The author and her husband Moth adjust to a largely sedentary life after walking the entire 630 mile length of the South West Coast Path in southwestern England. After being homeless and wandering, they are able to establish a grounding in a small town in Cornwall. The two find an apartment and Moth begins university courses.
The adjustment is not good for either. Moth suffers from a degenerative neurological disease that causes weakness and confusion. Oddly, the fact that he is no longer walking long outdoor distances is detrimental to his condition. Ray has an aversion to interactions with other people, and she runs to the hills, as it were, whenever she can.
Despite their issues, Raynor writes her first book (The Salt Path) and it is surprisingly a bestseller. They have a little more financial leverage, and then a farm owner picks them out as caretakers for his overworked and desolate piece of land. His vision is that of a working cider farm with a limited rewilding of the land, and Moth, fresh from his environmental studies, is up for the challenge.
Farm work doesn't break either of them. The exposure to nature and exertion improves Moth's health, much like their previous trek. The tasks of cleaning up the property and restoring the moldy farmhouse tests them both, but Ray is glad for the challenge, and the couple can see improvements to the land even after a few months of living there.
The two miss the natural wildness of the trails, and take on a week's hike with friends on the Laugavegur Trail in southern Iceland. They endure frigid weather, unsteady climbing, and unnerving river crossings. They also marvel at Iceland itself, an island on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which seems to be constantly remaking itself through tectonic activity, and are fascinated at the fragile toeholds that life has in such a volatile place.
The Wild Silence works as a sequel to The Salt Path, and I'd read the first to understand their story better. When starting this book, I didn't like it as much as the first one, but...the nature writing is wonderful, the author really draws you in to the areas they live in and visit, and there were many paragraphs and passages that I happily reread. I'd count this one as a winner. Enjoy the book for its immersion into the natural world and its (occasionally) snarky Britishness, which I liked.
(William Hicks, Information Services)
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