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.

On Sunday 9th October we travelled into Co Tyrone to the southern side of the Sperrins. I had looked up all the various reports for this one and decided to follow M1EYP’s advice and followed the Sperrin Way. This was at best a lane but took us up to within 1k of the summit. We left the Landy beside a water storage ditch that was “grassed” over. This time we only had mountain dog – sofa dog was left at home – and she had the sense not to walk over it!! we climbed over the fence and headed up to the summit. It was a lovely afternoon, thankfully no midgies!

We quickly set up the HF aerials and then Ian went to 2m whilst I started on 40m then 20m. Mountain dog settled into her usual spot beside me with a few wee forays out into the heather. 34 qsos were gained in quick succession so well activated on HF!! Ian had 5 on 2m fm. One S2S with CT1HIX/P.

The views over to Sawel, Dart and the Mullaghs were amazing so after a few photos we started back down to the Landy. We kept going this time over to the Glenelly valley side and were soon in the Plum where we had our usual stop at Pinkerton’s shop for an ice cream and were able to log on at the BT phone box to do an upload to Facebook of the photos!

We thought we would add this one in at the end of our trip to the South West mountains along with Mullaghcroy 009. However as we couldn’t get access to the shorter walk to Dooish we ended up with just one summit today. When we were refused access on the west side of the summit we drove round to the east to the wee pub on the Drumquin road. We were given permission to park and he kindly directed us to the start of the “track”. After and hour we reached the folly and then on to the summit. Ian was soon in contact with Victor GI4ONL on 2m and I had a QSO with him also in case HF wasn’t good. I needn’t have worried – very quickly had it activated on 40m, then S2S on 60m and 20m. Views were nonexistent today as we were SN led with a fine mist. Mountain dog was getting cold at this stage so we packed up and headed down again. No wildlife spotted today. Just the usual mushrooms and fox pooh!!

On 26th September we traveled the short distance from Portpatrick to. Cairn Pat. There was sufficient parking space on the access lane to the transmitter site to ensure the farmers access wasn’t blocked.  Although the forecast was to be dry there were a lot of ominous clouds so coats were donned! Unfortunately we decided against gaiters! The upper track turned out to have open access to cattle so was pure mud and in a dip all the shoughs were flooded to we had to walk over very wet fields! However it was a very short walk and 15mins later we were setting up at the summit. It started to rain so we both took cover in the bothy bag! Ian had few contacts on 2m but we both got activations on 40m including a S2S. Then it was a quick pack up and descent back to the jeep for the run around to Cairnryan for the ferry home and a bit of R&R in the Stena plus lounge! A nice wee end to our uni drop off trip!