all about Luke

I suppose travelling is in my genes. Dad travelled to England from Guyana as a 5 year old in the 1950’s. Mum and dad travelled extensively before having me and my brother. They visited some amazing destinations including Guyana, The Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and Kenya. Their travels continued despite having little Luke (and later Simon) in tow – with a more European focus. I visited Madeira at around 9 months old (I don’t remember much of that!!) and spent the first 15 years of life holidaying with family who were based just outside Valencia, in other parts of mainland Spain, the Canaries, the Balearics, Greece, as well as multiple places in the UK. Family holidays have always been important to me (and Gill). Even now we try to make time to have a family holiday every so often. Ensuring we get that quality time with our parents means a lot.

Luke the fisherman

I’ve always enjoyed fishing and holidays became a great way of earning a little extra spending money by catching fish from the harbour and selling them to locals or even to restaurants. Some of my best childhood memories involve being by the water; watching swordfish swim in the coves in Majorca, attempting to catch giant rays in the harbour on a family holiday in Tenerife and even catching brown and rainbow trout in the Lake District…great times! Fishing still plays a part in most of our trips, just (sadly) less for profit! Nothing tastes better than a fish you have caught yourself and I’m at my happiest while trying for that big catch!!

When Gill and I got together in 2013 it didn’t take long for us to start travelling together. In our relationship I’m the impulsive one who always has to have a trip booked and she’s the more sensible one who’d like to wait until we can afford it before booking something! We initially spent lots of time at English Heritage and National Trust locations before travelling to Canada for our first holiday abroad. After a relatively slow start we then really started to stack up the air miles with at least 2 or 3 holidays a year after that. All of the destinations we’ve visited are listed in our archive. This acts as a bit of a timeline of our adventures so far.

Food plays an important part in experiencing other cultures. We’ve always tried to eat as much like the locals do as possible and experience the real country we are visiting to maximise our experience! Being able to rely on food was particularly useful during covid when we weren’t able to travel. We ate and drank our way around the world from the comfort of home! One of my favourites was ‘visiting’ Thailand with homemade red curry, Singha beer and Bangkok Tuk Tuk gin. These nights provided a light hearted way of minimising the disappointment of not being able to actually travel. Food (both eating and cooking) continues to be a great way of broadening our horizons and furthering our adventures.