E283｜No home. No money. No plan – just a backpack and a map. Raynor Winn on the story behind The Salt Path

Imagine standing at the threshold of your home, bailiffs hammering at the door, knowing that once you step outside you'll be homeless. On top of that, your husband has just been diagnosed with an incurable neurodegenerative disease. 

In one single moment, you’re forced to wave goodbye to a life you spent 20 years building while also losing hope for everything that might have come next. 

For Raynor Winn, it was in this moment of complete despair and panic, that an idea formed after she glanced down and saw a book among the packing boxes. It was about a man who had walked the South West Coast Path with his dog: 

"We could just fill a rucksack, follow a line on a map and just walk," Raynor thought.

So, with nothing but two rucksacks on their back, a tent, and the South West Coast Path as their compass, Raynor and her husband Moth began walking.

630 miles…

Navigating a path with an ascent equivalent to climbing Everest nearly four times.
It’s a story so extraordinary, Penguin snapped it up. And it’s since become a best-selling book and, more recently, a feature film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. 

Why you should tune in
We all have moments when life derails our plans, when everything feels broken and our dreams seem lost to time and circumstance. But as Raynor’s story shows us, sometimes, rock bottom isn’t the end. And a long-held dream can become a reality in the most unexpected of ways. 

Here’s what to listen out for:

[00:58] The childhood dream.

[05:07] When life becomes impossible to juggle.

[08:06] Building life on your own terms.

[10:21] "This is as bad as life can get."

[16:04] The moment everything changed: "We could just walk".

[19:58] From self-doubt to bestselling author.

[23:48] How material possessions can trap us.

Press play now! 

👉 And if you want to hear more from Raynor…

Don’t miss TechPixies x NOON’s screening of The Salt Path and our exclusive LIVE Q&A with her on 10 July at the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford. Grab your tickets here: TechPixies.com/saltpath

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