From coast to coast ... again!

We've now been at this house sit in Western Australia for more than three weeks. Here's our house companion, in case you've forgotten. I do have a policy of asking pet owners for permission to post photos of their pets, but I made an exception for this one. I hope I won't get into trouble :)

He didn't have a name, so Greg named him Henry

Up until recently, we were looking at a two-week gap in our schedule. I was watching new house sit postings, but realized our firm date range and limited destinations would make it difficult to find a match. We needed to be back on the east coast near the end of this month, so I had to keep that in mind.

Our first choice was to leave Australia, to be able to extend our visa. We have a 12-month tourist visa, but tourists can only stay a maximum of 90 days per visit during that year. I worked with the idea of a cruise from the east coast, visiting islands in the Pacific, but being so close to the sail date, the cabin choice was limited. I decided against it.

Our other option was to go to Bali, the closest off-shore location from the west coast. With a 3.5 hr flight, it's a common destination for Australians. It was a juggling game, back and forth between watching house sits and preparing for Bali as a fallback plan.

A sit came up for the east coast which fit our timeframe, and the homeowners chose us! Today we leave on a red-eye flight for Canberra, the capital of Australia.

Here's a recap of where we've travelled over the past five weeks. Hopefully the arrows will help to follow the map:

• landed at Sydney, then 2 days as tourists
• flew to Brisbane (on the map, the empty blue circle in the yellow area)
• house sit in Brisbane South
• house sit in Mermaid Waters, on the Gold Coast (below Brisbane)
• flew from Brisbane to Perth
• house sit in Mandurah, south of Perth
• Feb 10 - fly from Perth to Sydney (4 hrs), and then to Canberra (1 hr)
• the blank circle near Canberra is our next sit, and then we leave Australia

We're scheduled to be in Canberra for two weeks, sharing a home with Ollie-The-Dog ... yep, that's his name!

Waving goodbye from the west coast

It's been relatively cool here the last two days - high of 17ºC (63ºF) today - so we've been looking forward to some warmer weather. However, the forecast for Canberra for Saturday is 38ºC (100ºF). My ideal weather would be mid-way between the two, but that's one part of the journey I can't plan :)