There is a philosopher on the path halfway through Minehead and Porlock Weir. His backpack between the ferns, his look at the sea, scarf on the head against the sun. A year ago, Ian Mulholland (54) was still behind the computer for whole days, while he finished his thesis on Wittgensteins Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. It was his daughter who thought he had to get his nose out of the books. And so he exchanged his laptop for a tent and a pair of mountain shoes. Mulholland will run the South West Coast Path for the next two months, today is his first day. 1,032.5 kilometers to go. He is not in a hurry. “I have been constantly overtaken in the last few hours – I am not in shape as other walkers. And my backpack is too heavy because of all the books I have with. Oh, it is about the journey, not about the goal, will we say.”
Under philosophers, the Tractatus A classic. “Wittgenstein wrote about the relationship between language and reality.” In that sense, it is striking that Mulholland walks here. Because if one long -distance path is in the spotlight because of the thin line between fact and fiction, it is the South West Coast Path. Or, as it has been known in recent years: the salt path.
Back to the beginning. For weeks the newspapers are full of the British writer Raynor Winn. In 2018 she wrote a global bestseller with The Salt Pathin which she tells how she and her husband Moth became homeless, and in Arren Moede, more than a thousand kilometers decided to walk along the coast of southwest England, from Minehead via Land’s End to Poole. Readers sympathized with all the misery: in good faith, borrowed money to a friend who then went bankrupt, lost house. In addition, Moth also appeared to have a rare, deadly brain disease. All true.
Or not? At the beginning of July, Sunday newspaper The Observer With a large part that would show that Winn, under her real name Sally Walker, would have darkened more than 60,000 British pounds in a previous life as an accountant. The loss of the house hung together that, says journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou. And did Moth really have corticobasal degeneration? The life expectancy at that diagnosis is normally around eight years old, while Moth has been living with it for eighteen years.
So far the controversy. Winn responded to her own website with a counterpart, in which she refutes the allegations as well as possible. But the doubt has been sown – the designation ‘true’ will now be taken with a pinch of salt. Only one main character is elevated above all doubt: the salt path itself. Nature never lies.
So on to Minehead, in the footsteps of the nine million hikers who run the South West Coast Path every year partly or in its entirety. What remains of the Trail Magic If you release the romance of the book?
-35 kilometersTaunton
Never travel in a hurry to Minehead on a Sunday evening. Then you beach in Taunton, with 35 kilometers to go. No bus, no train, only very expensive taxis – directly against the Zoutpad feeling. Winn and Moth also lifted if they couldn’t walk. So thumb up, smile as wide as possible for 45 minutes. Deep gratitude as locals Carl and Jo finally stop. No, they have never read the book, but they did see the film. “It was nice to recognize all the places,” says Carl. “The cinema was packed full.” They are not impressed by the fuss. “The coastal path is the coastal path.”
In the port of Minehead, regulars of the Old Ship Aground also respond to the news. “Even before the book and the film, there were already plenty of tourists,” says the bartender. “They really don’t just stay away.”
There is a crocheted version of Raynor Winn on a red letterbox, with a crocheted copy of The salt path: In Minehead she has not yet fallen off her pedestal.
Only an employee of the Beach Hotel says he is ‘deeply disappointed’ in Winn. “When reading I already thought: this is almost too impressive to be true. And it was.” Nevertheless, for visitors who have a copy of the book, she puts a stamp of a glans on the cover sheet without complaining – the logo of the South West Coast Path.
Photos Joel Redman
0 kilometersMinehead
Around Tienen it is rush hour at the starting point of the path. In addition to a cast -iron monument – two hands holding a map – Debbie and Neil Brooks make a selfie. From their hometown, near Southampton, the fifties walk a weekend along the coastal path. Neil was initially ‘quite stripped’ when he read the revelations about the writer. “Precisely because it is such a weathered story.” He frummes his leather cowboy hat. “They could have said it was fiction.” Debbie nods. “But we make a nice trip of it.”
Ringo Vanovertveldt and Elfriede Dosfel from Ronse, Belgium (twelve stages in front) are also disappointed in Winn. “It was not so bad that we were going to cancel our vacation, but the fairy -tale of the book is gone.” They have not seen the film. “It was not released in Belgium. Maybe we pass a cinema along the way.”
Ringo Vanovertveldt and Elfriede Dosfel: “The fairy -tale of the book is gone.”
Photo Joel Redman
2.9 kilometersNorth Hill
Was it Simon Carmiggelt who once said: “A writer lies the truth”? Whoever writes makes choices, leaving things away – even in a true story. Do I describe the yellow flowers along the Culver Cliff Woodland Walk, the tents of hikers or homeless people that are hidden here and there in the tall grass? Or do I immediately start the North Hill on the steep climb through a fairy -tale Varenbos? And what role does photographer Joel play? Do I honestly note how I am already out of breath while with his heavy camera around his neck, he is not bothered by anything?
There are unwritten agreements between writers and readers that differ per genre-even within non-fiction. A factual news item has different laws than an I story. Minding counts outside of fiction as a heavier offense than omitting, unless it concerns crucial information. And the latter is correct The salt path A point of discussion: how important was the eclipse of 60,000 pounds for the story?
It is about authenticity, Joel says as he photographs a butterfly. “People appreciate openness and transparency. If it turns out that someone is concealing such a big secret, it will shine on the rest. Take that Moth’s disease – he can be real, even though various doctors describe it as ‘unlikely’ because he is still alive. But now that the story no longer feels authentic, readers draw everything.”
In the meantime, Max Wilgenhof (26) from Alkmaar passes us by rapidly. He only heard about the fuss shortly before the departure of family. “I read the book and I would have liked it better if it was true, but in the end I am here for a walk.” He hopes to cover the entire path in 28 days, about 35 kilometers a day. “It’s about the performance to teach myself discipline.” He does sleep under a TARP, a lightweight tent without an inner tent. “Without eating my backpack weighs eight kilos, I really only have the minimum.”
Max Wilgenhof: “I would have found it more beautiful if it was true”
Anna Ender and Anouk van Heel.
Photos Joel Redman
5.1 kilometersBurgundy Chapel
The Dutch girlfriends Anna Ender (25) and Anouk van Alle (24) are less concerned about the weight of their backpack. They have a pot of peanut butter, a squeeze tube jam and at the flapjackery they smashed snacks this morning. At the top of the hill it is time for a picnic. The trees have given way to grassland and Brem, the sea rustles in the depth. They go hiking for seven days, 4,500 altimeters in total – “half a Everest”. Anouk knows the book and the film only by name. Anna mainly remembers the scene in which the sea flows into the tent. “Fortunately we don’t camp.”
Two English men drink beer on a bench. “Welcome to our open air pub. ” All that talk about The salt path they find exaggerated. “Do you prefer to worry about adders on the path.”
Tents at the Culver Cliff Woodland Walk, near North Hill.
Photo Joel Redman
6 kilometersGrexy Combe
Valleys. To rise. Valleys. To rise. The yellow of the Brem mixes with the purple of the heath. Groups walk in the distance. You are never alone on the salt path.
Yet it is an illusion to think that only this long -distance walking path has become more popular in recent years. On the world -famous pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela, the numbers of hikers doubled between 2014 and 2024. Santiago stands for Saint Jacob, one of the apostles of Jesus. Remains would be buried in the cathedral of the city. How many walkers would be disappointed if that story turned out?
Suddenly shoots Fargo Me to the inside, the film of the Coen Brothers about a man who triggers the kidnapping of his own wife. “This is a True Story,” says capital letters at the start of the film. Nothing true, Joel Coen said later. It didn’t seem to be a fan.
Steve Tornhill and Tracey Wade, who have been coming here for years, also believe that artistic freedom is allowed. Tracey neuriet the song Shallionfrom former take that members Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow: “Well There’s Three Versions of This Story / Mine and Yours / And Then the Truth. “
Steve Tornhill and Tracey Wade: “Well There’s Three Versions of this Story …”
Ian Mulholland: “If you ask a philosopher, there is no truth.”
Photos Joel Redman
7.5 kilometersHalfway through Minehead and Porlock Weir
“If you ask a philosopher, there is no truth,” says Ian Mulholland. He is mild to Raynor Winn. “People do that more often: first put someone on a pedestal to then …” – he gestures over the edge of the cliff – “… hard to push it off again.”
10 kilometersHurlstone Point
“Warning! Take the alternative route in strong wind,” says the sign. We still choose the steep descent to the pebble beach. A Hurlstone is freely translated a throwing stone. Who is without sin …
Photographers also lie the truth, I realize as a Joel looking for the most beautiful position. Even if there is no photoshop or filter involved, there is always the framing – an ugly fence or a dead tree that falls out of the picture in the photo.
Along the wall of Hadrian, on the border of England and Scotland, two men cut the famous Sycamore Gap Tree in 2023. A 150 year old maple, widely loved because of his photogenic appearance. This week the perpetrators were both sentenced to more than four years in prison. According to the judge, England is poorer a “symbol of unspoilt beauty.” Don’t get the emotional heritage of the British, whether it concerns a tree or a book.
11.5 kilometersBossington
The idyllic tea garden is closed. In The salt path Winnt describes how they are here during a Cream Tea – Tea with scones – are looked at with the neck as soon as they say they are homeless. Honesty does not always pay.
We are thirsty and end the tour prematurely in the supermarket, with an orange-calipo. That is the disadvantage of true stories: they rarely have a heroic end.
