IF someone gave you the opportunity to wave goodbye to the cloudy British skies and travel the globe without having to pay any rent, it would probably sound too good to be true.

However, that is precisely what Ramsbury travel writer Emma Higgins has done for the last three years, thanks to the ingenious idea of house sitting.

The 28-year-old, who has been documenting her life on her blog Gotta Keep Moving, has been able to skirt around one of the most expensive aspects of travel, accommodation, after signing up to the largest house sitting website on the planet, TrustedHousesitters.

Thanks to this, Ms Higgins has been able to live in luxury properties across Europe, Africa, America and Asia for free in exchange for looking after the resident pet while the owner is away, for days or weeks at a time.

This has enabled her to fund and self-publish her first travel book in what has proven to be an unforgettable three years.

But her roots are in Ramsbury. Her family has lived there for many years, and her grandfather, Trevor Tiplady, was the local GP.

His three children all grew up in the village, and although Emma herself went to school in Warwickshire, for the last 10 years she has regarded the little corner of Wiltshire as her home.

Talking about her travelling life, she said: “I have loved every second of it. I fell in love with travel after graduating from university in 2009 and have done everything I can to be on the road ever since.

“Travel and writing are what I live for, and it has always been a dream of mine to put something into print. There was no better place to do that than my own country.

“Despite going to all these exotic places across the world, the year around the UK and Ireland was the best yet.

“It really opened my eyes, and writing about the journey in my book, A Year In The UK And Ireland, was a wonderful experience.”

Her most recent house-sitting job was in Portugal, and over the course of three years, she has collected many personal and humourous anecdotes to tell.

“I house-sat for 17 dogs last year, a few cats and a few chickens and horses too,” she said.

“The dogs were by far my favourites, and walking them actually helped me to find a few places that went in my book – you can just spot Lily the Scottish beagle, who I looked after for a couple of weeks near Dundee.

“I remember one time my car got pulled out of a ditch by a couple of friendly farmers in Donegal, Ireland, thanks to a bit of help from their tractor. They dropped everything for me.

“In regards to the future, I will do it for as long as it makes me happy.

I have another book coming out next August but after that, who knows. I tend to go where the wind takes me.”