Staying places

We are house-sitting in Mountain River, in Southern Tasmania.  Our temporary pet this time is Kaya, the Alaskan malamute.  

Mountain River district is in the Huon Valley, and it's named for Mountain River, which flows from the alpine plateau of Wellington Park. The main peak of Wellington Park is Kunanyi/Mt Wellington, which forms the dramatic backdrop of Hobart. 

It’s a very beautiful area – a rural and wild valley surrounded by beautiful high mountains.

This house-sit is just one night in a house in Marcoola on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.  Like our other house-sits, this one was organised through Trusted House Sitters.  And, like our previous house-sit in Cazorla, Spain, this one is an accommodation business called  Glanymor Cottage, with rooms that are rented out through Airbnb. There are no guests this weekend, and the owners are going away to nearby Brisbane.

We are currently house-sitting in Cazorla, in southern Spain. This house is a small hotel called Cortijo los Abedules, which incorporates three self-contained units of various sizes. It's the end of the season now, and the owners have shut the business down while they've gone away for their own holiday, so we are looking after their house and their dogs.

Our first night in Lagos, Portugal, was spent in an apartment called Casas da Barroca.  That's Barroca, not Berocca.  Berocca, if you remember from your youth (if you still have your youth, this may be a useful tip), is a vitamin B supplement that is rumoured to help you to get over a hangover;  that's relevant, so read on to find out why.

I'm in Ireland now; in fact, I've been here for two weeks.  I'll have more to say about Scotland soon, but for now it's time to introduce Ireland.

We are house-sitting an 1839 farmhouse in Ballycarrigeen Lower, County Wexford, Republic of Ireland.  Our charges this time are a dog, a cat, a rabbit, and four chickens. 

Our house-sit in Melrose is a large, typical British house on a larger-than-usual (for Britain) block of land in a new rural subdivision on the edge of town.

House-sitting involves staying at someone else's house and looking after it for them while they are away, usually on holiday.

Accommodation is probably our single biggest expense when travelling around, so house-sitting is a great way to reduce our costs and enable us to travel for longer.  The other advantages of this arrangement is that we get to meet local people, including the people who own the property, that we wouldn't otherwise meet, and we get to know the local area much more thoroughly because of the time we get to spend there.

Flying from Brisbane, Australia, to London, UK, is a long journey, with about 23 hours in the air.  While we were well looked after by Korean Air, and there were plenty of marvellous things to see out of the windows of the aeroplane, it's nice to get out and get a good night's sleep halfway through the journey so that you're in a bit better condition at the end destination.