CURRENT MISSION

At the end of each year I want to be able to look back and see that it has been an interesting and memorable year and that I have done something worthwhile for others.

ABOUT ME

MY SITUATION IS NOT AN ORDINARY ONE BUT READ MY PROFILE AND PLAN AHEAD AND YOU COULD ENJOY SOME GREAT TIMES WITH US IN AUSTRALIA.

My wife Silvia and I have not really had a home since 2012. Silvia is Uruguayan and for several years we spent some of each year in Uruguay, some in Australia and some visiting other places. Things have changed and with Silvia's family off in other countries visits to Uruguay are less frequent and our travels to other countries tend to be longer, slower visits.

We do a lot of house-sitting in Australia and overseas along with road trips in Australia and travel in other countries. We are well set up for road trips and camping in Australia with a camper trailer, a 4WD vehicle and also a spare tent and inflatable double bed. We have on occasions had other couples along on trips in Australia using this spare tent as sleeping quarters.

I am easy going with a good sense of humour, articulate, like to share a bottle of red but don't mind teetotallers (so long as they don't try to convert me). Love the bush, nature, bushwalking, photography. Love animals and these days specially enjoy other people's pets because we cannot have pets of our own - we travel too much. Partial to occasional fun stuff - abseiling, hang gliding, parachuting, swim with whale sharks etc. A bit of a poet and perform Aussie bush poetry when I get the chance in Australia.
Love meeting interesting people.

PHILOSOPHY

Make some memories. Tolerance. Be optimistic about people.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Hosted heaps and surfed in both Australia and Uruguay. Surfed in lots of other countries as well.
For several years my wife Silvia and I have been nomads - no place to call home. As a result we have not hosted much at all during that time. In most of our travels we like to couch surf occasionally to experience again the special things in our CS community.
Silvia suggested that we should host CSers in the extra tent we have. Haven't worked out how to advertise something like that properly yet - our location keeps changing. However, if you are interested feel free to ask (welll ahead of time). It will probably take some forward planning to make it work but you might get to experience the Aussie bush and wildlife in ways that might be difficult to achieve otherwise.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I enjoyed hosting people from all over the world while living in Hervey Bay in Australia. Also hosted when we were living in Uruguay. Surfed when travelling the Australian outback and in the US, Argentina, Panama, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay , South Africa, Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotalnd. Some of those don't show in my references when they were couch requests through my wife's profile. We both had lots of references when we met and didn't want to lose them by starting a new combined profile.
I like to host people or stay for at least a couple of nights, preferably 3 or 4. It allows enough time to get to know each other a bit and makes the experience more memorable.
It is specially rewarding when you get the chance to renew acquaintances with CSers you have met before and for my wife and I that has happened on several occasions.

Interests

I am a keen photographer mostly concentrating on nature, wildlife and landscapes.
My wife and I love natural places and have seen a great variety of wildlife in the many countries we have visited. I have been a birdwatcher for almost 50 years but these days I do a lot of my birdwatching through the big lens.
I love bushwalking and try to fit in a few good walks each year. My wife and I are fortunate to be able to travel a lot and particularly enjoy hiking in some of the spectacular natural places.
I read a lot.
I have been a keen squash player but with our travelling lifestyle I don't get to play very often now. If we stop somewhere for a month or so and there are squash courts I play then but it takes a few weeks to get squash fit.
We seem to get by fine without television. I am a rugby league fan but find it hard to keep in touch with the game with our travelling lifestyle. I try to go to a live game or two each year if I am in Australia at the right time. I find cricket and tennis interesting but I can't keep up with those either these days .
When we get the chance we do some volunteer conservation work. We have worked for a couple extended periods at the Arid Recovery Centre in South Australia where their very large fenced enclosures keep out introduced predators . In 2018 we volunteered at a rescue centre for tree kangaroos in North Queensland. In 2019 and 2020 we did a few months as caretakers at reserves for the endangered northern hairy-nosed wombats in western Queensland.

• photography
• reading
• traveling
• volunteer work
• hiking
• squash
• birdwatching
• bushwalking
• nature conservation
• dancing salsa
• nature and wildlife
• aussie bush poetry

Music, Movies, and Books

Historical books - fact, or fiction in a historical setting.
I enjoy a wide variety of music but often know the music without knowing who the musicians are.
Movies - enjoy action movies, dramas, comedies and others but not horror or ones with too much pointless violence and negative stuff. I watch more movies on long flights between continents than I do at other times.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have worked for a couple of weeks with the last few (only 14) orange bellied parrots living in the wild in a remote area of Tasmania. Though their future looked dismal when we were there in 2016, there are more promising signs of population recovery now although their situation is still very precarious. They are beautiful little fellows and it was a privilege to work as a volunteer on the recovery project.

Teach, Learn, Share

I am quite willing to share stuff about our Australian wildlife and photography.
I have technical and software skills in the IT area. I do a lot of image processing in association with my photography and I am happy to share some of those skills.
In the last few years we have been dancing salsa - don't really need a dance floor, can even dance when camping in the bush.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Apart from good company, I often leave a trail of razor sharp knives behind after visiting peoples places. For many years I traveled with my sharpening stone in my luggage. These days we are traveling very light and heavy sharpening stones are usually left behind.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Malawi, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Wales, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Uruguay

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