About Sarah.

Hello, my name is Sarah and I love to travel and co-create adventures.

Welcome to my blog. I’m so happy to see you. Thank you for dropping in.

Pull up a chair and let’s chat awhile…

I’m feeling a little bit awkward describing myself on this ‘About Sarah’ page. Words I could use are adventurer, artist, bard-in-training, co-creator, intuitive healer, humanitarian, musician, nature-lover, singer-songwriter, traveller and writer.

That’s because in the western world we are preoccupied with defining ourselves by what we do, not really WHO WE ARE.

Now, if you happen to be passing through a village somewhere in Africa or Papua New Guinea, for example, identity is defined in a different way. It’s all about your lineage and which clan or tribe you belong to, basically your roots. So here goes…

My roots extended deep down into the earth in 1970, having chosen my parents, Kate and Séan, who waited patiently for me to show up. I have no blood-brothers nor sisters but I never felt completely alone in the world. Our family, although small, is an interesting mix of Maltese, English and Irish lineage. My clan is called Packwood, and my tribe, well, what can I say?

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The Packwood family, in the good ole days!

I feel that I belong to the worldwide family of humanity, so I am a global citizen and quite, inherently nomadic by nature. I caught the adventure bug at a young age when I used to go fishing in the River Itchen or make dens in the woods near my family home in the pretty village of Long Itchington, Warwickshire, UK, where I grew up.

From family days out to zoos, stately homes, historic castles and enchanting gardens to summer holidays, exploring rock pools, caves and beaches in South Wales, the South Coast and Cornwall, I developed an insatiable curiosity about the world around me.

My first trip abroad was a school exchange visit to Germany in 1987 when I was seventeen. University days when I studied Biology took me to the mountains of Austria, followed by inter-railing around Europe and a research visit to a semi-arid zone in Kenya for my masters in Rural Resource Management, where the essence of Africa captured my heart.

A couple of years later, in 1995, I returned to Africa to volunteer as a humanitarian aid worker in the refugee camps, following the genocide in Rwanda and found my vocation in life.

During the last twenty-five years or so, I have had the privilege to work with a variety of Non-Governmental Organisations, United Nations and Government agencies in over twenty countries. I continued to travel in my ‘spare time’, so between work and leisure, I have sojourned in over seventy countries.

South Sudan
As a dusty aid worker in South Sudan

Recently, two major life events caused me to change tack. In 2015 I met my husband, Brett, at a bus stop opposite the DFID office, where I worked at the time and a few months later I lost my mum to terminal cancer, only weeks after I became a full-time carer for her.

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Brett and I at Draycote Water, Warwickshire.

To cope with the grief that engulfed me, I decided to walk El Camino de Santiago (or the Way of St. James) in memory of her and set off for St. Jean Pied de Port in the French Pyrenees in September 2015, carrying all I needed on my back.

I began this blog as a way to capture my thoughts, feelings and experiences along the Way of Saint James as it was such a profound and life-changing journey for me.

When I came back home to the UK, I quit my job and put my London flat up for sale. I joined Brett on the beautiful yacht Theros in Salt Spring Island, Canada in the spring of 2016 where he proposed and I accepted.

After selling my flat, we got married in Canada in July 2016 and affirmed our vows in a handfasting ceremony at Stonehenge, in the UK on Earth Day in April 2017.

We spent a year aboard Theros on the high seas together, sailing on the first leg of our round-the-world voyage in stages from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia to Dartmouth in Nova Scotia, via Central America, the Panama Canal and crossing the Western Caribbean.

I wrote down some of the lessons I learned during my first six months at sea. Our voyage will continue in the spring of 2021, when we plan to sail across the Atlantic from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to A Coruña in northern Spain, via Bermuda and the Azores.

For Theros Sailing Adventure updates you can check out our website at Theros Sailing Adventure,  like our Facebook page and interact with us there or subscribe to our youtube channel. You can even join us in person if you like for a trip of a lifetime and or a sail training course (details coming soon to our website).

So feel free to clamber aboard, don your life jacket and enjoy the ride!

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A glimpse of our sailboat, Theros, a 42 ft GibSea

As well as various travel topics on sea and land this blog has expanded to include my:

Intuitive healing practice,

Humanitarian and Community Development services, 

Original poetry,

Music,

Original songs and

Original art work,

Maybe we will meet one day in a magical place befitting of a global citizen and traveller’s co-created imagination…

In the meantime, if you would like to follow my blog to receive updates of new posts, then feel free to click on the blue follow button below to subscribe.

Until then, thank you so much for reading!

Peace, love and light,

Sarah xxx

33 thoughts on “About Sarah.

  1. In all my life I have never met a woman more interesting and spell binding. Sarah has a heart as large as the moon and as bright as the sun and stars all together. Through her life she has done more for people around the world than can be fathomed. She is the true Humanitarian. One of the many parts of a truly amazing woman…

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Hello Sarah, how nice to find you on the internet and what a beautiful blog. I enjoy reading about your camino – it is, like its author, most inspiring and thoughtprovoking. I wanted to wish you every blessing on the remainder of your journey, and on the next one!
    Luc Boutsen

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      1. Hi Sarah, congratulations on completing your camino! You must have so many memories to cherish and lots of wisdom and knowledge picked up along the way. It is great to see you sharing your experience so eloquently on here. I am fine thanks 🙂 I look forward to reading about your next adventures! Luc

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Nate, Thanks for your kind comments. Yes indeed it is great to find like-minded folk ,who are making a transition from frontline aid to being co-creative solo-preneurs. Keep in touch and maybe we can co-create something in the future! Peace.

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    1. Hi there. Thank you for reading and commenting on my blog and the podcast episode. No, I did not say I have a guitar that weighs a half pound. I have a normal sized acoustic guitar.
      Have a great day! Peace, Sarahx

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