Widow fulfills husband's travel dreams by scattering his ashes all over the world

A widow has fulfilled her late husband's wish to see the world by travelling nearly 60,000 miles to more than a dozen locations to scatter his ashes. Rita Munns, 63, has cast the remains of her husband Richard at historic sites and meaningful locations in 12 countries including Jerusalem, New Zealand and the Great Wall of China.

Mr Munns, who died of cancer in 2007 aged 68, had a fear of flying and rarely flew, despite wanting to explore the planet with Rita. So Mrs Munns, a grandmother-of-five, decided to ''show him the world'' after his death, taking a small envelope containing some of his ashes with her everywhere she goes.

In the last three years she has walked the Great Wall of China, trekked through the New Zealand rainforest and made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in his memory. In every location she has scattered a few of his ashes, meaning there is now a little part of her husband on four continents across the globe. Mrs Munns only carries a small amount of her husband's ashes on her, in case they get confiscated as she travels through customs.


Photo from here.

The intrepid traveller, who pays for all the trips herself, said she finds it ''extremely emotional'' as she leaves a little part of her darling husband all over the world. She said: ''I do this because if he had lived for longer we would have tried to travel to all kinds of places together but sadly that didn't happen."

Richard's ashes have been scattered:

1. August 2007 Fordham, Cambs., Richard's place of birth - eight miles
2. August 2007 Exning, Suffolk, where the couple lived together - zero miles
3. Sept 2007 Milan, Italy, where daughter Alison and her family live - 1,678 miles
4. Sept 2007 Istanbul, Turkey - 3,922 miles
5. Sept 2007 China, Great Wall and Beijing while on a charity trek - 9,693 miles
6. October 2007 Killalea, County West Meath, Ireland, five days - 836 miles
7. Nov 2007 Belgium and Calais, France - 600 miles
8. April 2008 Israel and the Holy Land for a week - 2,366 miles
9. July and August 2008 Dundee, Scotland - 868 miles
10. Oct 2008 Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk - 103 miles
11. March 2009 Hong Kong - 11,900
12. March 2009 North Island, South Island and Cape Reinga, New Zealand, North Island for five weeks - 22,530 miles
13. December 2009 Lucerne and the Swiss Alps, Switzerland - 1,398 miles

Total miles: 55,902 miles