CURRENT MISSION

My girlfriend and I are currently in the middle of a year-long break from our jobs to see as much of the world as possible. We're winding our way through Nepal, India, Oman, Cambodia, Vietnam and New Zealand before we return to the UK.

ABOUT ME

I want to explore as much of the world as possible before I lose the ability or the desire to spend long periods of time abroad in cheap guesthouses. I think I have a good sense of humour (you'd have to ask my girlfriend) and for a night out I'd much rather go to a nice pub than spend the evening in a nightclub. When my girlfriend and I are abroad we often end up exhausted when we go home from trying to visit so many places. We're hoping couchsurfing will be a good way to meet people who live locally and who know about places that aren't in the Lonely Planet guide.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is too short to work 24/7 and retirement is a long way away.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

My girlfriend and I are currently away from home on a year of travel and are keen to give couchsurfing a try. We're keen to host travellers when we return to the UK.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

When living in Edinburgh I had a flatmate who hosted couchsurfers and had spent 2 months before we met 'surfing' around South America. It was really interesting to have travellers staying with us and it really made me want to try couchsurfing.

Interests

Anything to do with the natural world. I'm a keen stargazer and I enjoy wildlife-watching - seeing an Indian Rhino in Nepal and a nesting Green Turtle in Oman recently spring to mind as particular highlights.

I also like to be in the mountains, I've hiked in the Scottish mountains and trekked in the Himalayas. I've also rock-climbed in the past, both indoors and outdoors.

For exercise I like to go running and have completed several half-marathons (best: 1h 47m) and a marathon (4h 28m). I support a football team (Newcastle United) in the EPL and play whenever I can. I also follow the England cricket team, Andy Murray, the Vancouver Canucks, Minnesota Vikings and my home football team, York City.

• animals
• wildlife
• environment
• exercise
• marathon
• running
• pub crawls
• traveling
• socializing
• outdoor activities
• surfing
• cricket
• soccer
• tourism
• mountains

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

1. Watching a 15-year-old Indian Rhino calmly feeding along a riverbank in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, from no more than 30 metres away. It was great to see a wild animal that I've only ever seen in the confines of a zoo in it's proper environment behaving naturally.

2. Every time I see the Andromeda Galaxy in the night sky. The feeling of staring out of our own galaxy, across the abyss of inter-galactic space and into a totally different galaxy is awe-inspiring.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, United Kingdom