Although my comments so far have focused only upon the 2015 medical letter and how it is misrepresented in TSP, my interest in this whole issue was sparked by the walking angle. I walk regularly, have completed a number of National Trails (normally walking 20+ miles a day) and I have walked many stretches of the Cornish section of the SWCP. All carrying a reasonably heavy pack. I am getting on a bit now and there are many more experienced walkers out there than me but, personally, I have complete admiration for anyone who has walked the whole of the SWCP in one go. I think it is a really tough challenge. I certainly couldn't do it. But I also believe that, in a general sense, walking is really good for physical and mental wellbeing.
So, I was intrigued to hear that someone with serious physical infirmity had walked the whole path and had felt positive health benefits from it (i.e. the general promotional message linked to TSP). To be honest, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand I was pleased to see the positive message about the benefits of walking. On the other I became increasingly dubious about this story, suspecting that either Moth could not have done the 630 miles or his condition was not as severe as claimed. For example, I hadn’t read the book but some posters on here rightly pointed out that the increased calorie intake required to sustain such a physical effort over a long period of time just did not chime with the description of the Walkers diet during the walk. From what they said, it didn’t seem right.
Having now read TSP the calorie intake issue does not sit so badly with me. This is because they don’t seem to be walking in the same sense that I understand it. If we just look at the first few days of the walk description in TSP, they set off from Minehead at 3.30pm. They then find a camping spot. They set off the next day at 11.30am. The following day’s walking starts at 11am. After that there is not so much detail. I know this is a bit obscure for non-walkers but the first question I asked was, what were they doing in and around the tent between 5.30am (sunrise) and 11.30am? Just sitting around can be very boring and (depending on the weather) can feel very chilly until you get moving. Furthermore, when they actually do get going they only seem to be walking around 5-6 miles a day. So, I began to feel that maybe the calorie question was not so serious because it seemed to me that what they describe is closer to camping than walking.
But this took me to the question of how much of the SWCP was actually walked and whether they walked it at all in 2013. Of course, we cannot know for sure but in a strange way the description in TSP of the early stages of the walk in 2013 does ring true to me. This is because it is possible that at the time what they really wanted to do was escape from the recent past, from their neighbours, from potential creditors etc. and the best way to do that was to go completely ‘off-grid’. Just go wild camping where no-one could find them. Possibly slowly making their way down to their son in Newquay while the dust settled. Going ‘off-grid’ would be rather like what, in a different way, they are currently doing. Who knows, maybe it was a strategy they had used previously.