2023 Week 6: We Have UK Plans!


I don't have much to say. COVID, or maybe convalescence, has killed most of my brain cells. I have been spending most days on the sofa, looking out the window at the park. It's been blissful.

I doubt anyone follows the 7-day "home recovery" quarantine anymore. But I got a week off from work, so I just stayed home anyway. It was wonderful. I sat there and read Scoop and Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar.

We did sort out a few things for the upcoming UK trip. We'll be there for 2 months. Originally we thought of doing both Workaway and TrustedHousesitters, but after using both platforms I felt like Workaway gives you no security whatsoever. It's really just Facebook messenger. Anyway I'm still not sure if one can work legally in the UK on a tourist visa - I don't think we can, even if the labour is unpaid. I didn't want to deal with that.

In the end we applied to housesit at a few places. The problem with housesitting is that most of the houses are in Greater London. We wanted to stay as far up north as possible but couldn't find anything. So we will spend roughly the first 3 weeks travelling up north by train and the remaining time doing housesits in the south.

I borrowed Benedict le Vay's Britain From the Rails for some info on railway journeys. I think we will first take the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh, probably stop in at Newcastle. 


Then spend a week or so touring the Scottish Highland lines (Edinburgh to Inverness, Glasgow to Fort William). 


Heading back south, we'll pass through Glasgow to Carlisle and take the famous train journey from Carlisle to Settle, before ending up at Leeds. Probably then take the train from Leeds to Manchester and Liverpool.


From Liverpool we'll attempt to make our way around Wales (Snowdonia?) before circling back to Cardiff and then back to Greater London for the housesit part of our trip...


We will have a few days unaccounted for around 1 May, during which I think we can take a journey down to Cornwall and back.


The most of the rest of the trip will be housesitting in southeast England, London and one random one near Birmingham. I cannot wait to visit the Balti Triangle. OK I know it's very shallow but what the hell.

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