I am Rowan Burns. I was born and grew up in Tasmania, Australia, as a baby-boomer. I was groomed by my parents from an early age to be a doctor, but when I eventually got to university, it just wasn't for me, and I failed first year miserably.

I then decided to follow my father into journalism. I served a cadetship with The Mercury newspaper in Hobart, and all up, spent more than 11 years there. My work included general reporting, sub-editing (my main area of expertise), and a 2½-year stint as motoring editor.

In 1983, towards the end of my period with the paper, my work won me the annual Keith Welsh Award as best journalist in the State. I married Lesley in my early 20s, and we had two wonderful and beautiful children, Alexandra, now a medical student, and Stuart, now an architectural student.

After leaving The Mercury, I became involved in public relations, marketing, promotion, publishing and newspaper consulting. Then my marriage ended, and I moved to North Queensland for 2½ years to work with a small country newspaper, The Tablelander as managing editor. There also was a short period as a real estate sales representative (ugh!) just before I returned to Hobart in the early 1990s.

I became full-time media manager for the motor sport event, Targa Tasmania, for three years. That was a particularly challenging position, but I learned a lot about people, about the organisation and promotion of major international events, and about life in general.

In 1995, I moved to Perth, Western Australia, for romantic reasons. I continued an involvement in the sport and recreation industry as the executive officer for a state-wide sports organisation, before I published a sports industry newsletter, SportsWatch. I also worked for six months on contract as a sports sub-editor for The West Australian newspaper, and did some consulting work for the Western Australian Department of Education.

Unfortunately, the romance that led me to Perth ended, leaving me a wreck emotionally. I had a mild heart attack while sailing in a race on the Swan River on 1 February 1997. You can read about it here. I was extremely lucky because, as the heart surgeon put it, I had sustained trivial damage to the heart muscle, and I could resume a normal life (whatever that might be!).

This, of course, was a major wake-up call after years of smoking and drinking, a relative lack of physical activity, and a large degree of stress. I owned a motor vehicle that caused me inordinate problems and I had just landed the contract with The West Australian.

Eventually, I divorced motor cars entirely when I sold the troublesome beast, and used the money to buy a bicycle. I was a complete bike novice. I had learned to ride in the cul-de-sac of my childhood home, but my parents wouldn't let me have a bike because "it's too dangerous". I did acquire a Graecross mountain bike before moving to Queensland in 1989, but the woman I lived with laughed at my style and wasn't very encouraging. Anyway, I had two vehicles then at my disposal, so why did I need a bicycle? I sold it.

My acquisition in Perth at least provided me with cheap and reliable transport to and from work. As a bonus, I explored Perth on through its network of shared pathways. In addition, I found the bike mechanically interesting, and I took it apart, rebuilt it, and got to know what made it work. It became a fine outlet for my mechanical interests.

Sometime in all this, cycling and I just seemed to dovetail together, and unknowingly, I became as committed to it as I have been committed to anything else in my life.

When it became evident that my contract with The West Australian wasn't to be renewed, I decided to return to Tasmania in late 1997... by bicycle. The ride from Perth to Adelaide seemed like an interesting and challenging thing to do. And it was. You can read about that journey here.

While making the epic crossing of the Nullarbor Plain, I thought about how I could use cycling to earn a living. I struck on the idea of a cycle-touring business. After settling back in Hobart, I enrolled in the first tour-guiding course at the Drysdale Institute of TAFE in Hobart.

I operated Cycling Adventures Tasmania successfully as a concept. However, the income was not even at subsistence level and I finally took up the part-time position of Development Officer for the State Bicycle Advisory Committee (SBAC), which was run under the auspices of the Tasmanian Government. This was more than anything to stay alive financially, but I also was able to identify an interesting, long-term, full-time opportunity.

My most outstanding achievement in cycling administration was assembling and administering a regional development project covering the metropolitan area of Southern Tasmania. I worked with the Southern Regional Councils Bicycle Committee to a develop successful funding application with the Tasmanian Office of Sport and Recreation.

The majority of the funds for the three-year project actually filtered through to Sport and Rec from the Australian Sports Commission. CyclingSouth was created with membership comprising the five councils in the Hobart metropolitan region. Individuals seeking to become members of a cycling association were directed initially to the advocacy organisation, Bicycle Tasmania.

My position was unique in Australia. It bridged cycling advocacy and delivery of facilities and programs by local government. In Tasmania's case, local government is conservatively estimated to deliver 80 to 85 percent of cycling services and infrastructure. So a healthy, regional organisation with its roots at local government level was a breakthrough.

The program was intended to create various programs that encouraged participation of people in the Hobart metropolitan area in cycling as a long-term physical activity as well as a viable transport mode.

I was appointed initially as CyclingSouth's Development Officer, then later as Executive Officer, a position that reflected better the broad scope of the program. Among the outcomes that I developed entirely from scratch were the Five-Alive! School Holiday activity for children under the age of 14 years; a full calendar of events for Bike Week held each year in March; and a suite of training courses for adults, ranging from learn-to-ride to moderately advanced bike maintenance courses.

The training courses and Five-Alive! provided me with the most satisfaction. Both were among the few quality programs of their type available in Australia.

Midway through 2003, another opportunity arose to expand CyclingSouth's horizons to a state-wide level, but the proposal failed, ironically because of significant political obstacles internally. That missed opportunity and a several other issues substantially altered my personal outlook with CyclingSouth. Consequently, I decided not to renew my employment contract, and resigned the position of Executive Office in June 2005.

I maintained my strong interest in cycling after shutting down Cycling Adventures Tasmania, with emphasis on touring and long-distance randonneuring. I was particularly active in touring in 2001 and 2002, as my Touring section shows.

In 2003, I became an "ancien" after finishing the famous 1200km randonnee, Paris-Brest-Paris, and that effort has inspired my on-going passion for ultra-cycling.

In early 2005, I qualified for the prestigious international Randonneur 5000 award after completing PBP 2003, a 1000km ride (the Giro Tasmania), a Fleche team event over 24 hours (in Australia it is the Fleche Opperman), and enough other events to make up a total of 5000km in randonnees in the previous four years.

I haven't owned a motor vehicle since June 1997. I prefer to commute by bike, bus or foot, or travel by coach, plane or train. I am not averse to using vehicles that are either hired or borrowed. I accept that petroleum will remain the basis of the modern world economy for some time to come, and that it will be replaced by some other carbon-based fuel in the future.

Mainly, I just get on my bike to enjoy riding... and to enjoy the life that cycling has provided me. A return weekend trip from Hobart to visit a friend in Launceston (400km total) has not been unusual for me.

Of course, departing from CyclingSouth opened up more life opportunities, even if they haven't been particularly lucrative for me.

They have, however, included exploring new parts of the world using my primary bicycle, a Fuji Touring. My first expedition was a loop from Melbourne to Mildura and back. Then I investigated the fruit picking industry, and ended up working on an orchard for six months.

I have done two trips to North America to participate in four long-distance events, do a scenic tour in Canada, and be with my partner, Charlene. I am still in Canada, seeking to stay and work legally, although their are some fairly spectacular mountains of red tape in the way, rather reminiscent of the Rocky Mountains, but not nearly so impressive.

I would like to return to my first career and passion, journalism, although I do have tour-guiding and training qualifications to fall back on if necessary. Ultimately, though, my aim is to work, earn and save for half the year, and to travel for the other half.

This website will be my "call-in" centre to recount my adventures. Come back and visit from time to time to see what I have been doing.