Since November 2023, a masked man in a cheetah-print catsuit has been walking across Australia, pushing a yellow wheelbarrow full of his belongings.
Japanese construction worker Ken (Kentaro) Jin — better known as his alter-ego, 'The Strange Catman' — landed in Western Australia and set off across the continent’s vast interior. More than two years later, after roughly 6,000 kilometres on foot, he arrived in Sydney to a rapturous reception — still in costume, still pushing the same wheelbarrow.
Along the way, Catman’s online following swelled into the hundreds of thousands – 850k on Instagram alone – and his journey has raised more than $70,000 for childhood cancer research. But by the time he reached the coast, after months of small towns, highways and long empty stretches, a new question had caught up with him: what next?
The answer came quickly. Another lap of Australia, this time by bike. But could the wheelbarrow come too?
For someone so visible, Catman is an enigmatic figure. The costume — a cheetah mask and spotted lycra onesie — makes him instantly recognisable, but the person inside it is more elusive.
What he does offer, occasionally, is a glimpse of intent. “My dream is to become a real-life hero in this world,” he wrote on his GoFundMe page. “I don’t want to be a hero trapped in a screen — I want to be a real presence that brings hope into the real world.” For those who’ve encountered him somewhere along a highway or in a small town, that idea seems to translate.
Online, his videos tend to follow a familiar arc: confusion, curiosity, then something closer to awe. Strangers stop. They ask questions. Then, more often than not, they help — with food, a place to sleep, or simply encouragement. A beer here, a $50 note there, a cycle of kindness.
By the end of his journey, that pattern had reshaped his expectations. Reflecting on the road to Sydney, he said: “I looked different. I spoke a different language… I thought my own two feet were the only thing I could rely on. But in this country, none of that mattered. There was always someone there to support me. Not once did I feel alone.”
There was a clue, too, that there was unfinished business, even after all those months and kilometres: “I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to keep walking. That’s how much this journey meant to me.”
Catman decided to extend his journey, and the call went out on social media for a bike to help him cover ground at greater speed. Jesse Carlsson, co-founder of the Australian adventure cycling brand Curve Cycling, answered that call, reaching out to Catman and offering up one of the company’s GMX gravel bikes.
Now there was an interesting engineering challenge to overcome. After all Catman's months in Australia with his yellow wheelbarrow and its growing collection of stickers, it felt right that it should continue its journey – but how do you tow a huge yellow wheelbarrow behind a bike?
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