The Salt Path

Moth tells Raynor that he wants to be cremated when he dies, and he wants her ashes mixed with his when she passes, too. Raynor feels accepting. The hike leads to the Undercliff, where a natural disaster left a huge chasm. Since then, it has become a wild place. They are hiking at a good pace. They come to Branscombe, where a ship ran aground in 2007, dumping cargo that was stolen by locals. There is no clear sign of the incident. They cross paths with another badger, who seems oblivious to them.

The cliffs turn red and there are RV parks everywhere, making it hard to find a camping spot, so they set up camp on a golf course. They are disturbed by the strange movements of a man and hesitate to set up the tent, but after a while, they pitch it. They break camp early the next day, careful not to disturb the golf course grass. A man approaches them, and they say that they’ll leave after they eat breakfast. They discover that a landslide has occurred not far from their camping spot. They buy supplies, take a ferry across the river, and camp behind a nature reserve. They decide to take a train to get further down the trail, away from the overpopulated areas through which they are currently hiking.

Moth says that they should try to keep pace with Paddy Dillon to get the upcoming ferry crossings out of the way. They make good time, and Moth feels strong and clear-headed once again. They stop outside a pub and watch some others eat. They take another ferry and realize that they smell very bad, as the other passengers try to keep their distance. They decide to bathe in the sea and slow down their pace a little. They are both afraid that once the hike ends, Moth will grow ill again.

They spend their days making decisions about whether to take the ferry or save money and walk the long way around. They come to Plymouth and buy some provisions. They try to catch the last ferry, but when it arrives, the staff say that it can’t go anywhere because another ferry has misjudged the tide. Moth and Raynor realize that they will have to spend the night in the city. They meet an unhoused person under an overpass who asks them for money for food. They give him some food. They meet another unhoused man, Colin, who gives them advice about where to sleep. He tells them that he once “had it all” (253). Another unhoused man, Dean, comes by and starts harassing Colin, who gestures to the pair to leave. They sleep restlessly without putting up the tent. They run across Colin again, whose face is bruised, and give him a sandwich.

Back on the trail, they come across a series of shacks. A local man indicates that they were set up after World War II to house people who had lost their homes from bombings. Raynor reflects that society only addresses homelessness when it sees the plight of the people experiencing it as valid. In the morning, Raynor and Moth make love for the first time in a while, and Raynor realizes that Moth is her home. At another café, they come by a woman, Anna, who asks them their story. They tell her and are surprised when she doesn’t seem put off to hear that they are unhoused. She offers to let them rent a small apartment close to the path when Moth starts school. The apartment happens to be close to the path. They dance with the café owner.

On the beach, they see a man walking his tortoise on a leash. They recall the words of the blind man about perseverance early in their journey. They see a peregrine falcon and the same man they had run into the year before. Over the next few weeks, they will move into the apartment and Raynor will look for a job and start writing. Raynor realizes that being unhoused made her a “blank page” and gives her a choice to either “leave that page blank or to keep writing the story with hope” (270).