Mel and Deb get ready to enjoy a pint inside an old-time pub during a trip to Ireland. (Photo supplied)
One of the first things Mel and Deb McCallum did after falling in love as teenagers back in small-town Alberta was sell everything they owned, load up their backpacks and travel around the world for two years.
Their love of travel – and adventure in foreign lands – has never dwindled since.
Many longtime Osoyoos residents know Mel and Deb as the proud owners of Lakeside Travel, the travel agency they have owned and operated since 1984.
Not only have they booked vacations and tours for literally thousands of clients over the past 32 years, but they have participated in hundreds of trips themselves and both say they will continue to travel around the world as long as they remain in good health.
“We met in high school in the little town of Westlock Alberta (50 kilometres north of Edmonton) in the late 1970s,” said Deb. “In 1981, we sold everything we owned except for some clothes and our backpacks and we took off on a two-year adventure.
“We got married and planned our journey. We ended up travelling to the South Pacific and ended up going to places such as New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Thailand. It was such an adventure being that young and not having anything to worry about back home.’
They had vacationed in Osoyoos as a young couple and realized in the early 1980s that there wasn’t a travel agency in town, said Mel.
“We saw the opportunity to open up our own travel business and we both loved visiting here, so we both took courses to become certified travel agents and opened this place back in 1984 and have been here ever since.”
Mel and Deb have now been married for 35 years and all three of their adult male children grew up in Osoyoos.
They recently returned from a two-week trek to Ireland with a group of 15.
This comes after yet another adventure that took them – along with a large group of 25 clients – on a two-week safari to East Africa, where they observed lions, elephants, leopards and a myriad of other beautiful animals in their natural habitat in Kenya and Tanzania.
The large group visited Africa from Feb. 18 until March 6.
Deb and Mel have hundreds of pictures of their African safari, including some incredible up close shots of some of the world’s largest and fiercest animals leading their daily lives in the wilds of the African desert.
“We’ve got some great pictures of the Big Five … lions, elephants, cape buffalo, rhinos and leopards,” she said. “It was just so thrilling to be able to get within camera distance of these incredible and amazing animals.”
Besides a large contingent from Osoyoos, this latest excursion attracted participants from Penticton, Vancouver, Lethbridge and Kelowna, said Deb.
This is the 10th year in a row that Deb has organized an international excursion with the infamous and popular group fondly called The Getaway Gals.
Some of the most recent excursions with The Getaway Gals have taken them to New York, San Francisco, New Mexico, Boston, Montreal and Quebec City.
“It started out with 10 of us … and we ended up with 46 people on our trip to Boston,” she said.
“We’re off to Spain in September to walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage.”
Mel and Deb decide which international junket they are going to organize based on talking to regular loyal clients, reading about exciting tourist destinations and, on occasion, convincing their many friends to travel with them to destinations they have wanted to visit for some time.
“We do everything,” said Deb. “Once we pick the next destination, we send it out to all of our clients we think might be interested.
“Once we have enough people interested to book a trip, we put everything together. All the client has to do is pay the money and show up on time to catch the plane and away we go.”
Besides booking regular holidays for customers and wedding destination holidays, another big part of their travel business is booking bus tours through Europe, said Deb.
Mel and Deb say they never have and never will get tired of travelling the world.
Meeting new people and being introduced to new cultures never gets tiresome, said Deb.
“There’s still a lot of world left to see,” she said smiling. “The beauty of travelling is the excitement that comes with visiting places you’ve only read or heard about.
“And when you get there and get to experience new things for the first time, it makes you feel like you’re travelling for the first time. Being able to share the experience with your friends and loved ones makes it even better.”
The good news for the loving couple is their youngest son Alex is able to step in and run their business whenever they take off on another extended adventure.
“Our love of travel has certainly extended to our three children,” said Mel. “They might not have the travel bug as much as we do, but they’ve all travelled a fair bit themselves.
“We’re lucky because Alex always takes the time to come back to Osyooos and help us run the business when we’re away.”
For those travel adventurers who missed out on the recent trip to Africa, Deb and Mel are organizing a return trip in February of 2017.
As for the future, Deb and Mel McCallum have no plans to retire and they are looking forward to heading out together on many more adventures around the world.
“I never get tired of it,” said Mel.
His wife shakes her head in agreement.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
Mel and Deb McCallum enjoy the scenery at Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. (Photo supplied)
Mel and Deb McCallum (far right and left) are the proud owners of Lakeside Travel in Osoyoos. The couple have spent much of their 35-year marriage travelling to various destinations around the world. They are shown here with the group who joined them on their recent trip to Ireland. (Photo supplied)
