Thread 13: 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's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

The 12 Observer reports currently available online: The real Salt Path | The Observer

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?^

Threads 2-11: Links all in the OP of Thread 12

Thread 12: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5384574-thread-12-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse welcome. It would be helpful to read at least some of the Observer items above before posting. There are currently 12 interesting items on The Observer website and linked to above.

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 twelve 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 our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

Have the sales or thefts of fudge gone up recently?
Will Simon's head ever turn up?
Has the shed of doubt yet burst at the seams?
Will the old charabanc hold up as a tour bus for our hip new band The Drive-By Scolders?
And finally, how much salt can we possibly cram into a giant pinch?

Keep to the path. No saltiness. May the fudge be with you.

Sure, when one of them is ill and they absolutely have to. That's not what I mean. I mean proper rest days.

Probably didn't need them given how little distance they covered each day.

ETA - I think they rest more than they walk tbh. And there's a week or so at the end where they just live on a beach. Hardly the extreme physio cure they themselves believed to be responsible for Moth's improvement. It's nonsense.

going off on a bit of a tangent and sorry if this has been brought up in previous posts- hard to keep up- but it puzzles me, if Tim’s illness was as bad as they described, and if he was forced to give up his job due up his illness, TW would have been eligible for PIP (personal independence payment), ESA( employment support allowance) and SW would have been eligible for Carers Allowance. You do not need to have a permanent address to claim these benefits, you are allowed to use the address of a friend or relative and payments are made directly into your bank account. So why were they living on tax credits only? Of course, he would need a medical professional to validate his claim, and agree on the severity of his symptoms. This raises a lot of questions for me.

No sign of anything Salt Path related on tomorrow's frontpage 🤔

If Tim’s illness was as bad as they described, and if he was forced to give up his job due up his illness, TW would have been eligible for PIP (personal independence payment), ESA( employment support allowance) and SW would have been eligible for Carers Allowance.

Since he wasn’t given an exact diagnosis of CBD, I don’t think he was eligible for benefits. I could be wrong, but understanding is you need an exact diagnosis of the relevant illness or condition before getting the relevant benefits. The government were extremely strict in both 2013 and 2015 about benefit eligibility, so I think a lot of specific evidence would have been needed at that time to qualify for them.

As they published an article today, maybe there won’t be anything tomorrow. Not sure though.

ive been negotiating the benefits system for 25 years on behalf of my son who has a disability- it’s not necessary to have a formal diagnosis - some people don’t have a formal diagnosis for years- eligibility is based on support needs ( which would have to be verified by a health professional). From SWs description of TWs illness ( difficulty walking, needing help to get out of bed etc, confusion, memory problems etc, he would definitely been eligible for ESA/DLA, maybe at the lower rate, but if his symptoms were verified by his consultant he would have definitely got some financial help. If SW had to support him with tasks he found difficult etc she would have been eligible for carers allowance. It seems unlikely to me that Raymoth didn’t know this. Therefore I can only assume either : they lied about the money they were receiving each week or 2: Moths support needs were much lower ( or nonexistent) than SW is making out, so no health professional would verify a claim

Thanks for clarifying, Tealeaf!

I do find it mystifying that an educated couple who were in dire financial straits, apparently in part due to ill health, would not have looked into any financial help that they were entitled to. As I said previously, it’s not even necessary to have a permanent address, and they certainly knew how to research things on Google …doesn’t add up to me.

Photos of the location of Raymoth's flat in Polruan.

Thanks for that. Weirdly for me too Google doesn't work at all yet this is the top hit using Bing. It doesn't matter what combination of search terms I use Google doesn't have a single correct result.

Thanks I have found it now after RainyTuesday's steer to use Bing as my search engine. Bizarrely Google doesn't find the URL of the blog even when I explicitly search on that URL.

I had the same problem with the same solution. Maybe Google hates blogspot!?

Here is the link to Thread 14 (omg)

As per our wise drive-by scolder’s words, please fill this thread first.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5388981-thread-14-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film

AFAIK Google owns blogspot alias Blogger.

Oh! Then that’s just very weird.

I was getting so frustrated searching Google, I found another Dave and jo but they hadn't been to the UK, don't know what made me look on Bing

It's possible that this was planned, by both of them, years in advance. There are people like that around and the pre-meditated nature of their schemes and lies is amazing. I knew someone well who did this, albeit to conceal a more serious crime and gain emotionally.

One of the advantages they have is that others don't want to believe that such humans exist. Especially if they present well and have a veneer of respectability. Of course, TimMoth would not know the book would be a bestseller but hoped it would make money - both of them appear to not want to do the 9 to 5 and have a grandiose sense of their talents.

Referring to an earlier issue, I think TimMoth was wholly involved in this. Although he didn't commit the crime, he'd know there was suddenly money for the home and to give to the children etc.

Yes they would be eligible for those benefits and they'd get immediate emergency accommodation from the council or a charity. No need to live on £48 a week/month or whatever it was. Then they'd have a good case for permanent council housing - the neurologist/s come across as supportive and would almost certainly back up their application. The GP probably would too.

How come Timoth got tax credits anyway? Usually a top-up for workers.

Morning all. I was thinking about yesterday's CH story and why I found it really depressing. The Australian couple brought friendliness & positivity & openness to the walk - their blog is full of examples of connections they make with people along the way - & it seems SW either couldn't recognise that normal human way of relating, or deliberately turned it on its head. Imagine being that couple reading TSP and thinking "is that what she went away thinking after she met us?" You'd feel betrayed and it would take a chip out of your open and positive attitude to people. A small-scale version of what happened to Martin Hemmings.

I see them as both wholly equally involved/responsibile, and also now think it was planned, with a confidence they'd make some money from a book (like they'd tried before). But of course they couldn't have known what a jackpot it'd be.

It is very difficult to imagine anyone being so deceiving but exactly as you say, it's hard to imagine anyone having such low morals compared to a 'normal' person.

I suspect some sort of personality disorder is evident for these sorts of people.

This has been bugging me too. The only explanation I can think of is that they did have some money salted away somewhere that they wanted to stay hidden. If they applied for benefits they would have to declare it. The tax credits they talked about were, I suspect, the tax you get back if you are not working and not signing on. I received these at one stage when I was between jobs. I didn't even have to claim them, they just starting arriving one month, quite out of the blue.

ETA: all the above is assuming he actually does have a medical condition

I'm trying to work out the chronology of TSP and have been looking at the SW's annotated copy of Paddy Dillon's guide to the SWCP. It's interesting that the page is open at the Minack Theatre and the previous page seems to have a post card or Minack Theatre brochure protruding like a bookmark. So I wonder if the following chronology is feasible:

• Aug 8 - 15/16 Sept 2013. Raymoth walk 230 miles from Minehead to Land's End/Minack.
• Aug 17 they are taken by their son to Bristol
• 9 Aug 2014: - they recommence the walk from the Minack at Porthcurno and finish up at Polruan. There is a full moon on Aug 10 which matches the notes at Lamorna Cove and 10 Aug was one of the hottest days of 2014 in Cornwall
• 26 June 2015. Raymoth attend neurology clinic (in Liverpool)
• July - late August 2015: Raymoth walk from Fowey to Land's End and meet the Australians at the Fat Apple's Cafe on 8 Aug, reach Land's End 2 weeks later
• the section between Poole and Polruan is walked during 2016 but probably not in one go

The Paddy Dillon Guide to the SWCP in the photo replaces the one taken on the 2013 walk (weather beaten from being in the pocket of Moth's camo trousers). SW makes notes in the margin and has already conceived the notion of writing some sort of account of the walk. The CBD angle is added after the first diagnosis in June 2015.

Feel free to demolish the chronology above. I'm not sure what "Great Expectation" means as a margin comment at Minack. There was a performance of Great Expectations at the Minack from 8-12 Sept 2014, but this wouldn't fit the chronology above.

Interesting. (BTW you accidentally put the Bristol drive in Aug when it was Sept). It's plausible but I'm not so sure of the 2014 stint. Why re-do the Porthallow section in reverse in 2015?

What gets me is that Raymoth didn't think to mention to the Parsons that they'd already walked the path (or a bit part of it) before. Why claim (or mislead) to be doing it for the first time by omission of their 2013 and potential 2014 stints?

And why were they walking in the "wrong direction" having made such a fuss in Aug 2013 about all the guidebooks to the SWCP which start at Minehead and finish at Poole? Was it a sort of 'last hurrah' having had the CBD/CBS diagnosis in June or was it just the fact that this section is, apparently one of SW's favourite sections of the SWCP?

Sorry the chronology above should have read 17 Sept 2013 - lift to Bristol