Shaun Donovan was born in Cardiff, South Wales, on 9^th August1959. The son of a carpenter, he joined his father in the building trade after leaving school at the age of 16, but was soon disillusioned and so changed careers, working first as an office clerk, before moving into the lucrative world of sales and marketing.

Being a keen motor-cyclist and also a travel enthusiast, he spent several holidays riding his bike around Europe and North Africa, spanning a distance of 10,000 miles and visiting 13 countries and several islands between 1981 and 1983.

In 1984, he married and became the father of three children, but after being made redundant in 1990 due to the recession, his marriage collapsed the following year.

After reading the best-selling paperback Jupiters Travels by Ted Simon, Shaun transposed the book into a movie called Freedom Run and spent a week with Ted at his home in California, where after lengthy discussions, they decided on promoting the idea to film and television companies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Because of the cost involved the BBC suggested a 6-part documentary series for television called Steps of Jupiter 20 years on in which Shaun would re-create the journey himself and Ted would meet him at strategic points along the way, but unfortunately sponsorship was not forthcoming and so the project collapsed.

In 1998 Shaun moved to Tenerife and in 2000 he took his 3 children around America, into Canada and across to the Bahamas just as he had promised them he would do when he had left them in the U.K. two years earlier.

In 2001 Shaun met Sally on the island and in 2007 they took off on another great bus ride only this time around Australia.