Friday 10th October 2025

Friday 10^th October

SHE SAID:

We had a big day out, leaving at 7am & getting back at 6.15pm!

I had arranged to meet potential new house-sit owners at a little place called Kordabup, in the hills north of Denmark. The sit is for 6 weeks over the summer holidays.

Of course, I planned our meet up around orchid hunting, too. We had some success, with a last-minute addition to the trip, which was an extra 200km onto the day, but I got to see a brand new to me orchid, so well worth it in my head!

The house-sit was not for us. It was on acreage in the forest, which was fine, but the basic living, even though we’d be in our van, was not what we wanted. The composting toilet was basically a hole in the ground dunny; there were water tanks, pumps, hoses etc everywhere, mish mash fruit trees, veggie beds & watering to be done daily. And the place is un-insurable, so they wanted us to fight any fires that may happen whilst we were there!

Nope, not for us! I said we’d let them know. I messaged them an hour or so later after talking with Geoff, saying it wasn’t the “right fit” for us.

The aliens have landed!

A damp & wild coast line

HE SAID:

Well, that was a long day. Well over 500km. I was knackered at the end, but the souvlaki at lunch powered my machine, I guess. Varena has seen so many of the WA terrestrial orchids that finding new ones for her to see is a rare event. So, when she received word of a newy that was only an extra couple of hundred kilometres away we had to grab the opportunity. You never know if these little buggers will elude you, get eaten, or just give up the ghost, so getting there promptly was needed. Despite bending a couple of the targets because they were so frigging small that I didn't see them when i walked in, we managed to find plenty, keeping Varena very happy. There were also a few thousand purple enamel orchids, which are common, but we'd never seen so many in such a relatively small area. 

The house-sit preliminary visit paid off, as the place was a dump. The young couple were young and enthusiastic, but they wanted caretakers that would work free in poor conditions, not house-sitters. We were probably a bit too taken aback to say no straight up, but after a chat we both agreed that it was nothing that we wanted to be a part of. If we have to crap in a hole in the ground, and still have to do watering of trees and gardens, chook minding, mowing, and fight any fires to defend the house in a eucalyptus forest because they are uninsurable, then we are not the house-sitters you were looking for. There is no quid pro quo. It would be an awful time.

Teams with Julian and Kiyoka just after we got in was the usual fun.