CURRENT MISSION

To keep on enjoying and exploring the place we live at Airlie Beach - the Whitsunday Islands and Far North Queensland and develop our Barefoot Bushman Camp & Tours with Rob Bredl - Australia's original Crocodile Expert.

ABOUT ME

I always believed that only the one who travels will find his/her destination. Growing up in Vienna - Austria my world was music which already let me travel all over Europe as an organ builder apprentice. Sadly as the church bosses in the late seventies decided to buy electronic organs, I was one of the thousands laid of. My uncles gambling & amusement machine business came to the rescue and soon I saw myself as the manager of his eastern European business operation. Traveling again to exiting places like Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and as far as Russia to install gambling machines at a time when these places where deeply entrenched in communist regimes. When the Austrian Government decided to ruin the family owned industry a few years later by running a scare campaign, just to get the control and keep the profits for themselves, I traveled on!
This time I was of to Down Under with my Australian born wife, we traveled eight months from Sydney to Darwin where she dumped me. Not really knowing where I was, I traveled to Numbulwahr in Arnheimland as a GoFor fixing roofs in the remote aboriginal settlement.
A couple of years later I traveled down the coast back to that nice place I found previously called Airlie Beach. There I found not only my destination but also my partner Tanja. She as a keen traveler from Germany was like me also surfing the couches of this world since years. At first it was not easy for her to make a decision to stay with me so she traveled back and forth between Germany and Australia, I naturally followed.
And what you know next, our son came traveling into our lives. We settled in Brisbane until our daughter was born. And off course what do you do with a six month old baby and a six year old son, you relocate to Airlie Beach and end up traveling another six years before arriving in paradise. But this is another story and we will tell you about this if you decide to visit us.

PHILOSOPHY

Live life to the fullest set your mind on anything and do it if you enjoy it, otherwise don't do it.
Find someone you can enjoy and share your fun with, which makes it double as good. Have kids which makes it three and four time more fun.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Well, like with anything experience comes with practice and practice we have had plenty. Practice in traveling that is and we like to pass that on, give some tips, spin a yarn, but also hear from others. Because nothing is as exiting as a travelers story.
Over the years many fellow "travel-bug-infested" people asked us about our experience with traveling as a family. Is it possible, they asked, can you do that and don't your kids turn out like ferals?
We know you are young and you might say one day I have to settle down to have the kido experience and than its all over. WRONG, keep on traveling because there are family couches out there in this big and wonderful world. We want to give tips and ideas about this!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have couched around for many years over many continents and man would it have been great to have the internet and great website communities like the one we found here on www.couchsurfing.org
In Brisbane we had a Bed & Breakfast for some years and always enjoyed the visiting travelers.
The most exotic and remote couch surfing experience I had was in Arnheim Land 1200km by road from Darwin somewhere in the Never Never. I was invited to stay at a camp near a crocodile infested river sleeping in my natural sheep hair filled sleeping bag, which I made myself. Worried but not knowing if a croc could smell my sleeping bag I stayed near the fire. Sometime later this night I woke up surrounded by a herd of wild and agro boars who obviously did smell me from far away. As this was not enough, a short while later a tribe of Aboriginals, about forty in and on top of one Landcruiser burst onto the scene, back from their fortnightly 800 km trip to Katherine. They stayed there for a couple of days and since the law didn't allow them to bring alcohol into Arnheim Land they brought it back in their bellies.

As you can imagine 40 drunk indigenous people, a couple of white Australian roof plumbers, a herd of agro wild pigs and one very scared and confused Austrian migrant in a stinking sheep sleeping bag make up for a very unusual couch surf party. ;-)

Interests

My family, our islands of the Whitsundays, the reef and beautiful beaches we have. Sailing, sailing and sailing, diving, snorkeling, fishing, harpoon fishing, long beach and low tide beach walks, sailing.
Traveling, once the kids are finished with school preferable on a sailing yacht.

Video documentary filming and production with Rob Bredl the Barefoot Bushman. Playing with the animals in our wildlife parks.
Reptilians of all sort and the amazing bird life we have here. http://www.barefootbushman.com.au

Writing for my newspaper "The Week in Australia (Die Woche in Australien)". Australias German Language weekly newspaper since 1957. http://www.woche.com.au

Web design, computers and the internet. http://www.duhost.com
I luve coffee and roast my own, I brew my own beer and make my own small goods. Oh yes, and if I get some time I like to go sailing.

Tanja is a professional hair stylist and that is her interest, she lives for hair and she creates amazing hairstyles. http://www.cutcolourcurl.com

• animals
• wildlife
• writing
• design
• documentaries
• make up
• education
• breakfast
• wine
• cheese
• beer
• coffee
• baking
• running
• partying
• yachting
• traveling
• music
• fishing
• camping
• surfing
• scuba diving
• snorkeling
• sailing
• business
• communications
• teaching
• journalism
• law
• tourism
• tours
• beaches
• parks

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies - when I get time. Fitzcarraldo - Klaus Kinski - von Werner Herzog, The Tindrum, Coba Verde, MadMax, Europa, Strictly Ballroom - Baz Luhrmann, Vanilla Sky,
Music - John Butler Trio, Cat Empire, Dire Straight, Super Tramp, much, much more and sailing music.
Books - Has been a long time since I had time to read one.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

An amazing thing I have seen was when I saw for the first time my life-partner Tanja when I met her in Airlie Beach some 21 years ago! An amazing place I have been 22 years ago was in the deepest Arnhem Land at the aboriginal settlement of Numbulwar. http://ozoutback.com.au/postcards/postcards_forms/arnhemland_east/index.htm#Pics
An amazing thing we have done was when we left Brisbane to move too the Whitsundays and we kept on traveling and living on the road for six years. Our daughter was only six month old then! We where self teaching our son via the school of distance education.
Who says one can not travel with children?!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you about journalism of the print media and the online media. For our newspaper "Die WOCHE in Australia", its website http://www.woche.com.au and our online tourism magazine the "Austr@alien Mag@zine" http://www.ausmag.com.au we always invite trainees / interns to learn about journalism. Locations are in our main office in Sydney for print and in the Queensland correspondent office here at our place in the Whitsundays for online media.
Since we have our own in-house hosting and web design service DuHost.com http://www.duhost.com we can also teach you about this.
However, what I like most to teach is sailing, snorkeling, diving and all things beach, ocean and the Whitsundays.
We can teach you a thing or two about traveling too and about our hobbies like fishing and spear fishing, brewing home brew beer and lemonades, making wine, making sausages, baking bread, making ice cream, making cheese, roasting and brewing good coffee.
We like to learn about your experiences while you where traveling and might possibly publish your stories in our publications.