Travelling the World with Sam Luker

The Culbert Family History blog presents the first of what we hope will be many travelogues written by you, the descendants of John Culbert and Mary Ward.

Today's story comes to us from Sam Luker of Muskoka, Ontario whom you met previously in this post. 

Sam Luker and Melva Murphy in 1955 as they embarked on a lifetime of adventure together.

TRAVELLING THE WORLD by Sam Luker

In our sixty-three years together, my wife, Melva and I have travelled the world widely, visiting over eighty-five countries on all seven continents. The early years were spent exploring the Caribbean Islands and Mexico with our young children, by land and by chartered sailboat. Later we sailed on our own yachts throughout the Great Lakes.

We then expanded our horizons to include much of Europe (Portugal, Italy, France, Britain, Belgium and eastern Europe). My sabbaticals from the University of Guelph allowed us to travel extensively throughout China and Japan, the South Pacific (Bali, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand). We did an exchange with the University of Colombia, after which we explored the Amazon River, the Galapagos Islands and Machu Pichu.                                                                                                 
Upon my early retirement from the University of Guelph, I travelled to Antarctica, Argentina and Brazil.                                                                                                        
In later years, we travelled through the western United States, across Canada coast to coast, and explored Iceland. We made two trips to Africa. On one trip, we were briefly arrested by the militia in Congo.                                                                    
We also tried cruising for the first time. This deluxe trip took us from Stockholm north on the Adriatic Sea to St. Petersburg Russia, stopping off at Finland, Latvia and Lithuania before sailing south to Copenhagen, Denmark. We followed this up with a land excursion through Norway (most rewarding).

Having had a taste for cruising, we next embarked on three river boat trips: the Danube, Rhine and Elbe. Though lacking the five-star service of the first cruise (with a butler yet), they proved to be most enjoyable.

Two years ago, we made a sentimental trip back to the land of my ancestors in Southern Ireland, and attended an Irish wedding there.

Lately, we have slowed down a little, but we managed to attend our great-nephew's wedding on Vancouver Island. It was great. And believe me, we are not through yet!