"We went for a walk - it took 35 years"

My wife Ann and I have always had a love of walking. So when we got married in 1978 we bought a copy of the AA's 'No Through Road' book. Little did we know at the time just what a great purchase it would turn out to be.

Full of wonderful country walks throughout the UK, it's given us, and our three daughters Karen, Lisa and Tracy, many happy memories as well as a huge collection of photo albums.

Some walks in the book give you different mileage options to choose from. In East Quantoxhead for example there are 2, 5 or 7 mile walks you can take. Needless to say, we always went for the longer route – sometimes with surprising results. Our Lustleigh Cleave was one of the few that didn't quite go to plan.

This 5 1/2 mile walk took us through dense woodland and we walked for hours not really knowing where we would come out. When we did eventually emerge on the other side we found to our horror that the village where we had parked the car was over in the next valley. As if that wasn't bad enough, it was nearing 8 o'clock in the evening and the light was fading. Ann suggested we thumb a lift. I said that I'd doubt anyone would pick us up with 2 girls aged 4 and 3 years old.

However, not long after a lady in a Land Rover stopped and asked us where we had walked from and where our car was parked. I said it was in the village of Manaton. Without further ado she told us to hop in. So I sat in the back on a pile of farm implements, while Ann and Karen and Lisa sat in the front. It was another 3 miles to our car. I can't tell you how grateful we were to this lady.

Windermere was Tracy's first walk - aged just 4 months.

On our last, and 205th walk in Pen-y-Fan in August 2013, we took a bottle of champagne with us, which we cracked open in celebration of 35 years of pure enjoyment. We're now about to start on a new AA book of walks.

Derek Wright