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Original poster

The Salt path

25 replies

Juniper68 · 29/01/2022 15:08

I've just finished this and really enjoyed it. Dh had read it first. We're both avid hikers so that aspect appealed.

Their circumstances were very rough. I know they made mistakes but reading about how they overcame them was fascinating.
What I did struggle with was the fact so many people commented on them being old? Me and dh have done a few long distance walks and have seen all ages. Dh is in his 60s and I'm early 50s. Never has our age been mentioned.
So I do feel the story has been embroidered somewhat. The author doesn't look ancient

OP posts:
upinaballoon · 29/01/2022 21:54

I googled them and they look quite young in the pictures. Mind you, the pics might have been from years ago. I was a bit alarmed by the handfuls of Ibuprofen.

(I was tempted to write 'handsfull' but I checked in the Pocket Oxford and it says 'handfuls'.)

Original poster
Juniper68 · 29/01/2022 22:01

Oh I hadn't noticed about handfuls?

They aren't old. It's bizarre how people supposedly keep saying it?? Hmm

OP posts:
Twigletgirl27 · 29/01/2022 22:03

I've just finished reading The Wild Silence which is the follow up book. They do a hike in Iceland. Lots of the other hikers are in their 20s and think Moth and Ray (and Dave and Julie) are ancient! Another great read.

Twigletgirl27 · 29/01/2022 22:05

I think they're 50s? And if you're 20 that does seem pretty old I guess......I'm 55 and still feel young!!

DelurkingAJ · 29/01/2022 22:07

I was very cross about her attitude to avoiding paying for camping and justifying what was stealing because they were poor. And her utter lack of thought or even care as to how worried her family might be. Otherwise I really enjoyed it but those two things utterly soured my view of them.

lljkk · 29/01/2022 22:13

Moth looks old in every picture I've seen of him, his illness aged him.

The sequel is much more literary & reveals how frightened & overwhelmed they were more clearly. or maybe just how scared Ray was, Moth maybe took one day at a time.

In their 50s, They were supposed to be coasting up to retirement and looking forward to grandchildren, not worrying about where their next meal came from, not worrying that Ray would grow old alone.

I've been annoyed with Dervla Murphy's actions in her travellogues but not the choices Ray & Moth made.

upinaballoon · 29/01/2022 22:26

They took Ibuprofen, but maybe I exaggerate, and she only took a handful once!

Arbeity · 29/01/2022 22:36

@DelurkingAJ

I was very cross about her attitude to avoiding paying for camping and justifying what was stealing because they were poor. And her utter lack of thought or even care as to how worried her family might be. Otherwise I really enjoyed it but those two things utterly soured my view of them.
Oh yes, me too. And she had such a chip on her shoulder about other people who were better off than they were.
Original poster
Juniper68 · 29/01/2022 22:44

Dh is reading the follow up. He's enjoying it so far.

OP posts:
KedgeIsland · 01/02/2022 23:25

@lljkk

Moth looks old in every picture I've seen of him, his illness aged him.

The sequel is much more literary & reveals how frightened & overwhelmed they were more clearly. or maybe just how scared Ray was, Moth maybe took one day at a time.

In their 50s, They were supposed to be coasting up to retirement and looking forward to grandchildren, not worrying about where their next meal came from, not worrying that Ray would grow old alone.

I've been annoyed with Dervla Murphy's actions in her travellogues but not the choices Ray & Moth made.

What annoyed you in which Dervla Murphy books, @lljkk?
IntermittentParps · 02/02/2022 13:21

I also think they met a lot of younger hikers, through whose eyes they DID seem old.

Which, as Twigletgirl27 says, is brought out very explicitly in the follow-up.

lljkk · 02/02/2022 17:54

@KedgeIsland -- Ethiopia with a Mule. Highlands. She ends up eating what little food is around in tiny near-famine villages. I know she tried to eat tiny portions & to give them gifts in kind but those went quickly. Villagers wouldn't accept money since it had no value for them. she'd just fish up somewhere & cadge a meal & shelter.

She admits she should have carried more food with her and the dire food insecurity & poverty was shocking.

Incredibly beautiful place, though -- I'd love to go.

lljkk · 02/02/2022 17:56

I read about half of her Palestine book, too. I appreciate what she said about how it's impossible not to take sides & she explains things about Israel that I never understood as well, elsewhere. That book is simply too long -- self-indulgent, maybe.

Imyourvenus · 02/02/2022 19:47

I was thinking of reading this but kindle reviews weren't good

Freebus · 02/02/2022 19:54

I really enjoyed The Salt Path. I know most of the coastline they walked, some bits very well, which is why I liked it I think
I got the impression they mainly met young 20 somethings as fellow backpackers - hence the 'old' comments. Im sure there were loads of 50 somethings but they were probably on day trips.

Didn't bother me that they occasionally broke the rules, they were broke ( and mainly did wild camping)

Spookytooth · 03/02/2022 07:24

I read Dervla Murphy's book from Dublin to Delhi by bike about 40 years ago.
It was impressive but I remember at the time being annoyed at her admiration for the warlike but welcoming Afghanis - as I only realised afterwards that she did not mention the women.

tadpole39 · 03/02/2022 07:42

I found it quite stressful, they have young adult children, just starting university and have no money and disappear off with no means for contact. Having a dd in the first year of uni, the amount of support and financial support was huge, and the long holidays! Where did the kids go, and what did they feel about their father not being contactable and possibly dying without seeing them? Couldn’t get my head round how any of this was possible both from a parenting point of view and a financial one.

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 03/02/2022 07:53

They could’ve had a council property in Wales (they would’ve been eligible and a priority) but seemed like they felt like they were too good for council housing. Once I got over that I enjoyed it!

NannyR · 03/02/2022 08:05

I really enjoyed reading the salt path, it's inspired me to try walking some of the south west coastal path, at some point in the future.

I also really enjoy reading Dervla Murphys books, but I thought she was a bit too relaxed/neglectful(?) when she started travelling with her daughter Rachel - in the India book when they have just landed and Dervla is asleep with jet lag, she has no idea where her four year old is, "she was last seen going to lunch with two Indian friends she had just made".

InisnaBro · 03/02/2022 08:49

I’m a Dervla Murphy fan since my teens, @lljkk and @Spookytooth, but I find many of her earlier books profoundly problematic to reread as an adult.

Quite apart from what you say about leaching off the resources of people with none — it’s her choice to live temporarily in tough conditions with little food, but not her hosts’ — and a sometimes chilling ‘tough it out’ attitude to her young child (the bit that really strikes me as irresponsible is when she treks through the western Himalayas in winter with the six year old Rachel with very little food and makes a casual reference to Rachel ‘weighing about half what she did’ eight weeks earlier), she has such a blinkered first world attitude in some ways. Lots of bemoaning ‘progress’ and the development of areas because it runs counter to her first world tourist preference for pristine wilderness and people wearing traditional clothes etc. I mean, I get that development also brings new problems, but it’s pretty arrogant to want to prevent it because you think your preference for the picturesque wild (before you go back to your first world home) is more valid than the wishes of the people who actually live there all the time to be less grindingly poor.

And yes, she also seems particularly blinkered about her liking for some incredibly patriarchal societies, in which she’s viewed as an honorary (or actual) man.

IntermittentParps · 03/02/2022 08:49

@tadpole39

I found it quite stressful, they have young adult children, just starting university and have no money and disappear off with no means for contact. Having a dd in the first year of uni, the amount of support and financial support was huge, and the long holidays! Where did the kids go, and what did they feel about their father not being contactable and possibly dying without seeing them? Couldn’t get my head round how any of this was possible both from a parenting point of view and a financial one.
He wasn't going to die suddenly; his condition is longer-term than that. They do have contact, don't they? I seem to remember them talking to the children on the phone.

Personally I couldn't wait to go to uni so I didn't have to talk to my parents... Grin
Seriously though, they were young adults, one assumes/hopes quite capable, not tiny or helpless.

lljkk · 03/02/2022 09:16

I can't criticise Ray for taking off -- they were destitute & she was determined not to sponge off her adult kids. I understand the terror of being stuck inside 4 walls "waiting around to die", too.

InisnaBro · 03/02/2022 09:24

@lljkk

I can't criticise Ray for taking off -- they were destitute & she was determined not to sponge off her adult kids. I understand the terror of being stuck inside 4 walls "waiting around to die", too.
Yes, I think that’s the key — they were certainly not in a position to help their children financially, and wanted to avoid their children feeling the shoe should be on the other foot, that they should be helping their parents. I think there is a rather shame-faced reference at one point to having to ask their daughter to transfer them money for a train ticket or something, but they certainly talked to both children on the phone.
PersonIrresponsible · 07/02/2022 17:55

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dementedma · 07/02/2022 20:33

I enjoyed The Salt Path, but the sequel not so much

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