Another month gone and another chance for me to push Louise aside and have my turn on the blog. We passed a couple of milestones this month. Firstly, we notched up our 200th night in the motorhome – the rest of the nights were with family and house sitting. Secondly, we checked in to our 100th campsite, in Sardinia.
Before we left home we investigated the idea of doing some house sitting in Europe. We had used house sitters for our place in Auckland and an ex work colleague had been house sitting in Europe for a couple of years and highly recommended it. After a bit of research we registered on two sites: www.trustedhousesitters.com and www.mindmyhouse.com . I think better names would be Trusted Pet Sitters and Mind My Pets, as essentially that’s what it’s about. It costs around NZ$130 a year for Trusted House Sitters and only NZ$30 for Mind My House. You get email alerts every day with the new assignments or you can just go the website and search what’s available by country and/or date. We thought by doing a few house-sits along the way we could get off the tourist route and experience local life in a different country, as well as take a small break from the motorhome. Plus, we wanted to spend Christmas in a house, so we could cook a nice roast dinner.
To date we have undertaken five house sits in Europe and have one booked for the UK in June. We feel that may be enough, but we may look for another one in the UK in July.
In case some of you are a little confused about ‘house sits’. It’s basically looking after someone else’s house and their animals while they are away on holiday. It saves the owners paying the cost of putting their pets in a kennel or cattery and they get to stay in their own environment, plus someone is looking after the house and garden. It’s a win-win for both parties. The pets are happy, the house is secure and for the house sitters it’s free accommodation, all they need to do is provide their own food.
Here’s a snapshot of the five house-sits we have undertaken to date:
Our first house-sit was for two weeks in late October in a small French village, looking after 2 cats and a dog called Bailey. He was a lovely golden Labrador and we walked him all over the place through the hundreds of acres of vineyards. We cut the hedge and mowed the grass for the owners as well as looking after the animals. It was quite a narrow lane to get the motorhome down, so it stayed parked in the driveway for the duration of our stay and we either biked or walked everywhere. The supermarket was over 5km away and we biked there, filled our backpacks and basket and biked home. A couple of times we bought too much and had plastic bags swinging on the handle bars. Another time Louise worked out a short cut. Did I say short cut? Well, we went down small paths, across vineyards, along bumpy narrow tracks, before eventually finding the way back to the road. When we got to one corner I realised a baguette was missing. All the bumping had broken the paper bag and it had fallen out. Louise backtracked a few hundred meters and found it, unscathed and still edible. We didn’t use that short cut again!!
Our second house-sit was for nine days in early December near San Pedro de Alcantara in southern Spain. Trish had seven adorable dogs who were great fun to look after. Trish was also adorable. She had been living in Spain for many years having worked there in her early life. She had a great sense of humour and made us feel very comfortable and at home. The day we arrived Louise set off with Trish and her friends for a ‘Girls Christmas Lunch’. Most of the 18 lunch guests were Brits who now live in Spain and play golf together just down the road. I wasn’t invited so instead got acquainted with the dogs. Right opposite Trish’s house was a huge paddock, around 20 acres where we would take the dogs for a walk twice a day. The only snag was horses and a donkey that didn’t like dogs lived there. We were forever on the lookout for them and had to make some quickfire moves to avoid them. It was hysterical. Trish left us a vehicle to use so we managed to get around the coastal area and see the sights. At night I would light the fire and Louise would sit on the couch covered in dachshunds all trying to get the best spot close to her.
Our third house-sit was at Periana Spain, 20kms from the coast, in the mountains surrounded by thousands of olive trees. We were there for 2 weeks over Christmas. The drive in was hair raising. It was basically a one lane road of about 3km. We are quite a big vehicle and we had gone only 200 meters when we encountered a large Range Rover towing a trailer filled with olives. Having managed to negotiate our way past, by pulling the side mirrors in, all was good for another 500 meters when a tractor with a trailer load of olives arrived. Another deep breath and we again managed to pass. Then there were the overhanging trees – scratchy pomegranates that made an awful noise on the side of the van. At times we did wonder where we were going, but eventually we arrived at Steve, Midi and son Joe’s quaint Spanish farmhouse. We negotiated a small lane around the back of the house and parked the motorhome, and that’s where it stayed. We again had use of a vehicle. They had a few acres with three horses, a lovely dog called Milo, two rabbits, a cat and some hens. No matter which way we walked from the house it was up hill, so the fitness levels improved a lot while we were there. We had Christmas lunch on the deck in the sun and a lovely Christmas roast dinner that evening. There was only a hand full of houses in this small alcove just out of Periana and the neighbours were all were invited for drinks the day we arrived. It was an excellent idea as it enabled us to get to know everyone. Some of the neighbours kindly invited us to a lovely Boxing Day brunch with around 25 of their friends from around the area, they were ex pat Brits, a Norwegian couple, and a Belgium and Dutch couple, all of whom now call Spain home. Before we left Periana we did a bit of pruning on the roadside while we were out walking Milo and the drive out went without a hitch
Our fourth house-sit was for four days in mid-January at a place called Cehegin in the Spanish region of Murcia. Tony and Shirley moved from the UK 13 years ago. They have a number of olive trees and upon our arrival they gave us a 5-litre container of homegrown olive oil – an absolutely beautiful product. They were out in the country and had 3 dogs. The whole house ran on solar power, so you had to be a bit careful with how many appliances you had going at one time, but it all worked well. It was a nice house with swimming pool, a bit too cold to use at this time of year, and again our walks with the dogs took us through olive groves and past wild deer, much to the delight of the dogs who gave chase on one occasion but came back empty handed. One of the advantages of house sitting is it can take you off the tourist route. Louise found a campsite at a place called Bullas, about 15km from Cehegin, where we stayed the night prior. We walked in to the small town and found a wine museum. We decided to have a look around and it was fascinating. We also purchased some of the product for around NZ$5 a bottle – it would probably sell for NZ$20 plus at home. The day we left Cehegin they had a cold blast and our route took us up through a mountain range. From a distance it looked like more of those plastic green houses, but as we got closer we realised it was snow. Very beautiful.
Our final house-sit was for nine days in late January at a place called Pinos de Valle. On our arrival we realised this was one driveway we could not fit up. Our hosts Laurie and Annie have a gorgeous property in the mountains overlooking a damn, some 50km from Granada. Once we decided we couldn’t fit up the driveway, we decided to leave the motorhome at a parking lot in town about 3km up the road. The locals were told it was ours and while we were a bit nervous about leaving it there, it was as safe as houses. Again, a vehicle was left for us to run around in. The property had olives, oranges and lemons. We squeezed fresh orange juice for breakfast and were invited to take some with us which we happily accepted. Walking tracks for the two dogs were endless and we hiked all over the place with the two adorable dogs, Lucia and Nuria. They had a beautiful bakery in the small town of four shops and one restaurant/bar. The house was very warm with two fireplaces and under floor heating. We needed it. The Sierra Nevada ski fields weren’t too far away, and a big snow fall occurred during our stay. While it didn’t snow where we were, when we drove to the nearby supermarket, about 10km away, there was snow all along the roadside and surrounding hills and the cars in the carpark were covered in snow. Laurie is a mad keen rugby fan and they had flown off to Rome to see England play Italy. England won. Again, a lovely place to be house sitting with great hosts.
So that was our house sitting in Europe. All different, but all great and memorable experiences. Even if a campervan tour isn’t your thing, definitely keep house-sitting in mind. It is a brilliant way to see places you wouldn’t normally see, meet great people and animals, and all for a low cost.
Now to the stats for February. We finished NZ$1,165 under budget for the month even though our mileage increased on the previous couple of months. We travelled 1,624 km’s (1,015 miles) averaging 58km a day. We spent $339 on diesel with 22 nights in campsites, 5 house-sitting and an overnight on the ferry from Barcelona to Sardinia. We are now NZ$6,811 under our budget after 9 months and feeling pretty chuffed.
Not Sure where you are now but looking for a house sitter with motorhome in SW France from 26 July for abt 8 Days
Hi Keith,
Sorry, we are currently back in NZ. Try http://www.mindmyhouse.com or http://www.trustedhousesitters.com
All the best.