Williams says one of their early concerns was making sure they had a pub lunch stop. In fact, “they went out of their way” for one.
“In the old days we walked along roads, in the 1970s you could, but eventually we moved to footpaths which we never would have done at the start.”
Maggie Mason, 72 and from Kendal, Cumbria, walked for the first time in 1977 and has completed many more since.
Although Easter weekend on Holy Island was always “a real high”, she also remembers some tough times walking through snow storms and sleeping on stone floors when she could be “a bit grumpy” if someone was snoring.
“I have seen a fellow walker sink waist deep into a bog,” she says.
“I have also had hypothermia after crossing the sand because I was the back marker and one person was going very slowly.”
