Could you be one of our ‘Summer Helpers’
at the Lazy Duck Hostel?
Free accommodation in exchange up to 4 hours work per day, 6 days per week.
Each year 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, geese, hens, sheep, holiday cottage
and gardens all within a 3 acre homestead at Badanfhuarain, Nethy Bridge in the Scottish Highlands.
We are happy to receive applications for 2010 from January onwards.
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 |
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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! |
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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. |
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You would need to have sound cleaning and household preparation skills, outdoor painting, gardening and general grounds-keeping ability, all of a good standard, and be prepared to work when we need you to. 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. 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.
Our Summer Helpers can join us each year anytime from 1st May onwards and can stay up 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 in a private part of the grounds 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
| 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! |
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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. |
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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. |  |
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. |  |
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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! |  |
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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. |
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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. |  |
Send us an email telling us about yourself and what you can do.
David and Valery
01479 821642
