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A Wrinklies Gap Year

by John Wood

340 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #08-0158; ISBN 1-4251-7053-6; US$29.05, C$29.05, EUR19.85, £15.00

A married couple in their mid-50's taking a year out to travel to places they had always wanted to see - South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand, Australia, and Route 66.

About the Book

We met and married, had two children, they grew up and eventually didn’t need Mum and Dad to be around every day. In the meantime, we were conscious of getting older and of the need to do something before we were too old. The idea of a ‘gap-year’ was born and, due to our advancing years, it was christened our ‘Wrinklies Gap Year’.

This book tells the story of that year. It tells of travels through South Africa, Namibia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, and of driving across America on Route 66. Along the way we met a host of characters and had numerous ‘mini-adventures’.

In South Africa we visited Kruger National Park and in Namibia we went on two desert trips, each with a different guide who made the experiences memorable for very different reasons.

In New Zealand we saw the most stunning scenery and fell in love with the country and its people.

In the vastness that is Australia we visited a pub where they ‘raced’ cane toads, met a young man who spent his working life shooting kangaroos and saw ‘real life’ for people who live in the harshest of conditions.

In the United States we learned that civilised people were living there for centuries before the ‘Native Americans’ of the John Wayne movies.

There was much, much more. Above all, there were the people who housed us, fed us and went out of their way to be hospitable to us.

This book will make you laugh, it may well bring a tear to your eye, and it may even inspire you to take your own ‘Gap Year’.

About the Author

John Barry Wood was born in 1949. He was brought up on the south coast of England, and went to his local grammar school.

He always wanted to be a police officer and, upon leaving school, he joined the Hampshire Constabulary. It was then that he discovered his allergy to serge and, as quickly as possible, he became a detective. He spent many years in the world of surveillance and eventually became a trainer, passing on his skills.

He met Maggie, a teacher, in 1969, and they were married in 1973. Prior to their meeting, John had not been abroad, but Maggie opened his eyes to the joys of travel and this led not only to marriage but, eventually, to ‘A Wrinklies Gap Year’. Maggie’s mum was Irish and the family had lived for some time in Africa. There were ‘cousins’ in many places around the world who could easily be persuaded to accommodate folks from the ‘Old Country’. This invariably made holidays a lot cheaper and the locals always knew the best places to visit.

John and Maggie have two children, both now adults and living away from home. Apart from travel and spending time with his family, he plays golf (badly) and enjoys the theatre.

‘A Wrinklies Gap Year’ is his first book.