Current Journey: North from Rome to Germany, then turn right to Romaina. Right again to Istanbul then fly to the Pamir mountains in August.

Hello. My name is Stephen. Like many, I have two lives which on the surface seem immiscible.

Hyde is a hiker, a biker, a bit of a runner, a tourist, a wanna-be triathlete and adventure racer, a tri-hard endurance anything who doesn’t train enough. He’d like to be known as an adventurer, but is really a weekend warrior who occasionally makes a weekend last a bit longer (like a year).

Jekyll is a sickly, reclusive Engineer who is a geek and enjoys his work.

Hyde is slightly shocked, but pleased, that despite not having any game plan, training regime, coach or supporters, indeed not even knowing what the game is about or to which end he should be running, he seems to be winning. Jekyll is terrified that Hyde will and his career will be ruined.

And moving on back to the first person.
I’m primarily an itinerant (or maybe a vagrant). In the 18 years since completing University, I have had eleven different homes, managing to stay in three of them for 2 years. I’ve been lucky enough to have lived for short periods in Australia, Japan, Wales, Spain and the US. For roughly a year I travelled across South America on a bike for fun, spent another year ambling from home in Spain to India (never got to home in Australia), and I’ve seen a reasonable amount of Australia, Western Europe, Korea, Japan, Suriname, Jamaica and Southern US with work. But work is work, the inside of a concrete bunker filled with computer screens in Jamaica is more or less the same as one in France, although the food is (much) better in France. I still call Australia home.

The several years now (that time flew!) I have had a ‘steady’, ‘normal’ job in Australia, where I travel every other week to other computer filled concrete bunkers around Australia. I'm making it sound more glamorous than it is. It's work, and outside of it I love to travel. Catherine and I have now been on several journeys together, on and off the bike (more on the bike). Iceland, Myanmar, Laos, China, Kyrgyzstan, a bit of Australia, Nepal.

Still lots to see.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet people and hear about their experiences! Get to know a place more deeply by spending quality time with a local. You can pass through a city and not meet a person. By riding, slowly, we spend far more time in a country than many travelers,, so we see the country, but we can only learn about the people by spending time together.

Interests

I have backpacked around, and enjoyed it. I stumbled across long distance cycle touring and have been doing nothing else for my travels since 2007. Love it!

• bicycle touring
• cycle touring

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Met Catherine.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Lots of travel experiences. After spending a fair bit of time traveling, we can talk the leg off a chair about it. Or not, up to you :-)

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Japan, Spain, United States, Wales