Sally Jane Smith
Travel Author and Walkabout-Partner
Let me tell you about Sally, author and all round wonderful human being, and our Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary. The Calga Valley, where Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary is situated, changes people. The first time I visited, not realising it would become my forever home, I sat on a rock and felt a physical heavy belongingness deep in my middle, like an umbilical cord connecting me to the core of the country. I was not surprised to read in Sally’s first book about how being at Walkabout was a first step, a tiny step, in her search to find herself, after she lost her sense of Sally in a horrific bus accident in Sri Lanka.
Like me, Sally grew up with dogs and cats and childhood holidays in South Africa’s ‘game parks’. Like me, Sally had no idea that working with animals, let alone Australia’s wonderfully weird native animals, would one day be an important part of her life.
Not like me, Sally is a storyteller. A storyteller with a journeying soul. More than this, Sally is an author. Sally wrote a really good book (not published then). After she wrote her book, Sally set out to learn how to be an author. On the way, she re-wrote her book and her one good book became two brilliant books plus award-winning short stories and parts of a third book which we all hope will happen.
And while Sally is full-time authoring, she holds down an (almost) full-time ‘other’ job.
Sally and I rarely see each other although she lives only 15 minutes from Calga by car. Years ago, Sally decided to stop driving (another funny brave Sally story), there is no public transport to Walkabout, and I seldom leave the sanctuary. But, every time there has been a crisis in our wildlife sanctuary, Sally is here if I need her, or working for us from home on her keyboard, doing the work I just cannot get to, like…
- Being our administrator living in our wild sanctuary for 2 years with spiders despite her extreme arachnophobia.
- Building a life-long friendship with the then teenaged ‘Dexter the Demented Cockatoo’ who terrorised everyone (else) and only trusted me and was desperately confused because I was commuting to my ‘other’ full-time job in Melbourne so we could pay the sanctuary’s bills.
- Packing up my personal items and building a contact-sheet of the hundreds of volunteers on standby while I was coordinating the evacuation of 250 dependent and wild animals in our wildlife sanctuary in the face of the 2019/2020 bushfires.
- Making my ideas happen (I just have ‘good ideas’, whereas Sally gets stuff done) like turning my “I’d love to have a wildlife author event at Walkabout” idea into Walkabout’s 2024 authors’ Walkabout Wildlife Book Fair, and plans to do more author’s events at Walkabout.
Sally continues to do so much to help us to keep doing what we do at Walkabout, even though her life is already more than full. I do have to declare a bias. Sally is my sister.
Tassin Barnard, Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary
A “Thank You” offer just for you!
- Simply click Sally’s “Newsletter Journeys in Pages” button at the bottom of this page (you don’t have to subscribe) to find the name of the trail that Sally and her sisters embarked on. [Clue: It begins with I and has four letters.]
- When you buy tickets on the Walkabout website, at the checkout, put in the four-letter trail’s name as your “discount code” to get 10% off your entry tickets.
- Or quote the discount code when you get to the Walkabout reception if you prefer to buy your tickets on entry.
This discount code and offer is valid now, but it will change from time to time!
So, if you try a code and it doesn’t work, come back to this page and refresh it to see if the code and offer have changed.
Getting to know Sally
Sally Jane Smith has lived on five continents and visited thirty-four countries, but she gives credit to Greece for turning her into a writer. She has worked in museums, universities, a language institute, a residence for people with disabilities, an art gallery, a primary school and a wildlife sanctuary. She also co-hosts two book clubs and assists the organisers of a biennial book-themed convention. She is currently based in Australia.
In 2006, the bus on which she was travelling through Sri Lanka suffered a head-on collision, breaking both her body and her spirit. A decade on, she journeyed to Greece in a quest to recover her wanderlust – and proved it is possible for an out-of-shape, middle-aged woman on a budget, equipped only with a guidebook and her mother’s 1978 travel diary, to experience a life-changing adventure. This is the story that became the ‘Packing for Greece’ series.
Sally’s debut, Unpacking for Greece, was named a ‘Reading Greece Book of the Month’ by Greek News Agenda, a Greek government website, and won first prize in the Greek-Australian Cultural League’s 2024 Book Award for Prose in English. The sequel, Repacking for Greece, was shortlisted for a Society of Women Writers NSW book award. Her bylines include Gulf News, TripFiction, Women’s Ink!, Brevity Blog and JourneyWoman.
When Sally sets out for Greece with her mother’s 1978 travel diary in her pocket, she is searching for the wanderlust she lost in a devastating overseas road accident.
As she ventures into the heart of the Mediterranean – wandering volatile landscapes, exploring historical sites, pairing books with places and savouring the tastes of Greece – she finds it is possible for a clumsy, out-of-shape woman on a budget to experience a life-changing journey.
In a story told with warmth, humour and a fascination with Greece’s natural and cultural heritage, Sally connects with her past, overcomes her fears and falls in love with life again, one olive at a time.
Yes you can buy Sally’s books in Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary’s gift shop, open 9:30am to 5pm every day.
When a long-forgotten, apartheid-era arrest record derails Sally’s plans for a Canadian family holiday, she packs her mum’s 1978 travel diary and sets out solo for Greece instead.
As she journeys to the landmarks her mother once visited — and discovers many more — Sally immerses us in Greece’s awe-inspiring landscapes and fascinating heritage sites. She delights in absorbing the country’s rich history and connecting the dots between legend, location and contemporary literature.
Insightful, intelligent and with an infectious sense of wonder, Sally embraces a gentler approach to travel: facing her fears, abandoning old anxieties, and finding joy in the simple pleasures of her own Greek odyssey.
The second release in the ‘Packing for Greece’ series travels to Athens and Delphi on the mainland; Nafplio, Mycenae, Epidavros and Methana on the Peloponnese Peninsula; and the islands of Hydra, Aegina, Poros, Kefalonia and Corfu (with a side trip to Albania).
Just some of Sally’s stuff
Dexter the Demented Cockatoo
Dexter’s special friend Sally
One of Dexter’s two favourite books
