Our travels around the world by bike, barge, boat, camel or horse

And the winner is.....

8/2/2017

But there's more than one winner... read on...

The winner of my audio book "A Standard Journey - 5 horses, 2 people, and 1 tent" is Jamie McCauley!

Congratulations Jamie, an email with the details will be winging its way to you very soon - thanks for entering.

Random winner selected via RaffleCopter

More winners!

Thank you to all those who entered. I used RaffleCopter to choose more random winners, each of the names below will receive a kindle version of A Standard Journey. An email will follow soon. Congratulations and thanks for entering!

Ines Thomas
Anna Murray
Linda Carter Bargainer
Robin Whitaker
Pat Ellis
Mandy McLean

For more information on my stories and to read an excerpt, click here.
You can listen to an excerpt of the audio book here.

Addendum!
The competition was for one audio book, but 'two' were advertised in error - my error so I've selected a second random winner via Rafflecopter (dismissing the test entries) - Congratulations Robin!

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Horses Change!

7/26/2017

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Ordinary People, Extraordinary Journey - win an audio book!

A Standard Journey is about five adopted Standardbred horses.

Each one with a unique, strong character, each horse changing before our eyes from lost, fearful creates to magnificent beasts with a purpose.

(l to r) Dom, Stevie, Spirit, Ned, Charlie

Trekking in the Australian bush with our gear on horses' backs was one of the most challenging things I've ever done.

But also the most rewarding.

Saddle up and hang on.... it won't be anything like you imagined... it certainly wasn't for me!

Enter here (below): Note: Click "I visited" once you've clicked on an option (tweet or FB visit) to ensure your entry is recorded. For the tweet, just copy the URL of my webpage and put it in the box) - thank you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read more about the story here. Listen to an excerpt here.

View many other great audio books here.

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Cool Beachwear Look

6/14/2017

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New Ways to Tie Your Sarong and Look Great!

A colourful (and rather lovely) friend of mine is always celebrating life.

We are kindred spirits - loving all things travel, sailing and writing.

I've got a copy of Linda's latest "Salvage in my Sarong" and Linda has my latest "This Is It"

Linda's latest FB post is announcing a get together with some of her buddies... "Wear your Sarong!" she says!

Linda is an artist too, (click on the links below and you'll find some of her colourful work) and her books are linked to sarongs:

Sailing in My Sarong, and
Salvage in my Sarong

I've read her first inspiring book and I am about to read Salvage (I've had a sneak peak at the first page and it has sucked me right in!)

Her recent sarong-gathering, champagne-sipping (probably, knowing Linda) -party inspired me to share these fantastic sarong tying ideas.

Check out One World Sarongs for beautiful sarongs... these ideas and 1,800 more are included in my first book Cruisers' AA (accumulated acumen). Available at Amazon or contact me directly.

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A great horse changes your life!

6/2/2017

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But the truly special ones define it!

A few weeks ago I posted a wonderful video of our three boys enjoying life and coming when called.

Here it is again - cue Black Beauty music!

Since then Joe has joined our family. It’s been a month of hell with us almost losing him by a nasty gash in his leg.

I am thrilled to say he made it and now he joins the other three ‘inmates’ in a daily run!

But first he had to go through some major crossing-creek training.

Initially the idea terrified him, but with patience and trust, we finally got there. This is the first time he did it by himself!

He's one clever boy!

#HorseBloggers

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Everybody Loves Joe

5/27/2017

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Joe's Journey

We collected Joe on the Saturday.

He’s just three years old, with a sparkle in his eyes; we instantly adored him. We’d borrowed a float (that’s a trailer for my UK friends), and driven three hours to Canberra to collect him.

Arriving back to 70 acres of lush grass and three other playful horses, Joe's in horsey heaven. We spent a glorious evening showing him around the land, the creeks (didn’t want to get his feet wet) and introducing him to the other inmates!

Disaster
Noel woke me up early on Sunday morning, ‘Joe’s hurt.’

On the front of Joe’s back leg a nasty gash gaped at me.

‘I have to call the vet.’

The vet could stick her entire finger into the wound (once Joe was sedated). Bega vet’s don’t have the facilities for this, the vet had said. So off we went back to Canberra – to the Equine Hospital.
Joe looked around as I urged him back onto the float. He didn’t want to leave and I could feel his distress with being asked to go.

On the float/trailer, ready for the trip back to Canberra - to the hospital.

'I promise to bring you home,' I whispered in his ear, not knowing if I would.

Luck
After numerous x-rays we could see that by some miracle the wound had missed his joint my about one millimeter – that would have been a very different story, but we still had a long way to go. With umpteen injections (I lost count) a good clean and a few stitches, we headed home the same day.

No infrastructure
There was nothing on our land when we purchased it – we’d only just erected a caravan and container; there’ no stables, no fenced paddocks, nothing to keep a young horse still for several weeks of recuperation.

Happy to be Home
Joe’s face lit up when we backed him out of the trailer/float. Pumped full of pain-killers and seeing he was back in horsey heaven I could feel his excitement.

By tractor head-light we built a small coral for Joe, putting Dom with him for company.

To hell and back
Two weeks of hell ensued. All Joe knew of us is that we hurt him every single day with three injections. The muscle ones were easier than the vein jab. But each time we approached him he tensed, his muscles became rigid and he began to hate us.

Happier moments with his new buddies.

Desperate
With eight days of jabs in total, at day five we needed help and called the vet. Joe had bitten Noel just through desperation. I wondered if he’d ever forgive us. Would we ruin a gentle horse, turn him into an angry beast?

I whispered to him every day, 'I promise, it’ll stop soon, we’re trying to help you.'

I rang the specialist on the 6th day and she said that we could stop injecting him. The full course would be better but six days of heavy duty drugs should be enough.

Relief
The relief was all encompassing. For all of us. Strung out and emotional Noel and I now hoped we could start bonding with Joe.

Set back
Two weeks later the stitches were removed. It had been a struggle to keep a young horse from moving too much. But by this time he was still fed-up with us and the vet sedated him in order to remove his bandages.

Just two hours after they were removed the wound opened up. I fell apart, imagining the entire process starting again. With the bills starting to come in, I wasn’t sure we could do it.

We'd given Joe a tranqulizer paste prior to the vet attending. That's Dom on the left falling asleep and Joe on the right with no affect from the paste whatsoever!

Double relief
The vet wasn’t surprised and said that the deepest part would have healed, ‘antibacterial spray it twice a day, he’ll be fine.’

Lashing Out
We couldn’t treat Joe’s wound. He’d lash out violently with his back leg. There was some close calls. I watched as a hoof whizzed close-by to my head. But he could have got us if he wanted to, these were warning shots so far. He’d simply had enough.

Noel quickly built a shelter between the caravan and container (I tried to help between treating Joe). We needed somewhere to keep his wound dry.

Mission followed by minor miracle!
I spent the night worrying, it was up to me to save this horse now. I had to clean his wound.

With determination, patience and hope, I spent eight hours with Joe, with regular breaks.

I spoke to him, rubbed his legs one by one. Every time he didn’t pull back, every time he relaxed, I stopped. This is called desensitizing.

Eventually I could lift each of his feet, something we’d not been able to do since the jabs. Finally, I could rest my hand over his cut. Just proving I was there to help him heal not hurt him.

He sighed a lot, he threatened occasionally, but after a very long, gentle, quiet and exhausting day for us both – I felt I’d made progress.

After an exhausting day!

Success
Joe let me treat his wound twice a day without any bother and without having to tie him up. At last we’d bonded and he learned to trust me.

His cut is almost healed and he gallops around the paddocks every day with head tosses and bucks of glee.

Joe's playground!

Next challenge
Joe’s a city horse and is startled by the rolling hills, copious grass, freedom and fun he’s having. But he’s not crossed water before and to stay with the herd and drink, he needs to be familiar with them – that is our next huge challenge.

Just one of the creeks Joe has to learn to cross. This is just after a huge deluge of rain - we'll start him off when this calms down a bit!

For now, Joe’s here to stay – I kept my promises!

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Rantbo!

5/6/2017

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One of Australia’s smallest, but in some ways largest, creature took me on and almost beat me.
It also caused mayhem by way of biting a half-tonne horse!

Bitey Things
Yes, everything bites in Australia, even the grass. Tiny garden ants will even give you a nice nip. It doesn’t really hurt, but you know they are there.

Introduction to Ants
In our first year of marriage, we were in the dinghy heading for home (our first boat) when Noel squawked “ouch!”

We discovered that he’d been bitten by an ant – it was about 5 mm long.

“Good grief, it’s an ant! Pull yourself together.” Sympathetic I was not. I’d just emigrated from the UK where an ant bite was something you did when trying to lose weight.

Of course, I received my comeuppenance when a similar-sized ant decided to taste me and I yelped, “bloody, f**king hell-bells, what the??!!”

“It’s an ant dear, pull yourself together.” Noel had such fun getting me back!”

“It bloody hurts, how can something so tiny have such powerful jaws!”

Bull Ants
But I hadn’t been introduced to Bull ants at this point – here’s some fun facts about these feisty little creatures:

As far as ants go – Bull Ants are giants
They are instantly recognisable by their huge mandibles on the front of their heads (just imagine ‘alien’)
They can be extremely aggressive (I know)
Bull ants can sting multiple times (I can confirm this too)
They are large, and can grow up to 40 mm
Potent venom-loaded sting deliver painful stings by gripping the intruder with their mandibles, curling their abdomen to reveal the sting and injecting the victim with venom (how delightful)

Rantbo
These ants attack. If you piss them off by walking too close to them they sit back on their haunches with fisted legs as if to say, ‘come on, are you ready to take me on?’ They literally face-you-off when they are entirely alone!

If you stomp on them they concertina into a flat-pack-ant – then spring back up as if nothing has happened and all you’ve achieved is REALLY pissing them off! So it is best just to leave... quietly... perhaps just back away....

Ant Makes Horse Fly!
I’d had an odd day – I think my body was shutting down in protest of not having a day off for several weeks.

“I’m going for a ride.” I said to Noel as he continued working. I needed a nice gentle walk up and down yonder, at one with nature.

Dom (soft baby, not scared of anything) willingly put his nose in his headcollar and enjoyed a brush. Ned (scared boy but getting better) did the same.

I was brushing Dom and Ned was standing behind me, tied up, when suddenly he jumped several feet in the air, snapped the line he was attached to and galloped off.

An hour of mayhem
Ned eventually let me catch him, then would freak. Pulling away with fear in the whites of his eyes and heavy snorting.

I hand schooled him for twenty minutes but had to give up, he jumped and snorted and kept breaking away.

I saddled up Dom, thinking Ned would calm and I’d catch him and lead him while onboard Dom.
I picked up Ned’s head collar and something bit me.

“Ouch, what the??” I dropped the headcollar and shook my hand.

The recent news item of a man having his second leg amputated after a small spider bite immediately swamped my mind. I stood for a while watching my finger, waiting for it to swell and preparing myself to run to Noel to screech at him to take me to the hospital.

Although the pain shot up to the tip of my finger, after a few minutes it eased.

“Right, so I am not going to lose my arm today, jolly good.”

I swooped up the headcollar in the other hand, and CHOMP, the bloody thing bit me again. My mouth turned foul and I watched an enormous bull ant sit on the headcollar on its haunches, threatening me!

It bit me just above my rings - it was just starting to swell here.

After two hours of Ned going besserk I was nearly in tears – my soothing walk with nature a distant dream. The ant could have bitten Ned on the face, around the ears several times. Horses are tough, but they are also incredibly sensitive.

Warrior
Like any protective “parent” I stomped on the ant with all my force, sending Dom into a spin. But the ant just bounced back, raised it fists and said ‘that all you got?’

Noel saves the day
Noel finished work and came over to see what was wrong.

“I’ve never seen you look so desolate!”
I told him the story, showed him my war wounds.

At last some solace
Noel rode Dom and I led Charlie and we sauntered around our paddocks watching Ned enjoy his freedom on the stroll, no doubt with several bites smarting, like my fingers!

I'll be keeping a better eye out for Rantbo in the future!

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Our Electricity Supply for Several Decades!

4/23/2017

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Solar Power

After much stuffing about - we have our power supply for the next few decades in our container.

The 48-batteries will eventually be connected to 12x250W solar panels and keep us in power for many years.

Our diesel generator is there to top up if we suffer endless cloudy days.

We've lived with solar for many years on our boats - this is a luxury system in comparison to 2-solar panels and 4-batteries!

I love being off-grid - no small bits of paper with large numbers coming through our letter box!

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How to Lift 600 kilos!

4/15/2017

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Time for Ingenuity

Before the tractor came (scroll down for pics), we were challenged with the task of lifting the 600 kilo generator off the trailer and onto the ground - its new home.

Here's our latest ingenuity to achieve this:

What you need

Two tonne chain and block
Three, C-Section beams from our American Barn
One container
Lots of rope
Two 1 x tonne straps

How

One end of beams lashed with assorted marine ropes, some 30-years old!
Manoeuvre and park trailer under chain and block
Haul away while watching beams bend! Hoping container doesn't tip over, or ropes break, or Chinese block/chain desintegrate, OR generator safely lifted..

Generator was safely lifted (phew!) and we drove the trailer out - generator lowered, job done, more grey hairs grown!

We are off-grid and finally (after months and months and months of messing around) have our system hooked up with no less than 48 batteries - details soon.

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Premier Sailing Event

4/4/2017

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Women Who Sail Australia

I'm home after attending an extraordinary event at Port Stephens.

Over 100 women spent several days together, sharing, teaching, learning.

Now I’ve had a good night’s sleep (13 hours), my emotional roller coaster is levelling out, and here’s why it was such a ride…
With an event like this, it’s not just the friendship and camaraderie it is something more:
The primal link of women. The understanding and empathy, the shared tears of joy, despair, hope, and dreams.
The hug.
The smile.
The safe place to be.
Giving time, lending an ear.
Friends, sisters, mentors.
It’s the ‘ordinary’ looking person sitting next to you, that is actually an extraordinary person.
Everyone has a story… I’m keenly aware that those I learned about, I’ve only scratched the surface. Their lives run so much deeper, richer, so much more still to teach me, so much more to learn.
When women come together it’s magic, a beautiful power of authentic souls connecting.
Thank you WWSA, see you next year.

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Bathing in Heaven

3/24/2017

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Nature's Swimming 'Pool'

When it's muggy, it's time for a dip!

Lucky for us, our creek chuckles along even through a drought.

It's here you'll find us taking a moment, enjoying nature, indulging in our land.

It's here where no one can see us, the world stops - just trickling water and contented sighs break the silence.