Lantic Bay is a cove on the coast near Pencarrow Head, encountered by Ray and Moth during their walk and revisited as their homeless trail ends. First a place reached by a steep descent while the couple weighed how to survive the approaching winter, it becomes the view beneath the bench where they share their last wine gums at the journey’s close. The bay’s significance lies in that return: the same coastline that held uncertainty becomes the setting for a definite ending and an uncertain new beginning.

Setting and approach

After climbing out of Polruan, Ray and Moth followed the coast above Lantic Bay to Pencarrow Head, where they sheltered their tent behind gorse and watched ships’ lights moving out of Plymouth. From that camp they explored the surrounding coast, passing a white-painted granite obelisk and a lookout cottage tucked into the cliff. They ate rice and tuna, then scrambled down the steep slope to Lantic Bay and beachcombed along the line of seaweed. The approach made the cove part of a physical rhythm of climbing, descending and searching the shore, rather than a destination detached from the demands of the walk.

A landscape beside an unresolved choice

The bay was encountered while Ray and Moth faced a practical and emotional decision. They needed shelter, warmth and money; they could try to restart life in the ordinary world or endure the winter on the path, while Moth especially needed warmth. Their tent remained at Pencarrow Head as they explored, so the cove belonged to a brief interval in which they could move through the landscape without yet resolving what came next. For three mornings, a Peregrine falcon circled around Pencarrow, giving the surrounding headland a recurring presence as they considered their options.

The return at the end of the trail

Much later in the narrative, as Ray and Moth approached the end of their homeless walk, Lantivet Bay lay below them and Pencarrow Head came back into view. They walked painfully slowly, stopping often: they were eager to finish, yet reluctant for the journey to be over. When they finally crossed Pencarrow Head, they sat on a bench overlooking Lantic Bay, propped their rucksacks together and shared the last of a packet of wine gums. A Peregrine falcon swooped close, traced the cliff down towards the bay and soared away. The familiar landscape thus accompanied the plain fact of completion: their homeless trail was over.

Narrative significance

The return to Lantic Bay gathers the book’s contrast between movement as hardship and movement as chosen direction. Earlier, the coast offered a temporary interval for exploration while the couple faced the prospect of a cold winter and an uncertain future. At the end, the bay is the view over which they pause after completing the walk; the falcon’s passing supplies a final movement beyond the bench, even as their own walking stops. The ending also points forward: Ray and Moth anticipate moving what remains of their possessions to Polruan, with Moth beginning a degree and Ray seeking work and writing. Lantic Bay therefore marks not a settled resolution, but the threshold between the certainty of the path and the work of beginning again.