Welcome to Nethy Bridge's Lazy Duck Hostel

Volunteer Summer Helpers 2011

Thanks to everyone who contacted us for this year. We now have our full complement of 9 helpers for this year; they come from Switzerland, South Africa, Latvia, Scotland, USA and China. We will welcome interest for 2012 from next January onwards.

Free accommodation in exchange for up to 4 hours work per day, 6 days per week.

Welcome to Nethy Bridge's Lazy Duck Hostel in the Cairngorms National Park

Each year, from May to October, we invite energetic helpers to assist us with the management and maintenance

of the 8-bed Lazy Duck Hostel and light-weight camping ground, ducks, hens, sheep, holiday cottage, polytunnel, gardens

and woodlands all within a 6 acre homestead at Badanfhuarain, Nethy Bridge in the Scottish Highlands.

We are happy to receive applications for 2012 from January onwards, preferably for a 2 month period.

You would need to have excellent cleaning and household preparation skills. Additional experience in outdoor painting, gardening and general grounds-keeping will also be welcome and a willingness to work at different times of the day. You should also be able to live tidily in a caravan and be confident with people. In return you will be able to learn from us about small hostel management and the care of waterfowl, hens and sheep. Our guests in the hostel, cottage and lightweight camping ground are very important to us and we do everything possible to make them feel welcome and well looked after. You would be joining us in this task in which you would need good skills in spoken English.

Our Summer Helpers can join us each year anytime from 1st May onwards and can stay until the end of October. We ask for four hours work six days a week in return for free accommodation in one of two heated classic touring caravans sited next to our 4-tent backpacker camping area. Free-range hens eggs and home made bread are usually available as part of the package, (plus spontaneous invitations to share our table or BBQ) - and the use of a bike. Couples can apply and would occupy the larger twin berth caravan.

The Lazy Duck Hostel is in the Cairngorms National Park in the village of Nethy Bridge – 2 shops, 1 pub, 1 tumbling mountain river, hundreds of acres of ancient forest, five miles from Grantown-on-Spey, 20 minutes by bus from Aviemore, an hour from Inverness.

Jake (left) pictured here with Xavier, shearing one of our Soay ewes in a hot spell in June 2010, came from Maryland USA. As a pre-vet student he wanted to find out quickly anything about our animals, - and these semi-wild sheep from a tiny island in the northern Atlantic ocean did not disappoint!			Sonja, a trainee teacher from Karlsruhe, Germany, wrote us the best ever application full of exactly the kind of details that made us want her to join us. A marathon runner and cyclist with previous experience in New Zealand hostels she made an exceptional contribution to our visitors enjoyment in 2010 - and she loved helping in the polytunnel.
	landscaping campsite Angus, from Hamilton, Scotland came for two spells covering three months in 2010. Experienced in hospitality and a maintenance organiser for one of Scotland's well known mountain bothies there was little that he could or would not do for our visitors		Xavier from Tavant, France came hoping to improve his English. He managed everything extremely well for two months in 2010, hosting visitors in great style and teaching us all some French recipes. He was also hugely adventurous in the mountains.
	Doreen from Dresden, Germany, was interested in learning anything to do with gardening and did some serious mountain walking in her time here. Her hostel care work was super and she went on to help at another hostel in Wales later in 2010.	Eddie and Susie were a characteristically robust 'Aussie combination', bringing lots of energy and optimism, backed up by Ed's outback skills, their joint Scottish hostel-sitting experience and Susie's top-class french horn and piano playing, all to great benefit in spring '09
Jacob brought from North Carolina his passion for playing the bagpipes and pitching into everything from hanging out washing to playing for everybody in the evenings, and even to entering the Abernethy Highland Games piping competition.		Amy had a rare combination of being a soccer referee and a sales associate in the 'Tin Box ' Edmonton, Alberta. Her experience at the Samaritan Village Orphanage, Tanzania prepared her well for making young children feel special staying here.
	Barbara from Munich had spent 6 months travelling through Central America using her skills in Spanish. She loved animals and told us everything about 'Ludwig' her fabulous rabbit back home. Here she helped us looking after hens, geese and sheep as well as the ducks.		Suzy from N Wisconsin had a strong organic farming background running a goat dairy and hen-house. Her musicianship made her especially welcome and her skilled piano playing was enjoyed both in the house here and at daughter Polly's restaurant nearby.
	Paul last October looked after our autumn campers, often around the chimenea fire, and helped us with the flush of family hostellers, walkers and cyclists, whilst preparing for his next venture in outdoor activities.	Lucy from Vermont, an eco-tourism graduate with travels in Senegal, Costa Rica and Ghana, came to us in 2008. With her family background on a small farm, it is her ambition one day to run her own hostel
Alex from Toronto, with impressive outdoor skills, came to us whilst putting the finishing touches to her post-graduate studies in geomorphology. She would have taken L duck's hammock home with her, had we let her!		Steve was with us for the last two months of the 2008 summer helper season. A top level classical dancer when younger, and with many country skills he was a man for any challenge imaginable and an invaluable and much appreciated colleague.
Bart and Ingrid from Holland returned for a second time in 2007. Their huge practical skills and natural hospitality were invaluable and they spent the winter helping at other Scottish independent hostels – lucky owners!		Angie, a special needs teacher from the U.S also returned in 2007 bringing with her British husband Nathan. We had a family wedding here that summer and we could not have managed without Angie and Nathan - who even made a film of the happy couple's day!
	Lina from Brechen in Germany had studied biological sciences in New Zealand. She said she knew little about gardening (nor ducks!) when she arrived but together we did very well.		Yann, from near Tours in France, was our youngest ever Summer Helper at just 18. He helps his family with holiday cottages in the Auvergne so he was always quizzing us on what we were doing and exactly why! This was great.
Kate came to us from Las Vegas for last year's mid-summer. With experience with children and shelters for the homeless she was a great person for hostellers to find on arrival!		Foad is a skilled photographer as well as timber mover - some of his shots are now included on both of our websites.
	Rose Marie from Oregon and Kristina student in Berlin were a superb skilled team never without humour and Kayella from Toronto was possibly our best gardener ever!	Josie, a psychologist from Louisiana and Josh from New Orleans, taking time out from reconstruction work following Hurricane Katrina
At home near Madrid, Chema made a living repairing buildings without scaffolding. We appreciated his climbing skills on our roof and whenever tree work had to be done.		Andre & Lenka, students from Bratislava, found part time work locally, in a hotel and in a nursing home. Now we hear they are married!
	Sarah had experience of organic gardening; she painstakingly attacked the flower and vegetable beds to prepare them for the short growing season here in the mountains.		Neil was our first summer helper ever. He came to us in 2004, and just lived for snow boarding and climbing. He now has his own plumbing business.
	While with us Sylvan from Montreal got to know half the village, working in a classy hotel, as butcher’s boy in the village, and teaching French to the locals.	Sharon & Shlomo from Jerusalem took a break from their jobs in art therapy and special education. They borrowed bikes and explored the forest trails and lochsides.