natural world.....etc.

The diagnosis is ever-present in the book - one of the main themes, like this:

Moth: "I don’t know about the longer term, don’t know if I’ve got a longer term, ........."

@NoCowardSoul

"But TSP carefully doesn’t make any medical claims. The legal team will have been all over it,"

If you mean Penguin Random House legal team, then wouldn't they have found the claims about the house repossession and challenged it?

They buy gas in one of the places, Penzance I think. Apparently it's the last can in an old hardware store having found none of the correct type in the outdoor shops.

Haye Farm’s Facebook page has a post from 2024 saying Rick Stein visited them ‘last year’, which suggests he went in 2023. That suggests he must have gone in Jan 2023, if the programme aired in Feb 2023.

Can't be, the leaves are on the trees and apples on the ground. Must have been 2022.

Its a dream of mine to have a massive shelved wall full of books. Don't know if it will ever happen though. Marie Kondo says you should get rid of them but I like to keep them all as they tell the story of my life. Apart from The Salt Path rubbish ones

The incessant noodles thing is odd. OK they're light, but there are cheap nutricious things that can be eaten from a can if you planned ahead not to have to carry them too far. Sardines, even cold baked beans or soup. Very cheap and actually containing some protein.

This is what moths are associated with apparently

@NoCowardSoul Though I suppose that if little shops along the SWCP get a lot of LD walkers, that will impact on what they choose to stock?

At least one of them, right near the path, is more like a dinner party dash. Tinned dolmades, for a start!

Yes, and they were passing through so many towns and villages that it was probably not very often they'd be more than a day's walk from reaching another shop.