This was my final summit in the South West of GI and the penultimate for Ian as he still had Bessie Bell to do later today. Just under 800ft but like many mountains in Northern Ireland there was no clear path or track to the summit but we were able to drive up a track to within 500m of it. In lovely sunshine  we started up the hillside, through gorse, bog and tree stumps – not pleasant for Mountain Dog and her sidekick Sofa Dog!! it took us 30 mins to get to the top but that was due to difficulties with my knee rather than the distance. On the way up we saw buzzards and the usual mushrooms – the trees are starting to take over again. No sign of the red squirrels and deer reported by others.

At the summit we set up the HF antenna and before Ian headed up the “watch tower” to get his other VHF contacts he spoke to Victor GI40NL on 145.525. Contacts followed with William MI6XKE, Ray GI4AHD, Dave MI0VKO, Eddie GI7FHZ, Martin MI0RTY, and Syd MI5UTC.

I went onto the WAB net initially and quickly worked through a good net there, then moved down the band to work a total of 14 on 40m, 4 on 20m and 2 on 2m.

12:05z G0FEX 7MHz SSB                   12:28z EB1IFK 7MHz SSB
12:06z G0GWY 7MHz SSB                 12:29z G4TQE 7MHz SSB
12:06z G4SQA 7MHz SSB                  12:29z G6TUH 7MHz SSB
12:07z G7BGA 7MHz SSB                  12:30z EA2CKX 7MHz SSB
12:07z MW0XOT 7MHz SSB             12:34z G0RQL 7MHz SSB
12:10z G4ZRP 7MHz SSB                   12:49z MW6HNN 7MHz SSB
12:11z G6LKB 7MHz SSB                    12:56z SM7DIE 14MHz SSB
12:12z GM8OEG/P 7MHz SSB           12:57z DB9MKV 14MHz SSB
12:16z G4DUE 7MHz SSB                   12:59z CT2IWW 14MHz SSB
12:17z MK3FEH 7MHz SSB                12:59z OK1DVM 14MHz SSB
12:20z G3XKT 7MHz SSB                   13:12z GI4ONL 144MHz FM
12:21z 2E0GBK 7MHz SSB                 13:14z GI4AHD 144MHz FM
12:23z G0FVH 7MHz SSB
12:27z M0MDA 7MHz SSB

As we were packing up black clouds were piling in and soon there was torrential rain. After a quick scramble we were back at the Landy within 15 mins, loaded up and making our way over to Bessie Bell GI/SW-001.