CURRENT MISSION

I am taking the opportunity offered this year to travel the world. I plan to do a lot of walking in Spain, Italy and Austria, and later Canada and USA

ABOUT ME

I live on a rural land-sharing cooperative in the rainforest area of northern NSW, on the lush east coast of Australia. My wife and I have four adult children. I'm vegetarian, a bush regenerator by profession, a part-time musician and a keen traveller. I am an enthusiastic walker, cook and occasional writer. This year, 2009, my wife is teaching English in Korea. I am visiting her for three months, then travelling on to Europe and later America. My plan is to do a lot of walking during my wanderings, especially in Austria, Italy, Spain and the Pacific Northwest of USA and Canada. Travelling solo is a new experience for me, and I hope that the flexibility afforded by being alone will open up unexpected opportunities for meeting people in new lands.

PHILOSOPHY

The less I need the happier I'll be. I try to take a minimal approach to life. Admittedly, indulging in the luxury of travel contradicts this (especially these days) but hopefully I can delete other addictions in an effort to compensate.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am new to Couchsurfing and look forward to interactions with other members, both as a traveller this year and as a host in future years when I get back home after August 2009

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Still new to this. However, in 2006 I did a trip through parts of Europe while a member of Hospitality Club. People I met and stayed with through HC were one of the overall highlights of the trip, and I'm certain that experiences with fellow Couchsurfers will be similarly rewarding.

Interests

Walking, music, reading, environmental repair, botany, cooking, vegetarian food, writing, random philosophising, coffee, maps, chocolate, mathematics, the night sky, snow, the seashore, people's life stories and photography

• writing
• photography
• beauty
• concerts
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• coffee
• vegetarian
• walking
• clubbing
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• live music
• outdoor activities
• cartography
• mathematics

Music, Movies, and Books

Annie Proulx, David Malouf, Colm Toibin, Ivan Klima, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, Patrick White, Sonya Hartnett

PJ Harvey, Birthday Party, Magic Dirt, Franz Schubert, Lou Reed, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, JS Bach, Cranberries, Joni Mitchell, WA Mozart, RJ Burnside

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Being lucky enough to travel around Iceland for a week with three great Icelanders, witnessing the fantastic ice-caps, glaciers and waterfalls, and seeing Sigur Ros at a free outdoor concert in a massive natural amphitheatre in the north of the country, with twilight still in the sky at midnight.

Teach, Learn, Share

I am enthusiastic about the beauty of numbers and patterns, I'm excited about maps, stars, biscuits, live music and natural bush regeneration without herbicides

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Cook Islands, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia