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Originally from the UK, Jackie is now an adopted Australian. She grew up with horses in the UK until her world was shattered with a heart-breaking bereavement. Disillusioned with life she ran away to Australia and met and married Noel. They decided to buy a boat and set sail. So within her first year of living in a foreign land, she was getting used to a foreign husband, and a foreign life on board!
Mariah II took Jackie & Noel around the world. Pyewacket II (purchased in San Francisco) took them across the Pacific Ocean for a second time on a more southerly route. Adventures include The Great Loop in the USA plus Canada’s Great Lakes and the French Canals.
Between boating adventures they tackled the Bicentennial National Trail on horseback with adopted horses.
As a commercial skipper Jackie has worked internationally on boats, and has been a Marine Rescue skipper. She has also taught commercial maritime. She co-wrote a pilot book (in America) and several hundred magazine articles worldwide. Cruisers' AA (accumulated acumen) was Jackie (and Noel's) first self-published book.
Of Foreign Build – From Corporate Girl to Sea-Gypsy Woman was published in 2014 and quickly became a best-seller.
A Standard Journey – 5 horses, 2 people, and 1 tent is her latest adventure - using this story Jackie helps support horse charities.
Currently Jackie she is exploring the French canals on a Dutch barge with her Australian husband. (The barge is for sale!)
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
Have you ever thought of taking a journey cross-country, I mean really cross-country as in across the entire country or the majority of it, on horseback? What an exciting trip that would be. What stories you would have to share. But what would you take with you? It's not like you can pack numerous suitcases and check them through at the starting point and hope the luggage reappears each night when needed. And you certainly can't take many changes of clothes, shoes, books, and other paraphernalia. The choice of what to pack would have to be very frugal, efficient, and include only the bare necessities. A Standard Journey by Jackie Parry will enlighten readers.
Jackie and Noel are no strangers to long-distance travel using alternate, non-commercial modes of transportation. They had already ventured around the world in a ten-metre sail boat. Surely the notion of horseback riding across Australia on the Bicentennial National Trail (BNT) would be little more than just another adventure. The two were no strangers to horses, although it had been some time since either had ridden a horse. Pack up three, ride two - what could be simpler? Well, for starters, some of the areas being traversed were very isolated, remote, and inaccessible by any other mode of transportation. And horses are living creatures, too, and they need attention to aches and pains and injuries, just as humans do.
As Jackie and Noel learned, you can't return from such a journey the same way you left. "Noel and I changed, but it wasn't the journey that changed us the most, it was the boys [their horses].... they gave us - unwaveringly, utterly, and without question - their hearts." This is a very moving tale of a journey cross-country on horseback, a journey full of challenges, but also full of love, compassion and mutual bonding. "Now I've witnessed and been a part of a bond that, at times, overwhelmed me." Excellent.
