“An inspirational story, told with empathy and unfailing good humour.”  Dr. Glenice Whitting – Author and Tutor of Creative Writing.

In 2006, Coral Waight set out in her little hatchback to begin the first of four road trips around the island of Tasmania, south of where she lives in Melbourne, Australia.

She planned to the nth degree, but nothing could have prepared her for getting stuck on the side of a mountain in the dark, her petrol tank on empty. Nothing prepared her for being on her own in a caravan park at Arthur River in the middle of a violent storm, or forgetting she gets sea-sick and spending a boat cruise around Tasman Island with her head in a bucket.

The wild, untamed west coast contrasted with the ethereal beauty of Great Oyster Bay and the fishing villages of the east. The giant ferns and trees of the rainforests nurtured and replenished her spirit, and the history, white and indigenous, filtered through everything.

“Told with gentle humour and keen observation, not only of the landscape but the people who live there, this book will make readers want to visit Tasmania for themselves, all the while getting to know and like a woman whose unfailing good humour shines through the adventures she encounters.” Elizabeth Kemp –  Writers Victoria

The Edge of the World: Next Stop Cape Horn is now in print and ebook.

The print version is available through all good book stores, including Booktopia, Book Depository, Wordery(UK), Barnes and Noble, Amazon Aus, Amazon UK and Amazon US

The ebook is available through Amazon, Kobo and Nook Books

 

Coral Waight began travelling alone at the age of 60. After several road trips around Tasmania, south of where she lives in Melbourne, Australia, she ventured overseas, to the south island of New Zealand.

Just three hours across the Tasman Sea, known affectionately as ‘the ditch’, she discovered mountains, glaciers, lakes and fiords; the beautiful city of Christchurch, with its iconic cathedral; the first-ever rental car to break down, a phone that refused to word, and an impressive slide on a highly-polished floor (it’s not the fall that hurts – it’s the sudden stop at the end).

She returned three years later, this time to the north island, with its Maori history, its volcanic mountains and valleys, gigantic Kauri trees and its Lord of the Rings trail. And to Christchurch, devastated by earthquakes, its cathedral now a pile of rubble.

New Zealand began as a practice run for further afield but, as Coral discovered, why would you travel to Norway for fiords and glaciers, Hawaii for volcanoes, or Hollywood for movie sets, when you can get them all just three hours across ‘the ditch’.

Available as an Ebook through Amazon. To buy a copy, click here.

At the age of 60, Coral Waight took to the road. After exploring the island of Tasmania, south of where she lives in Melbourne, Australia, she ventured across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand.

With these experiences under her belt, she took the leap to the other side of the world: England. In a malevolent rental car, baffled by indecipherable road signs and terrorised by huge roundabouts, she journeyed from Yorkshire through Derbyshire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire to London.

On the way, she discovered medieval cities and great heritage estates; pretty villages, pubs and chicken and leek pie; a castle where Robin Hood could actually have fought it out with the Sheriff of Nottingham, and the mighty home where Miss Elizabeth Bennet fell for a dripping Mr. Darcy, fresh from his dip in the lake. In Oxford, she wandered the streets, soaked in history and academia. She communed with her favourite authors, the Brontes and Charles Dickens, and slaked her thirst for theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon and London’s West End.

Coral learnt much along the way: that it’s unpleasant being woken on an aeroplane by a cup of boiling tea down your front; that you can’t smuggle a bottle of water through security at Kuala Lumpur airport; that you can see theatre in London for half the price of Melbourne; that Harrods is seriously weird, and that you need a university education (preferably at Oxford) to understand English road signs.

Coral’s Planning to the ‘Nth series describes the challenges, pitfalls – and joys – of a woman, ‘of an age’, discovering the world – at last.

Is This the Road to Stratford? is now available as an Ebook through Amazon. To buy a copy, click here.