About Us

Catch Our Travel Bug was created by us, Tim and Sharyn Nilsen, to share our passion for independent, budget travel. We have been traveling on and off since 1996. As of mid-2026, we’re in our 20th year of full-time travel. We’ve explored over 140 countries and overseas territories and traveled by almost every mode of transport possible.

We usually travel by ourselves because we believe it gets us closer to the places we visit and the people who live there.  We do sometimes go with a group if it makes our journey cheaper and safer but still embraces the spirit of adventure. An example is our multi-month adventures in Africa on overland trucks.

Over the past 10 years, we’ve completed some epic bicycle tours including our ‘test run’ riding across Australia. We were inspired to take up bicycle touring when we met a bunch of amazing touring cyclists in Central Asia on our Silk Road Adventure.

Physically, our bike tours have been our greatest challenge yet, and the achievement has laid out a whole new spectrum of opportunities for future travels! We’ve since cycled from the Arctic Circle to Budapest, cycled the Northern Tier and parts of the West Coast of the USA, ridden from Hanoi to HCMC in Vietnam, and London to Berlin. You will find all the glorious details on our Bicycle Touring page.

But we don’t ride all the time. Sometimes we prefer a traditional backpacking trip, or hiring a car and heading off on a road trip. And in 2015-2016 – we crewed on a yacht around the Caribbean for 4 months.

One thing that’s shaped our travel more than almost anything else: housesitting. Since 2017, we’ve completed 100+ house sits across 24+ countries on five continents, saving us over $300,000 USD in accommodation costs along the way. It’s let us live like locals in places we could never have afforded to stay otherwise, an apartment in Singapore, a place over the marina in Malta, a London flat over the festive season, all in exchange for looking after someone’s home and pets while they’re away. We’ve turned everything we’ve learned into The House Sitter’s Roadmap, if that’s the kind of travel you’re after too.

In sharing our experience we hope to inspire you to get out and explore this amazing planet for yourself.