Facing Fears And Finding Resilience In Midlife: Long-Distance Walking With Zoe Langley-Wathen

Jo: Hello Travellers, I’m Jo Frances Penn, and today I’m here with Zoe Langley-Wathen. Welcome, Zoe.

Zoe: Hi Jo, thank you for having me.

Jo: It’s great to have you on the show. Zoe is the author of 630 Miles Braver: Mid-life-ing on the South West Coast Path. She’s also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an award-winning teacher, and host of the HeadRightOut podcast.

Where is the South West Coast Path, how long is it, and why did you decide to walk it for a significant birthday?

Zoe: Thank you for having me on.

The clue is in the title, 630 Miles Braver. The path is 630 miles long, or 1,014 kilometres. It starts at Minehead on the south-west tip of England and travels all the way down to the toe of Cornwall, where you’ll find Land’s End. It then continues along the coast of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset, finishing at Poole Harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world. For people who need to locate it geographically, Minehead is about 60 miles or an hour and three-quarters south-west of Bristol.

As for why I did it, it was to mark a rite of passage into midlife. Around 2010, I had a moment of what felt like divine intervention in a bookshop in Wells, Somerset. I walked in and there was a book on a shelf, and I swear there was a shaft of light shining on it: the South West Coast Path Handbook.

I had been searching for a path for a long time to mark this rite of passage. I’d considered Kilimanjaro or the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but none of them resonated. This one just clicked, because I had wanted to do it for about 15 years but never thought myself capable. I thought only gritty, athletic, strong people did the South West Coast Path, not me. I just didn’t think I was enough in any capacity.

Suddenly, it was like a lightbulb had been switched on. I grabbed the book, paid for it, and thought, ‘Right, I’m going to do this. I don’t know how, but I’ll figure it out.’ And I did sort out figure it out along the way.

Jo: You said you were ‘searching for a path for a long time,’ which is a really interesting phrase. You’d considered more iconic places, but felt a sense of calling to this one.  I feel like I had that for the Camino de Santiago for a really long time.

What do you think it is in us as humans that makes us search for a path?

Zoe: That’s an interesting question. I’m not sure it’s necessarily a path that is calling us, but rather a need to make sense of our lives. Turning 40 or 50 is a pivot point in our lives where we might need to re-identify with ourselves.

For a long time, I had been ‘mum’ and ‘teacher,’ completely immersed in work. For me, it was about challenging myself to do something I didn’t think I was capable of something out of the ordinary.

I also wanted to fundraise to make it serve a purpose. But really, whether I was conscious of it or not, I was searching for another side of myself—a stronger version of me.

Jo: It seems at midlife we often want to make a change. With a long walk that takes weeks, you have to plan for a literal pivot in your life, like taking a whole summer off. Is the scale of that commitment part of the appeal? It takes, what a month, to six weeks to walk it? 

Zoe: It took me 48 days to do it.  I knew I was going to be scared ’cause I was scared. I was definitely fearful.

By announcing it at the school where I was working, to friends and family, and even in assemblies, I created accountability. There was no backing out.

I knew it was a challenge that felt out of reach, and I think that’s what I was looking for. Taking a week off work feels less momentous than a challenge that is going to take six or seven weeks, and doing it solo. I discovered I was carrying a lot of fears in my rucksack that I perhaps didn’t realise I had.

These paths have a way of exposing all sorts of hangups and interesting thoughts, but they also help you sort things out.

It can be problems or creative ideas; it was certainly magical for that.

Jo: You can deny your problems and escape yourself for a week, but not for six or seven weeks, and all the challenges along the way.

Let’s circle back to challenge. Let’s start with what were some of the most beautiful and memorable sections, and I guess we should say that as we record this in 2025, the film version of The Salt Path is out, which is set along the same coastal path and the book by Raynor Winn. You can certainly see some of these amazing sections.

What were some of the most beautiful and memorable sections for you?

Zoe: There are so many on the South West Coast Path, it’s really hard to choose. But I lived in Dorset for 30 years, so I have to say the Jurassic Coast, which is about 96 miles from Exmouth to Poole, is absolutely beautiful.

[I walked part of this from Lyme Regis to Seaton.]

The geology, the stunning scenery, the rollercoaster paths… they challenge you to your core, but they are absolutely, exquisitely beautiful. It’s hard to believe that nature has produced something so fabulous.

I also really connected with the ruggedness of North Devon and Cornwall, particularly around Bude in North Cornwall and Zennor, which is down towards Land’s End.

The quaintness of the cottages, the interest of the architecture, the churches… there’s a church on a beach, the Church of St. Winwaloe at Gunwalloe, also known as the Church of the Cove. That absolutely blew me away because it’s so tucked away in the most remote place.  I love architecture, but I love nature as well.

One more place that blew me away was the Minack Theatre, which is near Porthcurno. It was built by a lady named Rowena Cade and her gardener, starting in the 1930s. She worked on it for about 50 years until she died in the 1980s. I should say that I don’t like heights, and climbing down the narrow, steep steps carrying a full pack scared me, but it still wowed me. It left me in awe how somebody could dedicate their whole life to something that is now such an iconic feature of the Cornish landscape.  Anyone performing there is performing with the backdrop of the sea behind them.

Jo: Just to be clear, everyone, it’s on the coast at the edge of the coast, right? So you’re looking out to sea.

Obviously it’s called the Coast Path, are you within sight of the sea the entire time?

Zoe: I’d like to say yes, but no. I mean, mostly you are. Mostly, so wherever possible they try and keep the path as close to the sea as they can. But obviously for erosion reasons, that’s not always possible and safety reasons. Sometimes they have to reroute you inland.

So yeah, there are moments – well, I say moments, miles – there will be miles through woodland and estates where it takes you into kind of very leafy green areas where you do not see the sea maybe for a whole day.

But generally you do see the sea. And to be honest, if you don’t see the sea. Sometimes you are – well, generally you’re going to find things that are of great interest anyway. So whether it’s plants, whether it’s wildlife, buildings.

One of those stretches, there was another church actually, within the first couple of days, a little church called Culbone and it’s in a valley. You just wander down into the dip through the woods. Lots of little holloways and brick built bridges from the Victorian times.

But then you get down to this church and it’s a tiny church and I think it housed a leper colony many, many years ago. But it’s just very olde worlde. You would love it, Jo. The tombs and the gravestones that are covered in all the lichens and the mosses. It paints a very antiquated picture and it is beautiful. Just a nice energy there.

Jo: For people who don’t really know England, there are some stereotypes, obviously. I guess the weather would be one thing, but also perhaps people think, ‘oh, it’s all quaint,’ so what are the more stormy aspects or the bits where it’s just like, okay, this is actually wild? Because some of that coast was famous for pirates and rocks.

It’s not a gentle coastline really, is it? It can be quite violent with weather and waves.

Zoe: Very far from it. Violent, brutal, challenging. Steep steps are built generally by volunteers, so very often they might not be of a standard height, so do be prepared for some steps to be even thigh height. So it is almost like climbing up them. That’s where walking poles come in handy.

I found that having a pair of walking poles meant that I could lean on something. It takes the pressure off your knees. They say it takes up to 25% of the strain off your knees, but particularly useful when you’re going down steps like that.

A lot of cliff paths that maybe have eroded, not to the point where they’re collapsing into the sea, but say for example, steps, again, if they have eroded away, you might end up with a slope that you have to descend that in wet weather would be quite sticky and actually quite nice to get down. But in dry weather, that creates a sort of gravelly slip. So, yeah, be careful of that.

Cows – there’s a lot of people who might not like cows and you will come up against cows from time to time.

But yeah, bad weather. My goodness. I mean, I had shocking weather in Cornwall and upon High Cliff, which is the highest point of the Southwest Coast Path. And I didn’t heed the advice of locals. I would say always take the advice of locals, but I didn’t on that day and I ended up hunkering down on the top of High Cliff thinking, what the hell have I got myself into?

I just had my hood up and poles dug into the hill and just wanting to be transported, teleported off the hill. I did actually spot some locals and asked if I could walk back down with them because the wind was buffeting me at 40, at least 40, if not 50 miles an hour. It was so strong and it just didn’t feel safe to be up there at that point. So, yes, do keep an eye on the weather reports as well, and ask locals for knowledge if you’re unsure.

Jo: I think that’s really important because some of the amazing sections in lovely weather are all wonderful. And then, like you say, over six weeks, seven weeks, there’s always going to be issues with the weather. I mean, this is England.

Zoe: It can’t be helped. And actually that creates a whole new experience for you as well, and one that –

People get grumpy about the rain, but actually when you are already out in it, you just accept it and it helps you to build more resilience —

and just think, well, actually, I know it’s a cliche, but they say there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear.

And so if you’re wearing the right gear, actually you can get through it. And you generally find there’s trail angels out there. There’s people who are so kind and if they see that you are a drowned rat will very often take you in and say, come on, come and have a cup of tea, dry off for a bit.

It’s quite interesting how many times that happened. Or you just go and hole up in a cafe because actually you are never that far away. It’s not like you are in such a remote place that you are never too far away from civilisation. So there are cafes, there are shops, there are people pretty much most days.

You’ll just have quite a few miles in between where you don’t see people, which is nice. I like that solitude too.

Jo: That’s a really good point, is that this is not a wilderness walk. So even though it’s a long walk, it’s certainly not away from civilisation in any way. And there are pros and cons with that. As you say, you can get a coffee or an ice cream or something, but what are there sections? Because this happened to me on the Camino, it was like, oh my goodness. The industry here is a little much like this is a bit much, and sometimes Devon, Cornwall, these places can be pretty touristy.

Any places where you’re like, grab an ice cream and move on as fast as possible because they’re a bit too touristy?

Zoe: Most of the big towns, to be honest, the big seaside towns, I felt like that. Torquay for example, I mean, Torquay in my head, I had this romantic memory of how wonderful it was because we used to holiday there when I was a child and I was really looking forward to walking through Torquay again.

But actually when I got there, it was a bit – sorry to any listeners who are from Torquay – but it just felt a bit sad and unloved and even though it was summer, and I don’t think we even grabbed an ice cream there. We just plowed on through there.

There was another place, I forget the name of it now, but probably North Cornwall and there’s a beach where people can park on the beach if they want to. And it looked really lovely coming down from the cliffs into the town. But as we walked through. I say we, because I think I was walking with somebody that day, but as we were walking through, I felt like an alien. I felt like we were being stared at because, carrying this big rucksack and I wasn’t dressed in the usual kind of flip-flops and shorts and bikini top that everybody else was wearing.

And so, yeah, that didn’t feel so welcoming. But then the majority of places, I have to say, the majority of places did. But yeah, just be prepared to move on through the bigger places and make yourself feel comfortable in the more natural landscape. That’s definitely my tip.

Jo: Coming back to some of the challenges, so you’ve mentioned fear and obviously the title of the book has braver in it, so you’re tackling some of these fears. But one of the big ones is of course going solo. So I’ve done solo walking, but I have not solo wild camped, which I know was a big challenge for you and something that you wanted to face, but it’s not necessary, so people listening, it’s not necessary to wild camp on the Southwest Coast Path. There are places you can stay or go in groups obviously, but —

In terms of some of the challenges that you faced and being a woman walking solo, tell us about that.

Zoe: So the very first fear that I had was walking on my own. And I talk about this when I go and do talks with groups because particularly guys, they don’t realize that as a woman growing up, we’ve always had somebody to walk with because you don’t let children go and walk on their own, particularly girls.

When I was a teenager, I always had friends with me. In my twenties I had a partner or a husband. Then late twenties, thirties, I had a child. So I always had somebody with me when I was walking and I felt almost ashamed to say that I had got to 40, and apart from going to the shops on my own, or maybe going round the park – I don’t even think I’d probably done that. I don’t think I had ever actively chosen to go on a walk on my own.

So in itself, that is quite a big thing for a lot of women feeling uncomfortable. I’ve spoken to women about this. They’ve said to me, I can’t do it. I feel uncomfortable. I feel naked. I feel like people will be watching me. And so that’s a real big thing that I now try and promote to try and shelve, to try and put it to one side and just gain some of that power back, to go and enjoy the outdoors on your own.

So there was that, there was obviously wild camping on my own. Camping was a little bit of an issue, but I felt okay once I was in a campsite and I was surrounded by other people, but it took me 35 days to actually pluck up the courage to wild camp on my own. And I think by then it was almost needs must. I haven’t got a choice. I was just plunked in that situation, I couldn’t go any further and I ended up pitching myself between a five bar gate and a kissing gate next to a footpath. In fact, that is the front cover of the book.

So I am just squeezed in there like a tent sandwich, but again, I think I felt comfortable because I was surrounded by a boundary. I think it was that safety of the boundary. But once I had done it, oh my goodness.

If I could just say about this experience I had that night. I felt very nervous about camping out there on my own for the first time, but I was woken in the night by that telltale tingle of needing the toilet in the middle of the night, which happens to most of us. Particularly, you know, 50 plus. But anyway, so I put it off, I thought about all the things that could happen or who might be out there and how would I feel, and I just got myself worked up into a real tizzy.

In the end, after risk assessing for what seemed like hours about what could happen, I finally unzipped the tent and I gasped. I just remember that feeling inside me of going, oh my goodness, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

The sky was full of so many stars. I had never seen that amount of stars. You know, when there’s no streetlights, no cars around, and it’s a clear night. And yeah, I just promised myself in that moment, I would never, ever pass up the chance to walk and wild camp solo ever again and have a wild wee in the middle of the night.

Jo: Wild weeing is a thing! I think that was the turning point for you.

Zoe: Definitely.

Jo: And then you also do write about physical pain as part of the experience. I also felt that on my pilgrimages, blisters, all of that kind of thing. But you do do a lot of walking and you’ve done a lot of walking, so —

What would be your tips for people who want to try and reduce their pain?

Zoe: I’m going to just put this out there. I still get blisters.

It doesn’t seem to matter what I do. I still get some walks where I get blisters, some walks where I don’t. So I think a lot of it is about combination. So combination of socks, having the right boots, making sure your feet fit in the boots properly. And I actually went for a fitting yesterday for new boots and they gave me some really sound advice about making sure your toes have got plenty of room, so if obviously it’s too tight, you’re going to be getting blisters.

Lessening the weight of the rucksack is a big thing because more weight on your back means more weight on your feet. But something else I didn’t realize is that less weight on your feet – so lighter boots can really help with less blisters as well.

Keeping your feet as dry as possible, so making sure you’ve always got a spare pair of socks in the top of your pack that’s easily accessible. So when you stop at lunchtime, take your socks off, let your feet air, dry them out. Foot powder if you’ve got some like Daktarin type powders. Something just to kind of keep them dry.

And I would then say also, ease into the walk. Don’t try and walk too many miles too soon, because the last walk I did, I was fine for three or four days, and then the moment I started thinking I was falling behind and I started pushing to do more miles, I cranked it up too high and started doing 18, 19, 20 miles. And then boom, the blisters came.

And that was during that first heat wave we had. I was going over Dartmoor and it was just way too hot because my feet were sweating and I was doing too many miles.

So, yeah, ease into it gently. Keep your feet as dry as possible, lessen the weight of your pack and take ibuprofen. That’s the other key tip, if you are able to take ibuprofen, make sure that you take a couple before you go to bed at night because you will get heel pain, you will get foot pain from that constant pounding, and the ibuprofen is just magic, just takes the pain away and lets you sleep.

Jo: Don’t underestimate some painkillers and maybe half a shandy or something as well before bed, but sleeping. Also some people might have in their mind like a coastal path, along a cliff, but you have mentioned the rollercoasters, like the hill climbs are some of the steepest, aren’t they? So talk a bit about that.

Should people be doing hill climb training before such a walk?

Zoe: It’s definitely worthwhile. And if you build it up gradually as well. So weight carrying in your rucksack and climbing hills or walking hills, not physically climbing, but ascending hills without that weight in your rucksack is going to make a huge difference. So I would say build up weight in your pack.

I’ve got an iron that I carry with me when I’m training. It’s for an Aga and it’s got extra plates, hot plates that are obviously cold that fit on the bottom. So if I want to add an extra kilo, I put an extra hot plate.

Jo: And then if you want to iron something, amazing?!

Zoe: Well, you know, yes. But it’s instant weight in my bag without me having to rush around, filling it with bits and bobs. But yeah, certainly make sure that you do your weight training.

Anything over a day is also going to change the dynamic. So if you could go out just for an overnighter somewhere would really help too. And other exercise. I mean, it’s not just about walking, it’s overall physical strength and stamina.

So I practice yoga every day, just 20 minutes. It’s nothing mammoth, it doesn’t take too much out of my day, but 20 minutes every day and I’m finding that really gives me the upper body strength as well as the flexibility and the stretches that I need. If I’ve been doing walks and when it means when I’m on a walk, it’s almost like that muscle memory.

My body and my head remember the stretches that I need to do to make it feel good in my thighs, in my calves, in my hip flexors. Because when we are sat down a lot, which as writers, we tend to be sat quite a bit, hip flexors and glutes tend to struggle a bit.

Jo: Muscles atrophy unless you use them. I love that.

And I think you are really right about saying you must do a multiday. Don’t go off and do a six week without doing – I did a five day, that was my first smaller walk, the Pilgrims Way and then the St. Cuthbert’s Way, which were five and six days I think, and then did the Camino.

Because like you say, when you are overnight, there are just other things that you need and that you don’t really understand unless you do an overnight. And it’s definitely scary but as you say, it’s one of the best things. And you mentioned resilience there and just the self-development. But let’s fast forward to you now because it’s what, a decade ago?

Zoe: It’s 14 years since I did the walk. And it took me four years and four months to write the book. And I would actually say that that was a whole adventure in itself.

So when you think I could have – how many times I could have walked the Southwest Coast Path? I mean, okay. I might have had sore knees, but yeah, there were definitely some real mental ups and downs in the journey of writing the book.

Jo: It’s got a lot of heart in it. I really appreciate that about it. I think it’s really honest. And just a lovely book about that, but as we said, you have done a lot more walking since then and you are actually planning what is, for some people – in fact, for me it seems quite an extreme walk. So tell us what you are planning to do. So we are recording this in mid 2025.

Tell us what your plan is for your next big walk?

Zoe: So last year Mike came to me. Mike is my husband. He came to me and he said, ‘Zoe, if we don’t go off and do this walk soon, I might never get the chance to go.’ And I gulped because we have both always wanted to walk the coastline of mainland Great Britain.

But I could have quite happily waited another couple of years because I’ve got another two books I want to write in the Miles series, which are some of the other walks that I’ve done. But so I dug my heels in. I hoped he’d forget about it, and then he came back to me again. He said, come on, we really need to start organizing this walk.

I should say here. So there’s 19 years difference between Mike and I. So I’ve just turned 54. Mike’s just turned 73, and yeah, rightly so. He’s concerned that either his body or his mind is going to let him down, and he’s not going to get the opportunity to do this wonderful thing that we’ve both always wanted to do.

So I will say I am happy with it. Now, it doesn’t mean I’m not apprehensive. I’m still nervous about certain aspects of the walk, but we are both excited and we’re both in the mode of getting the house ready so we can rent the house out. We anticipate it’s going to take two years.

Jo: Two years. Everyone’s like, what, two years?!

Zoe: Two years, yes. But 7,300 miles. Mike is on two brand new hips. He has tested them out on the Camino last year, and it worked well for him, which is good. So we are taking off.

It’s not going to be a race. It’s going to be eight to 10, 12 miles a day. It’ll be eight miles a day round Scotland, 12 miles a day round England and Wales, and eight miles a day for the Southwest Coast Path, which we’re saving until last, because that was the very first path that I walked, which is obviously what the book is about. It’s also where I met Mike.

Jo: So 7,300 miles. So if people don’t understand Great Britain, because of course we talk about England, we talk about UK, just if people aren’t from here, just explain that.

Zoe: So it’s Great Britain, mainland. It includes England, Scotland, and Wales, not Northern Ireland. So it’s England, Scotland, Wales, and we are not taking any ferries. So we will be walking, we’re starting on the western edge of Poole Harbor at the end of the Southwest Coast Path.

And instead of taking the ferry across, we’re walking around Poole Harbor, which is about 35 miles. So we anticipate that’ll take two and a half to three days. We are then heading anti-clockwise, so going east towards Brighton and then up the east coast. We’re going towards London, over Tower Bridge, back down the Thames again, and then up the east coast for the winter. So beast from the east maybe. Who knows?

Jo: And when will you hit Scotland?

Zoe: So we’re going to hit Scotland at the end of March next year, beginning of April. So there is method in our madness for doing the East coast in the winter. It’s so that we do the east coast of Scotland in the summer, where it will be less midge. And then we will be coming down the western side, the western highlands during the winter. So a bit tricky perhaps, but yeah, we shall see. Hopefully it won’t be too snowy for us.

Jo: So then, everyone’s like, but —

What on earth do you pack for two years of walking?

Is it just – do you change, you getting things sent at different times or are you going to buy different stuff along the way because you don’t want to be carrying winter stuff when it’s the summer and all that?

Zoe: So we’ll probably start off with winter gear because we take off on the 4th of October. That’s our starting date. We’re obviously walking into the latter part of the autumn and winter. We will have a bag each of spare kit for the summer stashed somewhere. We haven’t yet figured out exactly where that’s going to be. We’ve got an offer from two or three different people.

But yeah, so there will be kit at points where we can say to people, look, we really need, I don’t know, a warmer sleeping bag or, I’m too hot in these trousers. Can you send me my summer weight trousers? So they will be with somebody, they’ll post them on to us.

And we also have an arrangement with one of the shops as well. So as we run out, not run out, as we wear out of things, they will send us new kit to whatever destination we’re at at that point, we can find somewhere just slightly ahead of us on the trail. People, I’ve spoken to quite a lot of people in recent months who are saying, oh, well, we’d be quite happy to come out and meet you, or we’ll help you, or you can come and have a shower at ours.

So those are the sorts of people that I’ll be contacting ahead of time saying, actually, do you mind if we have a little package sent to you?

Jo: Because that seems huge.

How are you a different person from the woman who set off on the first walk who basically couldn’t even do much, to where you are now?

Zoe: It’s absolutely intense when I think about it now.

I mean, that was only supposed to be a one-off walk to mark my rite of passage into middle age. And it turned out to be a whole new trajectory. And I just went on walking each year, facing new challenges because I think I realized that in having a focus, in having a challenge, in being in the outdoors, particularly in my own space with my own thoughts and my own ideas to kind of mull over, I was becoming a more resilient version of me.

When I’ve been off, even when I’ve been off on a sort of 5, 6, 7 day walk – I did one just a couple of months ago – I come back and I find that that resilience has topped up. You don’t just do a walk like that and then say, yay, I’m more resilient, and that’s it. You stay more resilient for the rest of your life. It needs to be maintained and it needs topping up.

So I find that a big walk will last me two or three months. It boosts my confidence. I get imposter syndrome quite a bit. I don’t – some people don’t like to call it that, but yeah, definitely a belief in myself wavers quite a bit throughout the year, and then I go off on a walk and suddenly I feel like I can face the world.

So there’s all sorts of things that come into play there, but resilience is the biggest thing and I guess that’s why I do it, but we just love being outside as well and appreciating nature and seeing the things that you wouldn’t normally see when you’re driving.

And although I am an introvert, I still love to meet the people on these walks because if you are out walking, you’re generally meeting other people who have a similar frame of mind to you because you’re both out in the countryside walking. So we tend to meet some amazing people and some of those people are best friends now.

Jo: If people want to follow you and Mike virtually, not physically, are you sharing this along the way?

Zoe: Yeah, we will be. So we’re called One Coast Any Age – a Head Right Out Adventure. Head Write Out is my little brand, my baby that has been going since 2019. So they can go to headrightout.com and find more details there. We’re on Instagram and Facebook at Head Right Out. We’re just keeping it simple. We’re walking in aid of Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance as well.

So there’s information on the page if people feel like they want to go and have a look at more about what they do.

Jo: Fantastic. Right. Well this is the Books and Travel podcast.

What are a few books that you recommend either about the Southwest Coast Path or long distance walking in general?

Zoe: Do you know this had to be one of the hardest things that I needed to think about because if you could see my bookcase, it’s absolutely full of adventure memoirs and walking. And so I’ve really had to kind of finely tune this.

The number one, I know it’s been said before on your podcast, but it has to be The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, because that was the book that triggered my realization that I had a story to tell. I really connected with Raynor’s story. So connected with me on so many levels.

And then my book number two, also by Raynor Winn would have to be Landlines. That’s not – this one is not about the Southwest Coast Path. This one is about walking long distances around the country. So starting from Cape Wrath and working their way down through the country. And again, it’s the beauty and the connection with these long distance paths and the humour in it as well. Have you read Landlines?

Jo: Yes.

Zoe: I found some really gentle humor in there that I really appreciated about other walkers and their view about them walking and who they were. Anyway, I won’t spoil it for anybody.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I know that’s also another one that you’ve had, and I was trying to think of different books. I do have some different books to recommend, but those are my top three. So, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, I definitely resonated with the rawness and the honesty in Cheryl’s book. I think I understood the healing that she experienced while walking long distances. I experienced grief when I was walking the Southwest Coast Path, and so I definitely felt that.

Ursula Martin is my number four. One Woman Walks Europe. Ursula, I should say is a friend of mine, but I have read One Woman Walks Wales, which was her first book and her second book was One Woman Walks Europe and just the intensity, the almost incomprehensible nature of walking for years from Ukraine back across the whole of Europe to Tierra del Fuego and then on up to Wales, and it happened to end up through the COVID years as well. So it’s how she navigated being told that she had to go home, lock your doors and go home and don’t, when she is actually essentially homeless because she’s transient, she’s a traveler, she’s walking, where does she go?

So that brought lots of thoughts up about how you manage as a long, long-distance walker.

And my number five, I’m actually sneaking in two here because I’m just finishing Simon Armitage. Walking Home. He’s mentioned in The Salt Path, and I realized I’d never actually read a book by Simon Armitage, which I felt really ashamed about. So I read it and I’ve been really enjoying it. I’m on the last chapter, so that’s quite funny in places. He’s walking home along the Pennine Way as this troubadour who is reciting poetry in village halls and pubs and homes and having money donated to him. But yeah, that’s a good one.

But my last book I read before that was Windswept by Annabel Abbs. Have you read this one?

Jo: I’ve got it. I’ve actually got it on my list.

Zoe: Yes, yes. I love it. I just really enjoyed the exploration and the research that she had taken the time to delve into with each of the women that she writes about. So there’s Nan Shepherd who is an author back from the thirties who wrote The Living Mountain about the Cairngorms. She talks about Daphne du Maurier and her friend Clara Vyvyan, I think, who again, they are women who of their time wouldn’t normally be going off doing long distance walks. But they show the appreciation for being out in nature and what it gives them.

Simone de Beauvoir, who was known as a staunch feminist and partner to Jean-Paul Sartre. And yet she also, there’s this side of her that not a lot of people knew about how she really connected with the outdoors, but was going out for like nine, 10 hours a day sometimes just to collect her thoughts and think out what was going on in her head. And that’s really kind of how I feel about walking.

There’s a quote I jotted down about that. De Beauvoir came up with:

“I was walking and the world seemed to open up before me, no longer enclosed or narrow.”

And it’s just like, yes, my world feels so small and our comfort zones – my comfort zone tends to shrink so much if I haven’t been doing things like this. And then when I go on a long distance walk, it just opens up before me. I just love that quote.

Jo: Brilliant. Well just remind people one more time where they can find you and your book and everything you do online.

Zoe: So it’s headrightout.com. Head Right Out on all the socials and the book is available at Amazon, but it’s also available wide so you can go into any independent bookshop – and we both do that – and ask for 630 Miles Braver. Please support the independents.

Jo: Brilliant. Well thanks so much for your time, Zoe. That was great.

Zoe: Jo, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.