A pair of keen walkers are celebrating 50 years of walking after romance sparked on the footpaths and byways of West Devon.

Hikers Rosemary and Graham Clarke married after meeting while walking. Now they are joining in the celebrations of the Tavistock Ramblers group they founded half a century ago.

The couple, from Tavistock, will shoulder their rucksacks yet again this Sunday, June 14, at Walkhampton Village Hall to celebrate with a gathering.

Funnily enough, Rosemary actually missed the very first walk of the group in 1976 because she was in hospital giving birth: “The first Tavistock Ramblers Group walk was six miles round Peter Tavy with 22 walkers. As always with Ramblers walks, the leader planned well, walking the route avoiding barbed wire, cutting vegetation and making notes in the days before.

“The leader has an important role organising the walks, putting it in the calendar and planning the route and making sure everyone knows and checking who is coming and keeping an eye on the weather.

“Walking the route before the actual day is the most important thing, and to do so as close to the day of the walk as possible is vital because things can change so quickly. Too many times, landowners have locked gates or blocked rights of way with fences or wire after the first planning walk, when they were clear. Then the walk is ruined or we have to find a long diversion on unsuitable roads with disgruntled ramblers. Or a once-passable stream suddenly becomes a fast-flowing river too deep due to overnight rain.”

However, things can turn out even worse, as Rosemary, a former practice nurse, remembers: “I had a very dramatic incident when I fell, breaking my ankle on a walk with two others and had to be airlifted by a helicopter.

“I stepped on a layer of mossy grass covering a slippery granite and fell, breaking my ankle. I couldn’t go a step further.

“There was no mobile phone signal and no one in sight. Then my friend heard shouting and saw someone driving cattle on horseback. He was a member of the Dartmoor Search and Rescue North team and luckily, because it was Ten Tors weekend, he could contact a checkpoint team. The team passed on a call for the helicopter covering the event and I was soon flown off to hospital.”

On another occasion Rosemary was leading the Ramblers when a walker became ill and an ambulance was called, but because the 999 service wanted a postcode (impossible on Dartmoor), she arranged for the group to meet the ambulance at Norsworthy Bridge.

Rosemary, who stayed with the casualty, called Dartmoor Search and Rescue Tavistock to bring the paramedics in a 4x4 to the casualty.

Notably Tavistock Ramblers created and launched the 108-mile (173km) Dartmoor Way circular route in 2020. With huge stamina, Rosemary completed the trail, raising funds for Dartmoor Search and Rescue, of which her daughter is a member.

The Tavistock Ramblers group is part of the national Ramblers Association walking charity network.

New members are invited: [email protected]. Website: www.ramblers.org.uk/tavistock and https://tavistockramblers.org.uk/