Uncommon Volunteer Opportunities: Skillstay

At Volunteer Card, we are always looking for unique and uncommon volunteer opportunities to share with our members. We recently discovered Skillstay, a global community that connects hosts to helpers. It’s a genius concept: trade your skills for a place to stay. The benefits are two-fold; you get to experience a new way of life in virtually any country that you fancy, and you also use your skills for good. Today’s blog post is written by our new friends at Skillstay.

Read on to learn about one traveler’s uncommon opportunity as a volunteer chef in the Outback of Australia.

Meet James

James, one of our hosts in the Australian Outback, needed someone to help him on his 600 acre property. He is out mustering cattle all day, and never gets time to really clean the house or prepare meals. He has hosted a number of volunteers from all over the globe.

His latest one, Angelique from France, was more than happy to see and explore the real Australia of Kangaroo’s, dusty roads, remote settlements, as well as experiencing the unique hospitality of the outback. For volunteering a few hours help each day in cleaning the house and cooking the evening meal, she gets the unique experience of living in the Australian outback.

For Angelique, born and living in a small town outside of Paris all her life, the best things were “…the amazing wildlife. I had never seen a Kangaroo before, and they are everywhere. And the night sky, I have never seen the milky way before, and here I can lay back and see so much from shooting stars to the International Space station move across the sky. And I have learnt new skills also, I can now ride a horse and muster cattle, at least a bit! It will be hard to leave here.”

James loves having volunteers. He believes “The best thing about hosting helpers from around the world is that you never know who you are going to meet, and what they can teach you.” And after a hard days work he gets a clean house and an evening meal. And what an evening meal, as Angelique has been trained at some of the best French restaurants in Paris, she creates something special every night using local ingredients. A welcome and exotic change from the pie and pint at the local pub!

Photo: Creative Commons, John Beleobus