A few weeks ago I mentioned, on ablog here, that I had a big announcement.
I’ve let the cat out of the bag in messages on Facebook, here and there… but now the “ad” is done, it’s official.
What Ad?
The ad for our Dutch barge, she’s for sale (Rouge Corsair).
Rouge Corsair – 1920s Dutch Barge
Why?
We are heading back to Australia.
Why?
For many reasons, but as we were contemplating a change, the guy that has three of our horses offered them back. With a big skip and a little tear, we agreed (well, I agreed and then told Noel what I had done!).
So, we’ll be reunited with Charlie, Ned, and Dom.
Sweet Dommie
Ned and Charlie
Why?
Well, they’re our family, and if you’ve read A Standard Journey, 5 horses, 2 people, and 1 tent, you’ll understand the bond we created while living together and relying on each other in the bush together.
Congratulations!
Lately, I’ve received some lovely emails from professional horse trainers who use a holistic approach – they congratulated us on what we achieved. So, when we get back we’ll build on that work.
Tent!
So now we’ve finished the complete renovation on our barge and have a nice home, we’ll be heading back to a field and a tent… yes, really…
Writing, publishing, and marketing my books has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Like most things, until you’ve done it, you simply cannot imagine what’s involved.
However, the rewards have been beyond my dreams.
All my books have been No.1 bestsellers and that’s pretty neat, but what beats that – hands-down – are notes such as these:
“Hi Jackie. I have started to re-read Of Foreign Build and it’s even better than the first time. Your words and time of grieving seem to be of comfort for me with the passing of my wife. God bless you. I look forward to your next book.”
And this:
“Look what we received today [This Is It], it helped pass the time for us all on our journey from Denmark to Sweden. it is great and will be treasured.”
I’ve received quite a number of personal notes from people all over the world. My books have helped many people in one way or another – the notes that are deeply personal have made me cry, given me goose-bumps, and left me feeling honoured and humble.
I’ve not received many photos though – so if you have some pictures with one of my books, with you or your pet (the gorgeous Maksi above, appears to approve!), please send them on to me!
And keep writing to me, I love hearing from readers and authors alike, I am making new friends all over the world.
Most weeks I receive messages from people I’ve never met.
Complete strangers take the time to drop me a personal message about one of my books they’ve just read – and I love every single one!
Today, I received a fabulous note, I’ve connected with this person previously on FB, but we’ve not met – and this made my day.
Hi, Jackie. I finally got around to reading A Standard Journey (told you I was a bit behind!). I took it to bed with me last night intending to read a few pages which is usually all I can manage before falling asleep. Guess what? I read the whole thing in one go!
I absolutely love the way you write – interesting, informative, real and full of raw emotion. You put your whole self on the page. I felt I was out there with you and Noel and it was wonderful to be on your journey. What a gutsy girl you are! And I love how you love your boys (Noel included!!)
I also owned an ex trotter (or rather he owned me) – a 17hh handsome boy with the wonderful name of Woollygoogs! This name was chosen by my daughter who was about 3 or 4 at the time. I understand why you support them – a worthy cause.
Can’t wait to start on This is It! So glad it’s all going well for you and I appreciate the effort you put in to make it all work for you.
And now to write a review.
Isn’t that wonderful?
Relating to A Standard Journey and my ‘boys’ I have a big announcement! It’s a new adventure that’s causing mixed feelings but mainly incredible joy…. post and announcement coming in a few days!
The paperback will be out in a few weeks. There are a few pictures in the ebook this time, and plenty in the paperback, which means it is a great gift, especially for those who do not use the internet.
With an intimidating selection of equipment to buy and fit, we found ourselves immersed in several dozen projects at once. With travelling and learning about a new boat, we’d had no time to reflect on our achievements or what we were doing. It’s rare that Noel and I suffer from homesickness; family and friends drift in and out of our thoughts, but the intangible force to move is more powerful; it’s irresistible.
Travelling makes sense to us both. We’re most content when we have a home that can move and relocate anywhere. Entering a new port, we’re filled with the excitement of exploring, learning, and meeting new folk. But when it’s time to leave, we become edgy and fidgety with thoughts: will the weather help or hinder? And when it’s time to go, there’s no controlling the urge – an invisible force pushes us along. On the one hand, we are lucky to have the same drive, inquisitiveness, and sense to explore; on the other, I wonder why we are so unsettled. We are malcontent with letter boxes and a home that doesn’t move. We find contentment in being unsettled, where nothing is the same, where locating the right shops is a skill (and figuring out how to get there), the language changes, the culture challenges.
Being nomadic is not often about being foot-loose and fancy-free; romance plays a minuscule role. Frustrations, costs, and the hardships of uncertainties and fickle weather are all part of the story. But the flip side is immense: a life that’s kindred to freedom, confronting each ordeal to reap the rewards of seeing the world, and meeting people from such far-flung cultures that teach you so much. Luck plays a tiny part – it’s mostly about making it happen. It is an extraordinary life, but it isn’t easy. We split ourselves from our family, friends, and the comfort of day-to-day income and services. We can be up night after night in bad weather, bored listless on anchor watch, petrified of what’s around the corner, and boat bound due to unsafe ports. But that’s what makes it enough. The highs are the foundation of the lows. If we don’t have something to look forward to, something to push our bodies and stretch our skills, complacency replaces joy. We choose this roaming lifestyle because of the challenge and rewards – whatever path we choose, we have to deal with crap; the particular garbage that comes hand-in-hand with travelling is the stuff we can deal with. Noel and I are woven from the same cloth, and I thank my lucky stars we found each other.
In January I will be launching the Pyewacket story. In 2009 we flew to San Francisco, purchased a sailboat and sailed back to Australia via Easter Island, Pitcairn and many other wonderful, far-flung places – over two years.
It sounds so simple when I write it now, but it wasn’t – it was a tough and emotional journey. When I trawled through my notes and logbooks and pulled the story together we were both surprised at the magnitude and variation of events – some were hair-raising!
I will be placing a full photo album on this website when I launch the book (as per usual there will be additional colour photos in the paperback edition), for now, though, here’s just a taster….
Down there is Peru! Tristan Jones inspired us to visit Lake Titicaca. From Ecuador we rode on a bus inland. This was our galley and our host!
Lake Titicaca – we learned fascinating information of how they ‘make’ their islands on the lake
Samoa – during a week-long festival – so many naked bodies, so little time!
Suwarrow – no strangers here…. A place where we picked up the threads of our previous voyage; a place where it all began to make sense….
I had a terrifying shark encounter, which I am still trying to recover from!
The adventure begins in Pitcairn!
Salt encrusted lines, via strong head winds day after day, week after week! We were close to sinking en route to Easter Island, then even closer to losing the boat at the Gambiers!
Guess where. The remotest inhabited island in the world!
A heavenly place we were blown to during a gale… a place we never planned to visit – heaven!
The book, (title to be confirmed) will be launched in January. It’ll have you gripping the sides of your armchair with fear, and clutching your stomach in laughter.
Here of course….. sailing along the NSW coast in Australia, on our way to our next adventure.
Sailing in my slippers! And Writing – this was the beginning of Of Foreign Build… Note the bikes (bike wheels upside down outside the stanchions), the outboard is under the blue canvas by my head. We were on our way!
Perhaps in a TSR (Travelling Stock Route) on the BNT (Bicentennial National Trail) with 5 horses and a tent…
Somewhere nearby there are five very happy horses, gallavanting, galloping, and rolling in the creek! Meanwhile, notes on the horse trekking book A Standard Journey started here….
What about on a 1920s Dutch barge in France? Not bad, but we were (and still are) renovating – it’s a noisy, dusty, and messy place to live and work.
Magdalena Bay, Mexico – the cafe was closed but wifi was on!
We’d recently purchased Pyewacket in San Francisco and were on our way to La Paz… but plans changed rapidly. We spent two years sailing back to Australia via Pitcairn and Easter Island, etc…. a tough journey – detail of which in my next book This Is It, out January 2016.
On a barrel in the boat yard in Panama?
Well at least I got to stay relatively clean!
Puttering along the Intracoastal Waterway of America. Near South Carolina on our 10 metre sailing boat Mariah II.
Flat water sailing – yippee!
I’m a travel writer – literally. If you want to travel and work you can – you just have to make it happen.
Where’s your favourite office? Where’s the most exotic, fun, extreme place you’ve worked?
Our horse trek through the Australian bush had the foundations of freedom and independence. Not only were our five boys barefoot but they were bit-less too, i.e.we rode in rope halters – the packing horses were led via halters too. (You can read more about that here).
Dom, Stevie (ridden) and Spirit at the back
We encountered not one problem with this ethos, except more road work than we envisaged and, therefore, more use of the boots. The bit-less idea worked beautifully. Although I did purchase a specific halter with more leverage for Charlie and his ‘suitcase-sized’ head that he put to good use when he spotted juicy grass!
Linda’s true story is about her fight against horse shoes. She feared metal shoes were harming horses. In this light-hearted account she tells how she battled with her farrier, coped with derision from other riders and saved a horse from slaughter. Mistakes, falls and triumphs are recorded against the background of a divided equine world which was defending the tradition of shoeing…with prosecutions.
We fostered an incredible bond with our boys (five Standardbreds) and I now believe the start of that remarkable journey was removing their shoes as soon as they came to us.
Happy, healthy boys! This is the team I went trail riding with – Spirit, Dom, Stevie, Charlie and Ned
Here’s the review I have written for Linda’s book. Her book’s on Amazon, here.
Review for: A Barefoot Journey
A true story combining her experience and the technical proof that barefoot is what, as horse lovers, we all should be doing.
My boys’ shoes were removed as soon as they got to us. Truly, though, I didn’t understand the magnitude of the damage shoes can do. I wanted them barefoot for the trail riding we were doing – we didn’t have bits in their mouths either, the journey was all about freedom. But it’s logical when you think about it. That’s why her friend at the hospital in the story got it. He didn’t know anything about horses, but the barefoot care made perfect sense to him.
Carrie’s rotten feet after the shoes fell off (When Linda first took ownership of Carrie)
As well as passionate about horses, I am passionate about sailing. For many years I was barefoot on a boat, for weeks at sea. My feet actually got bigger, they spread, they became tougher – horses’ feet are the same – they’re flexible, not a lump of nothing at the end of their leg.
Carrie leading the way, getting better
But my knowledge extend to the depths of Linda’s I am embarrassed to say. I, too, had horses shod when I was younger. Linda’s story is clever in that you learn along with her. She states the believers and the non-believers case. She doesn’t hold back when she encounters problems in her quest to have all her horses barefoot.
Told with searing honesty, some humour (I giggled at Linda’s antics falling off), and technical explanations -simply written, so they don’t put your head in a spin – this is a must read for anyone with horses or thinking about getting one. It’s also for any animal lover and people who just like to hear tales of people doing the right thing – even if it means sleepless nights, a possible jail term, and wild nightmares.
Thank you Linda, you’ve made a controversial subject so plain and simple to understand. This story was told over fifteen years ago and I know the industry is far more open now – but I also know there are some people still against it. It’s a story that’s still relevant today and will be for a long time to come.
Jackie Parry - author 