I grew up in Melbourne, Australia. At the age of eighteen, I found myself hitch-hiking up the highway with no fixed plans.
Eventually, I landed in the middle of an environmental action to prevent destructive development on Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland. Mud, bulldozers, police and tree top platforms were some of the notable features of this episode in my life. Ultimately, I decided that there were probably more creative ways to combat environmental and social issues.
Anna lying about.
Fast-forwarding through a bachelor degree in visual arts obtained at three different educational institutions in three different states of Australia, I decided at a significantly more advanced age than is usual to become an acrobat. I spent the next seven years, swinging on a trapeze, balancing precariously and viewing the world from odd angles.
In between performances and training, I developed art and media projects for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in youth centres, community art centres, schools, juvenile detention centres and prisons – and this also taught me a few different ways to look at the world.
Finally my itchy feet led me to a favela on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I spent three and a half years working at a community arts and activity centre for young people where I also developed various art and media projects with teenagers.
Eventually, I left Brazil for the UK to work on the more managerial side of NGO life. However, after a year and a half in London, it began to seem rather grey and so I left, alone, on my bicycle – travelling east. My final destination was Prague, in the Czech Republic, but I went by way of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania travelling three and a half thousand kilometres down the Danube, from its source in the Black Forest to where it enters the Black Sea.
I was absolutely hooked by the charms of travelling by bicycle and have spent a lot of my time since dreaming up different bike routes in various parts of the world and touring when I can.