I am 95 now, and when my wife was alive I'd always wanted to travel. But she had chronic arthritis and osteoporosis, so we were a little tied down. Ten years ago she passed on and I was vegetating a bit at home in Queensland, so I set off around Australia in my car - I packed the budgie in there too. She was a beautiful little thing and used to sit on my shoulder singing, but she held me back from going overseas.

After she died and I was left alone, I decided to head off - first to Gallipoli, followed by a 10-day overground trip on one of those cheap backpacker buses around Europe. We went to Romania and Hungary and on to Vienna. The upper age limit for the backpacker bus was 45 - my travel agent had to knock 40 years off to sneak me in. I got so much more respect and kindness in Europe than I get at home that I wanted to go back, so I decided to start with Vienna on a two-month round-the-world trip in 2006, when I was 89. I travelled through Paris and Berlin before deciding that I wanted to see Warsaw, and after that I hopped on a train to Dresden and then Prague. I made it all the way to London before flying over to Canada to backpack down the west coast of America, where I have friends.

I've never been on one of those city open-top bus sightseeing tours because they've got set routes, and I like to do things independently when I can. Until I got cataracts I used to walk 20km a day around a city. You see some wonderful things, walking the backstreets.