ACROSS WALES WALK START (ANCHOR) Traditional Cache

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.

THE START
This is at the border near the Anchor Inn and is a crazy scene with the scent of embrocation filling the darkness. The starting whistle blows at 5am after all those present are checked off on the marshal's board. Then comes a couple of miles of road walking before turning left onto the Kerry Ridgeway where there are loads of geocaches placed by ccrevell including:-
GC3H88R
GC3H87X
GC3H870
GC3H45A
GC3H446
GC3H43B
GC3H41V
GC3H2TX
GC3H2RE
GC3H2EZ
GC4MMV8

This cache at the start is a small plastic tube hidden in the obvious place for the start of the Across Wales Walk. I've added a danger attribute as it is on a fairly busy road near a bend and there is no place to park immediately by the cache. You will need to bring your own writing implement and take care with the traffic.
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.