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Cynthia Clampitt
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Waltzing Australia


Would a sensible, successful woman in her mid-30s walk away from money, security, career just to make a dream come true? Absolutely!

Cynthia Clampitt wanted to write—and she wanted to get as far away as she could from the temptation to rejoin the corporate world. Australia was a lifelong interest, and it seemed to be the best, and farthest, place to start over.

Clampitt circled and crossed the continent, covering nearly 20,000 miles, many of them rugged. The child of that journey is the book Waltzing Australia, a journal that recounts six months of joy and adventure. It is a story about change and finding out who you are. But above all, it is about Australia: the history, legends and art, both European and Aboriginal; the beauty, the challenge, the people, the land.

Best-selling author Richard Lederer wrote of Waltzing Australia, “Cynthia Clampitt’s luminous chronicle of her love affair with Australia resonates to the heart’s deep core.” Others have compared her to Annie Dillard and Bill Bryson. Aussie expert Barb Mackenzie wrote, “[Cynthia] paints vivid pictures of people, places and adventures. I can feel the sun, hear the crush of the bush beneath my feet and smell the salt of the sea. I know I will go back again to Australia but I can revisit anytime just by picking up Waltzing Australia and reading a few pages.” Author/reviewer Helen Gallagher wrote, “Cynthia Clampitt surprises us with a writing talent and story-telling technique that is tough to master, yet she is consistently compelling to read.”

Waltzing Australia will encourage those who dream, as well as those who travel. It will delight those who know Australia and enchant those who do not. Readers will come to know Australia intimately, as the author leads them across the often-surprising landscape.

For Clampitt, sharing the adventure with others is part of the dream.

The book is supported by a blog at http://www.waltzingaustralia.com.

Editions (1 of 1)

Waltzing Australia
Waltzing Australia
Paperback
6/1/2007
BookSurge Publishing
ISBN10 : 1419663062
ISBN13 : 9781419663062

Reader Reviews

SuzyWatts 11/17/11

As I began reading this book, I thought the style of the author was a bit 'flowery' with lengthy, detailed descriptions of all the flora and fauna, scenery, places of interest and Homo sapiens she was encountering on her travels. Having completed the book, I now realise that it was the enthusiasm and wonder of the writer which was being shared with the reader. I feel I have just spent six months travelling around Australia and learning in great detail about the country and its multi-cultural population.

From day one, when Cynthia lands in Sydney, then quickly moves on to Brisbane to begin her adventure, we are swept along on the delight that each new day delivers. We are taken on an exhaustive and exhausting tour of the country, in a roughly anti-clockwise direction. All the major towns are visited and explored thoroughly - the locals, the sights, the museums, and as she travels about, she adds her well-researched background material to enhance our experience.

It is only when we move out of the towns and cities and into the forests, the outback, and the wilderness that Cynthia really blossoms. She undertakes many and varied camping trips, horse trekking, hiking trips, and boat trips, but not without the odd scrape. She began the journey with broken ribs, caused whilst horse riding in preparation for the trekking, but they gradually heal and she becomes more relaxed and able to enjoy all that Australia has to offer.

Many fellow travellers and acquaintances encountered along the way have become firm friends and many exchange visits ensued, thereby extending the adventure indefinitely. Cynthia seems to have turned her life around by chasing the dream she had of travelling to and around Australia, and her passion for the country and its culture comes across in her writing.

A totally absorbing and entertaining book, which has been carefully researched and is very well written.
Penney69 01/05/10

Waltzing Australia is a perfect book for the armchair traveler. The “Land Down Under” is a land of mystery and intrigue. Most of us are not familiar with the country of Australia. The little most of us know about this continent could fit into a thimble. Movies have given us a glimpse of it and many of us are familiar with the tune “Waltzing Mathilda”, a folk song made famous by Banjo Paterson. Some of us might even know what a billabong is (a small water hole in a dry area).

Cynthia Clampitt’s Waltzing Australia is a very enjoyable and enlightening read. It is a journey of adventure of more than 20,000 miles as she crisscrosses the continent for six months. Each day of her journey is described in great detail. Her writing is superb and the reader is drawn into every detail of her adventure. Reading it was like sharing the adventure with her.

Her six month journey is divided into ten sections, each of which describes the incredible beauty of each region of this country. Bits and pieces of the history of Australia are incorporated into the journey and add significantly to the adventure. The Land Down Under comes alive and will leave the reader wanting to learn more. A ten page glossary of Australian lingo/sayings, mostly aboriginal and Aussie, found at the end of the journal are well defined and add to the overall quality of the book.

As the journey came to an end, the reader can’t help but feel sad that the adventure is over. As the tale comes to an end, the reader is left with the need to learn more about Australia. Perhaps one day, the author will publish a book of photographs as a companion piece to Waltzing Australia. It’s that good!


CaApril 12/25/09

Cynthia Clampitt had a secure job with a steady paycheck and decided to leave it all behind to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. She packed up her stuff and headed to Australia where she spent the next 6 months recording everything she saw, did and felt. She spent time in the cities but really connected with the country and bush areas of the continent. She did everything from hiking, climbing, and horseback riding to shopping, eating great food, and relaxing. She experienced as much as she could in those 6 months and turned those experiences into, "Waltzing Australia", one of the best travel books I have ever read.

Within the pages of this fabulous travelogue Ms. Clampitt manages to express the beauty of the places she visits in a way that makes it easy for the reader to picture. She also throws in a little history here and there which made it even more interesting to me. However, what I enjoyed the most were her descriptions of her encounters with the people of Australia. When I was there I found the people to be extremely friendly and helpful and it was nice to see that Ms. Clampitt had the same experience with those she met throughout her journey.

Whether you have been to Australia or not, I highly recommend "Waltzing Australia" as either a great introduction to one of the most spectacular places on Earth or as a wonderful reminder of your past trip. Either way, this beautifully written book that will have you planning a first trip or a return visit in no time!
Review 09/16/09

Source: Apex Reviews
Date: February 2009

Waltzing Australia takes the reader on a journey through the heart and soul of the country & continent affectionately known as “Down Under.” Guided by Clampitt’s masterful narration, the reader is treated to the vicarious thrills and excitement that she experiences on her sojourn through a land that she had long dreamed of. As a personal witness to the environment and living history of the country, Clampitt lends her already compelling account an added, deft touch of humanity, which makes it universally more appealing than a bland, sterile recapitulation of facts and information.
Review 09/16/09

Source: IPReviewers
Date: August 2009

You could read Waltzing Australia by Cynthia Clampitt and thoroughly enjoy a great travel book. This highly recommended journal is full of the history, the beauty and the mystery of Australia. In fact, if you suffer from occasional wanderlust, you should keep this book on your permanent library shelf so that you can escape into the various parts of Australia whenever you wish!

But if I told you only about traveling through Australia, you would not be prepared and perhaps not realize until it is later in the book, that there is a very personal story being told. It’s about one of our present-day female role models we should share with our children.
…
I love the Australia that I read about in Waltzing Australia by Cynthia Clampitt. I was 18 when I, too, thought of traveling to that country. If I never get to, though, Cynthia has given me a taste of that “heaven” that I missed. Perhaps you, too, have a dream...
Review 09/16/09

Source: Compulsive Reader
Date: February 2009

Clampitt's warm, evocative and open-hearted writing soon won me over. She has a particular gift for describing the natural world and her accounts of rainforests, deserts, waterfalls, natural features such as Uluru in the Northern Territory and Wave Rock in Western Australia, and the myriad plants and animals she encounters are woven together into a rich tapestry…. Often she employs some joyously laugh-out-loud descriptive prose, revealing a unique way of seeing the world around her. Here, for example, is an encounter with wombats: "These delightful, funny little animals have short, thick muscular necks, which makes it impossible for them to look up, so when they beg for food, they simply trot up and stare at your ankles ... They don't look quite real - sort of a cross between a woodchuck, a bear cub, and a footstool" (p.277-8). I'd never thought of wombats quite in this way before, but the footstool analogy is both apt and hilarious!

By the end of the narrative, I felt I knew the author very well. Unafraid to honestly respond to her own emotions, and her surroundings, reading this book is as much about witnessing a person's transformation through close contact with the natural world as it is about the places she visited in Australia…. This is an inspiring book, by an inspiring woman, whose appreciative writing made me want to invite her to my place on her next visit so I can show her the beauties of 'my' little pocket of Australian paradise.
Review 09/16/09

Source: Amazon UK
Date: March 2008

This book is such a good intoxicating, interesting read. The author describes everything so well with such detail. You can almost feel the warmth and absorb the scented air. Cynthia writes so vividly you can easily imagine all the colours of the landscape and flowers that she writes about…. I have travelled with her on this journey and don’t want to leave her, please write another book Cynthia and thanks for sharing your dream.
Review 09/16/09

Source: Amazon
Date: December 2008

I fell in love with Australia in 1993, when I made my first trip. It stole my heart then and continues to hold it now. I am fortunate to sell travel to this diverse and amazing country, so I have been back many times.
Cynthia Clampitt sees inside MY heart and puts on paper feelings I have yet been able to describe adequately
She paints vivid pictures of people, places and adventures. I can feel the sun, hear the crush of the bush beneath my feet and smell the salt of the sea.
I know I will go back again to Australia but I can revisit anytime just by picking up Waltzing Australia and reading a few pages.
I will treasure and keep this book for a very long time!

Review 09/16/09

Source: Good Reads
Date: September 2008

[Waltzing Australia is] an intense love story between an American city-dweller and the vast continent of Australia…. Each page is overflowing with adventures, and we get to meet each city, animal, plant, and person along with Cynthia as if we're right there with her. It's an inspirational read about a strong woman living out the dream of a lifetime, and we are very fortunate that she decided to take us all along.
Review 09/16/09

Source: Paula's Book Talk
Date: August 2009

Clampitt spent six months in the cities, small towns, and wild places of Australia. Her journey covered some 20,000 miles. And, happily for us, she recorded it all in the journal that became her wonderful book, Waltzing Australia.

Readers are invited to take the trip along with her. We see what she sees, meet the people she encounters, and by the end feel like we've not only gained a new understanding of the beauty of this nation continent, but also that we've gotten to know a new friend. We share in her frustrations and epiphanies as she pushes herself physically and emotionally on her wonderfully interesting and often grueling trip.
…
If you have any interest at all in Australia you will love this book. And, if you are sitting on a dream watching the years go by, Cynthia Clampitt's Waltzing Australia just might inspire you to go for it too.
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