Coral Waight started travelling alone at the age of 60. After four road trips around Tasmania, south of where she lives in Melbourne, Australia, she crossed the Tasman Sea to explore both islands of 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 Bennett fell for a dripping Mr. Darcy, fresh from his dip in the lake. Having always wanted to drop 'when I was at Oxford' into a conversation, she booked into Balliol College, and wandered the streets, soaked in centuries of 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.
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 Bennett fell for a dripping Mr. Darcy, fresh from his dip in the lake. Having always wanted to drop 'when I was at Oxford' into a conversation, she booked into Balliol College, and wandered the streets, soaked in centuries of 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.
