4 Valentine’s travel love stories

“In 1974 I was hitchhiking round Greece when the war with Turkey broke out. I made my way from Crete to Corfu, figuring it was the safest place to be.

“Corfu was pretty deserted, I saw a very cute tanned guy with long blond hair in the garden, and when we spoke that evening he talked about going to sleep on a deserted beach.

“Luckily I knew the way, so I offered to take him there. Somehow we just hung out together for the next couple of weeks.

“We swapped addresses when he left for home. Nothing “romantic” happened in Greece, but he came to see me as soon as I got back and never left again! We are still married, we are best friends, and the most important part is that we are great travelling companions.

“These days we stay in nicer B & Bs and guesthouses rather than sleeping on beaches – and we catch buses rather than hitchhike! He had a kidney transplant 18 years ago on Valentine’s Day, but it hasn’t stopped us travelling. In March we will be swimming with humpback whales off the Dominican Republic and we just got back from celebrating my 60th birthday in Kenya.”