WALK HISTORY
In 1963 five members of West Birmingham YHA Local Group walked from Clun to Nant y Dernol youth hostels, a distance of around 35 miles. During the walk the panoramic views brought up a discussion on the possibility of walking from the border to the sea in one day. The group's rambling leader, Roy Millard, was set the task of working out a route, checkpoints & accommodation, receiving valuable help in this task from the warden at Borth Youth Hostel.
One Saturday in October 1964 twelve group members were dropped off at the border at Felindre, having sent the night at Clun Y.H. They were backed up by another dozen 'supporters' from the YHA group and made their way via Llanidloes, Plynlimon, and Nant y moch to the coast at Borth. The only lady in the party gave up after 26 miles but, keeping together as a group most of the way, the rest all finished. The fist arrivals managed to paddle in the sea after 15 hours 20 minutes of walking but were all completely shattered.
The following year a walk across Wales was repeated with members of other YHA local groups invited and the fastest crossing was reduced to 13 hours 5 minutes. This time they were playing cricket on the beach the following day, whereas the previous year they had just about manage to hobble out to the cars to be chauffeured home!
In 1966 the group made it a national event, charging entrants 10/- to cover transport, refreshments and a certificate and the event has taken place every year since then on the first weekend in September. It soon became apparent that a cut-off time was required for finishing and this was set at 18 hours, regardless of the exact route which has changed slightly over the years but has always been around 45 miles. Since 1982 there have always been a few "Double Crossers" - people starting at the coast at 11am on the Friday who walk eastwards to the border near the Anchor Inn in time to join the start of the official westwards walk the next day!
GOLDEN JUBILEE
Saturday 7th September 2013 saw the 50th edition of the “Across Wales Walk” and this year the organisers Stuart & Judith Lamb allowed a record number of participants. So it was that 156 people set off at 5.10 am up the road towards the Kerry Ridgeway and I was one of them, hoping to successfully complete my 11th “Crossing”.
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary I decided to try and combine the walk with a little geocaching and found as many caches as I could along or close to the route. I also had the idea to create special new caches at the checkpoints and this cache is one of these. Alas it was not possible to do this at the start or finish (because of lack of daylight) or at Check 3 (where a multi & large crowds complicated matters too much) but these will hopefully follow in the not too distant future.
CHECK 2
This comes 16 miles into the walk after walkers have crossed the western end of the Kerry Ridgeway, Bryn Gwyn and the River Severn at Llandinam.
Prior to 1996 the route went further south and crossed the Blue Linns but this is now a huge wind farm so check 2 has been moved from the Old School.
Check 2 is the "breakfast stop" where people grab a bite to eat and a cold drink and the cache is in the group of trees behind the checkpoint
Other caches on or close to the first section of the route are:-
GC3WYKT
GC3WYDM
GC3WYHJ
My grateful thanks to ccrevell for offering to help me with maintenance should this be necessary and I cannot arrange to do it within a reasonable time.