Wednesday 27 November 2013

North Wales - November 2013 Day Two - 5 summits

I stayed overnight at the Abbey Grange Hotel which is at the foot of the Horseshoe Pass.  This was an ideal springboard to activate the popular pair of summits near the Horseshoe Pass.

I woke to a grey day and after my continental breakfast found myself in thick mist at The Ponderosa Cafe and walking on my way up to NW-042 Moel y Gamelin by 0815 am. I was back at my car for a cuppa by 0940 am and then on my way to the wireless station on Cyrn-y-Brain NW-043 which I reached within 30 minutes. There was nothing to see in the mist so I just worked all the stations who called me on both summits and returned to the car as fast as I could. 

Logger32 by Bob Furzer K4CY
Leaving the Ponderosa at 11.00 am I motored north through Ruthin to park on the Clwyd Gate Hotel Car park (Hotel closed Nov 2013). From here I used the Offa's Dyke Path to reach the summit of Moel Gyw GW/NW-053. The pleasant walk, partly in mist via SJ 170571 took me 30 minutes. Before the mist closed in I was able to get one good view of the valley looking down towards the Bathafarn Water Works and Coed Pas-y-nant:


Contacts were hard to come by and I didn't stay long. I completed with 8 stations on 2m FM including Colin G4UXH in Milnthorpe. 

The misty conditions on Moel Gyw  GW/NW-053 on November 27th 2013 
My final two summits, which I hadn't visited before, were the well activated Foel Fenli GW/NW-051 and Moel Famau GW/NW-044. Once again I was in mist and these are the routes I used from the car park at Bwlch Penbarra:


I activated Foel Fenli first as this was the nearest to the car park and worked 7 stations - including Karen 2E0XYL/M who I was delighted to meet in the car park a short time later when I was proceeding to my final summit of Moel Famau. I was glad of the company and the cup of hot coffee which Karen prepared for us on our return. Another 7 contacts complete we bade our farewells and I headed off back home to Yorkshire after a most enjoyable two day trip into Wales.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Wales - November 2013 - Day One - Summit One - Moel y Golfa MW-027

I planned out another SOTA summit bagging mission in late November. I needed to return my son in laws dog back to him in Holmfirth, which is over 80 miles from Pickering. This done en-route after an early start and 130 miles later found me driving in rush hour traffic on the M56 south of Manchester, heading towards the A5 roundabout at Oswestry.  I met up with Geoff M6PYG (now 2E0NON) there at around 10.30 am. He had driven up from Malvern to team up with me as the driver for the day. The road route (traced below by GPS) starts from when we arrived at the first summit of four that day, which was Moel y Golfa GW/MW-027, part of the Breidden Hills. 
The route from Oswestry MW-027 > MW-059 > NW-049 > NW-060 > KFC (GO LARGE)
Just after leaving the parking area below the wood at SJ 285125 we came across a large black dog without an owner. The dog scarpered...more on that later. We didn't locate the steep path indicated on the OS map and so chose to take an easier option to ease the ascent. This enabled us to reach the summit from the car in just 22 minutes.  The hill is shaped rather like a whale back in the form of a steep sided, mostly wooded elongated ridge and features twisted and distorted trees disfigured by the fierce winds which must grace the summit on occasion. On this day we had no such winds. Here is the route taken:



The large crooked monument on top of the summit is a tribute to a gipsy called Uriah Burton (Better known as Hughie or Big Just) who died in 1986.  


The views to Wales are exceptional from this top 

A metal fence runs across the summit - it was an ideal support for our antenna pole. We stayed no more than 20 minutes and made 8 contacts. Best DX being with Colin G4UXH in Milnthorpe at 107 miles / 172 Km, which is pretty good on 2m FM. We used 30 watts and a vertical dipole from our side. 


Returning to the car we were greeted by a lady and the lost dog I mentioned earlier. The lady pointed to a poster on a tree showing a photo of the said dog declaring it lost four days previous. No wonder it was trying to find its way into Geoff's boot.... It wanted to go home having had enough of the elements. The number was rang and the owner hot footed it to Moel y Golfa to collect his dog, no doubt relieved. 

We set off to our next summit of the day in the North Wales sector - Allt y Main NW-059. 

Wales - November 2013 - Day One - Summit Two Allt y Main NW-059


The drive from Mid Wales from Moel y Golfa into the North Wales SOTA area from Moel y Golfa MW-027 took just 30 minutes. Welshpool was the only centre of population we passed through and we were walking again on our way up to Allt y Main NW-059 by 1.00pm. Parking was scarce and Geoff chose to leave the car in a passing place at SJ 157157 Tan-y-llwyn. This was a very quiet back road so no problem. After negotiating the muddy farmyard at Ty'n-yr-allt we walked through woodland losing some height gained before climbing to the summit on a good track on the edge of the wood. This section was not a public right of way but we were on access land from SJ 165154 onward as we climbed to the top. This was a most pleasant walk which took just 30 minutes. On the way up I removed my jacket and inadvertently dropped my camera. This was retrieved on our way down. Unfortunately this meant I was unable to take my usual photos on the summit! 


We operated for 26 minutes on VHF 2m FM and completed 16 contacts using 30 watts to a dipole. Returning to the car by 2.30pm we neaded north to our 3rd activation of the day which was Gyrn Moelfre NW-049. 

Wales - November 2013 - Day One - Summit Three - Gyrn Moelfre NW-049

A 35 minute drive from NW-049 Allt y Main took us west of Llansilin to a roadside parking place at grid reference SJ179301 north of Fron, where we walked to the summit of Gyrn Moelfre NW-049 


The bridleway has been diverted to a point where it leaves the metalled road and follows a fence uphill.

When I got out of the car I noticed something rusty by the roadside. Geoff recognised the hand tool I picked up as a pair of Dagging Shears, often used for cleaning sheep's behinds. Here they are on my shack wall back at home:

Continuing up the newly established bridleway (not shown on older maps) we reached a gate turning right on to the original line of the bridleway which finishes up at Moeliwrch. When we saw a fence we followed it uphill, climbing one gate. Strictly speaking this was not access land, which was entered when we were within 100m of the trig point of Gyrn Moelfre by climbing a fence. It took us 32 minutes to reach the summit from the car. 

The writer who operated with the callsign GW4OBK/P from Gyrn Moelfre
It wasn't far off sunset when we started operating using 30 watts output from a Yaesu FT-1500M into a vertical dipole. We completed 12 contacts before moving off to activate our 4th and last summit of the day which we knew would be in the dark. We could see the summit, NW-060 Mynydd-y-briw below us, thanks to the prominent Arquiva communications mast on its top: 

GW/NW-060 Mynydd y briw as seen from GW/NW-049  Gyrn Moelfre 3.5 Km away

Wales - November 2013 - Day One - Summit Four - Mynydd-y-Briw NW-060

Part of our route to NW-060 from NW-049. Some roads were farm tracks -  see text below
Our 20 minute drive from Gyrn Moelfre to a parking place for Mynydd-y-briw was rather puzzling, but presumably is quite normal in parts of Wales. When I see a C Class road marked on either a 1:25 or 1:50K map as yellow I assume it to be tarmac. Not so in Wales. These rural roads can turn out to be any surface!  At crossroads SJ 185274 where we hoped to turn left we saw a sign saying "Unsuitable for Motor Vehicles" so we avoided that lane and continued on, eventually turning left to pass the farm of Lloran-ganol to reach the T junction at SJ 181270 where we turned right. The roads were still unmetalled but improved as we neared the parking place at a gate for NW-060 - grid ref SJ 178260. A steep tarmac track heads uphill from here to the Arqiva Communication mast on the summit.  The walk up took just six minutes and it was dark. 

We operated at the fence around 100m north of the comms mast and suffered no problems with RF breakthrough into the front end of the Yaesu FT-1500M.


M6PYG (2E0NON from Jan 2014) operating in the dark on Mynydd-y-briw GW/NW-060
We made contact with 8 stations on 2m FM using 30 watts of power to the vertical dipole in less than 20 minutes. Leaving the summit we made our way back to the A5 roundabout at Welshpool for our usual KFC bucket of fast food. Geoff departed back home to Malvern whilst I drove north to Llangollen to spend a nights B&B at the economically priced Abbey Grange Hotel which is at the south end of the Horseshoe Pass, north of Llangollen. This hostelry was perfectly placed for my plans to activate five more summits in North Wales the next day. 

Friday 8 November 2013

GM4OBK revisits Criffel - SS-130 - 8th November 2013

We took the footpath from Ardwall Mains Car Park up to Criffel and returned the same way
Friday: Criffel 3m return walk with 1670 ft ascent

Before I got into fellwalking in the Lake District and elsewhere Judy and I used to enjoy spending our holidays in Dumfries & Galloway.  The area is uncommercialised, the roads are quiet and there are few people to bother you. In 2002 we stopped going there regularly, although I had a recent solo summit bagging visit in October 2013.

As we were heading home after a weeks holiday in Keswick with the Ramblers, we used the opportunity on the last day, to make a detour into Scotland to revisit the summit of Criffel and activate it on VHF 145 MHz FM for Summits On The Air. Our visit also gave us an opportunity to have a lunch in Dumfries at Pumpernickel, one of our favourite cafe's.

Judy heads up towards Criffel on the graded path before the moorland
After speaking with Mark MM1MPB about the route he usually takes up to Criffel, and looking at the time we had to spare, we chose the easiest option from Ardwall Mains where there is plenty of parking. The path was very well graded until we got above the tree line beyond the intake fence at NX 959629. From then on it got pretty boggy with the occasional freshwater spring coming on to the moor.

Looking back to the Solway Firth on our way up to the summit of Criffel
We set off at 11.00 am from the car and reached Douglas's Cairn - the enormous pile of stones on the top, 80 minutes later. 
A good day to be at the trig point on Criffel SS-130
I set up the station - an Yaesu FT-1500M 2m transceiver running 40 watts output from a 4 Amp LiPO battery. The antenna was a half wave dipole around 3m above ground on the 569m high summit. There were plenty of stations worked in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. 

SOTA Mapping Project Map (thanks Rob DM1CM)

Best DX on 2m FM was 114 miles / 184 Km to Victor GI4ONL in Bushmills Northern Ireland
We had a biscuit and a drink at the trig point and remained there for 45 minutes. The views were tremendous that day. It took 55 minutes to return to the car, and we headed into Dumfries town centre for a late lunch at our favourite cafe. 

The writer after bagging one more SOTA Complete on SS-130
The town was in better shape than we had seen it ten years earlier, there were few empty shops. Dumfries seemed to have done better than other areas, and it looked like it was prospering well. We took a drive north after lunch up to Auldgirth to look at a cottage we once owned before setting off back home to North Yorkshire. We made it home at 7.30 pm after an enjoyable day  with another SOTA "Complete" in the shape of Criffel GM/SS-130 confirmed. 

Thursday 7 November 2013

A Lake District Fellwalking week with Ryedale Ramblers

The first week in November saw me and XYL Judy taking a walking holiday with our local Ryedale Ramblers Group. It seemed only right as we had been on the waiting list for this holiday for three years and I was after all, the Ryedale Group 2013 Chairman!  

Every year the whole Ryedale Ramblers Group take over the HF Holidays Hotel at Derwentbank near Keswick in early November for five days. The holiday is always over subscribed and finally, we had reached the top of the waiting list! The holiday is ably organised by Ann Laing and the walks are led by volunteer members of which I am one. I offered the organising team the choice of two led walks - a linear walk up the Halls Fell Ridge on to Blencathra and back to Keswick, or  a walk from Ashness Bridge taking in the four Wainwrights of Walla Crag, Bleaberry Fell, High Seat and High Tove. They chose the boggy walk of the two from Ashness Bridge which was not too popular - only four of us chose to undertake the walk! 

The walking week starts on Monday when members gather near Keswick in late morning for a half day walk. This wasn't for us as we had other business that day and so we reached the hotel in time to check in at around dusk. 

Tuesday: 8.75 miles with 2250 ft ascent

On Tuesday we both chose to join a walk led by Ann Laing in the little visited Uldale Fells east of Bassenthwaite lake. Here is our route:

We bagged five Wainwrights in the day - all new ones for Judy
We set out from near the lake called Over Water. The first Wainwright was Great Cockup followed by Meal Fell, Great Sca Fell, Brae Fell (lunch spot) and finally Longlands Fell. 

The ladies on the walk on their way to climb Great Cockup
As usual on the Wainwrights I took my VHF radio and completed 14 contacts on the five fells including one with John 2E0JBG who was also portable on nearby Binsey. 

Wednesday: 7.8 miles with 2030 ft ascent

Phil (Blogger) - Andrew - Ken and Linda at Ashness Bridge
Our route 
On Wednesday it was my turn to lead. After informing the members that the walk was expected to be boggy in parts my numbers were down. After some cajoling I persuaded Andrew and Ken (71) along with the willing Linda, to join me on a walk I previously did in March 2010 with Judy. That previous walk did include the dreaded and wet Armboth Fell, but I was not to include that Wainwright in my walk today or I would have been even more unpopular! 

We shared my car and parked up at the NT Ashness Bridge Car Park. At 9.40am we set off on the excellent path up over the top of Falcon Crag which led us on to Lady's Rake and Walla Crag. Retreating we made for Bleaberry Fell which was reached at 11.40am. The ground was pretty well waterlogged from then on but it became worse beyond our next Wainwright of High Seat. Whilst negotiating the bogs Ken fell twice. The first time it wasn't so bad, but the second time he fell full bodily into the murk. This made it necessary (understandably) for Ken to use "industrial language"! Andrew (Ken's nephew) and I managed to pull Ken out of the bog. When we reached High Tove the well equipped Linda had a spare pair of hiking socks for Ken to wear. This was after Ken had removed his trousers and substituted his over-trousers in place of them!

The state poor Ken was in after falling in the bog near High Tove
All in all we had a laugh about the incident. Ken took it in good heart as we headed downhill to Watendlath and then back to Ashness Bridge, which was reached just before 4.00pm. 12 contacts were completed using just a handheld transceiver and quarter wavelength whip, with contacts as far south as Lancaster (Sue G1OHH) on the three activated summits for Wainwrights On The Air . 

My Ramblers fellwalking pals for the day before we took to bog trotting Linda, Ken and Andrew

Thursday: 7.6 miles with 2915 ft ascent


We had a changeable day on the Thursday with squally showers. A group of around ten of us we set off from Little Town to climb Hindscarth at 0925 am led by Ian Reavill from the York Ramblers. We were to climb directly to Hindscarth on a route I had wanted to try for several years, before continuing on to our highest point of Dale Head (SOTA LD-020) prior to lunch which we had at Dale Head Tarn. The last two Wainwright's to be visited were High Spy and Maiden Moor. At the Hause Gate col we dropped down left past the spoil heaps back to Little Town. Here is a picture of Swinside against the backdrop of the Skiddaw Massif. 


I met several Ramblers on this walk who I hadn't come across before as well as a couple of old friends. We arrived back at Little Town by 3.20 pm and returned for hot drinks to Derwentbank. The weather hadn't been good but it could have been a lot worse. 




Using again just a 2m band FM handheld and quarter wave whip I completed 16 contacts on the 4 Wainwright's visited. The furthest contacts were into Scotland and down as far south as Lancaster on the low power basic equipment I used. 

This was our last day on our Ramblers holiday, however with a better forecast for Southern Scotland on Friday I decided that it was time we revisited the summit of Criffel near New Abbey just south of Dumfries. See my later blog... 

Friday 25 October 2013

Wales & Borders - October 2013 Trip - Day Three: 1. Burrow WB-014

Our route off the summit of Burrow back to Hopesay
Friday October 25th 2013

We planned four activations on Day Three of my October 2013 visit to stay with my fell walking pal Geoff M6PYG / 2E0NON in Malvern. The two and a half days were spent driving around and tramping the hills in an area stretching from Abergavenny up to Church Stretton. I needed to bag my last few Welsh Border Marilyns and today I would finish them and hopefully make plenty of SOTA contacts whilst doing it. 

We left Cradley near Malvern with Geoff driving for an hour or so north over the Ridgeway, to Bromyard, Leominster and Ludlow. We left the A49 before we reached Craven Arms to park in Hopesay - our start point for a walk up the Shropshire Way to the summit of Burrow. 

Our chosen route was not the best and we found a much better route down when we discovered a notice stating that the landowner had signed up to an environmental scheme allowing the public to use some of his fields that were not public rights of way.  Walking across this land (picked out on the map above) allowed easier access to the summit of Burrow.  The best way to the highest point is to follow the Shropshire Way to the field corner at SO 3825 8364.  Turn left here and head for the woodland ahead of you. At SO 3821 8337 enter the wood through a gate and turn left to follow the track up to the summit, turning right at SO 3838 8314. The gamekeeper was out feeding the hundreds of pheasants being raised here, and like most gamekeepers from my experience, he wasn't over-friendly shall we say, when he spoke to us briefly.

M6PYG operating on 2m FM in the early morning autumn sunshine on Burrow G/WB-014
The take off from the summit was excellent and we really liked Burrow, this was well managed land and a most pleasant place to be. We were on the air at 0845z working Andy G8MIA in Rugeley, Staffordshire. As on previous days our best DX contact on 2m FM was with the well equipped station of Don G0RQL near Holsworthy, Devon - a distance of 197 Km or 123 miles. We were pleased with the performance of our portable station - a recent use purchase of a Yaesu FT-1500M.  We used 30 watts from a 3 cell LiPO cell. The aerial was a vertical dipole. We made just six contacts before we left to head into Wales to determine if we could hear Don from from the more distant summit of GW/MW-031 Caeliber Isaf. 

Wales & Borders - October 2013 Trip - Day Three: 2. Caeliber Isaf MW-031

Our GPS track from Camp Farm Cottages to the summit of Caeliber Isaf
After leaving Burrow G/WB-014 we made for our only Welsh summit of the day, Caeliber Isaf, (a field top) two miles south of the town of Montgomery in Mid-Wales. Our 40 minute drive took us up a road to a parking area next to some holiday cottages at Camp Farm, where we parked without being approached.

Parking place for our walk up Caeliber Isaf GW/MW-031
Colourful fungi on Caeliber Isaf
We walked down the bridleway with the cottages on our right to a gate. The bridleway went left downhill to some woodland. At SO 2065 9314 as we started to regain some height we left the bridleway and climbed over an awkwardly hung gate. We then followed a fence uphill alongside the wood, before going half right after the next gateway to the highest point of the summit. (15 mins walk from the car).  

We set the station up alongside a fence and enjoyed the best VHF propagation to the north over the three day expedition. We didn't do so well to the south though - and failed to hear regular chaser Don G0RQL from Devon.

The writer and the view from the top field on Caeliber Isaf GW/MW-031
Our best DX to the north was with our good friend WOTA and SOTA enthusiast Colin, G4UXH in Milnthorpe at a distance of 191 Km / 119 miles. We only stayed fifteen minutes and worked six other stations, MW3PZO, M6BLV, M0ZVR, 2E0XYL, G6WRW and G6ODU before returning over the border to England and Heath Mynd G/WB-007.  

Wales & Borders - October 2013 Trip - Day Three: 3. Heath Mynd WB-007

The shortest route up to the summit of Heath Mynd is very straightforward
A 40 minute drive from the mid-Wales summit of Caeliber Isaf (MW-031) brought us to the minor (mostly) metalled road which borders the south west side of Heath Mynd which is completely access land. This was my penultimate Welsh Borders summit - my last one was to follow later in the afternoon when we climbed Caer Caradoc.

Corndon Hill MW-013 on the other side of the Welsh Border - pictured on our ascent of Heath Mynd

We parked on the grass triangle with the information board at SO 329938 and walked the track going NNE to then turn and approach the summit from the north (25 mins to summit). My GPX track can be downloaded from the SOTA Mapping Project Website . We had a great view of Corndon Hill from the top of Heath Mynd. We set up our station by the trig point in a dry stone shelter amongst the heather. 13 contacts were completed on 2m FM with the usual Yaesu FT-1500M supplying 30 watts RF output to the dipole.


Settled in the comfortable shelter on Heath Mynd Phil G4OBK left Geoff M6PYG (2E0NON) right
The weather was still fine when we left the summit at 1.00pm but you could see that rain was not far away. The road surface improved as we departed the parking place to the south to rejoin the A488 at Pitcholds on our way to Church Stretton and Caer Caradoc. 

Wales & Borders - October 2013 Trip - Day Three: 4. Caer Caradoc Hill WB-006

Our route from the car to the top of Caer Caradoc (38 mins)
After leaving Heath Mynd we headed for Church Stretton where I was later to catch a train back to Yorkshire. We bypassed the town and turned right off the A49 a little to the north. A footpath leaves the lane at lower Botvyle but there was no parking here so we drove back almost to the the A49 where there is. Walking back we left the road to walk through a yard - the path is waymarked but the helpful and friendly lady who lives at the last house at Lower Botvyle was happy to point the way. It's certainly a unusual entrance to the public right of way through the yard. After a couple of stiles the path soon heads smartly uphill. The story is told by the contours on the 1:25000 OS Map.... It has been said by some that Corndon Hill is steep, I disagree with this, but Caer Caradoc certainly is, with 900 feet of ascent over a relatively short distance, compared with the nearby Corndon Hill which has less than 500 feet of climbing.   

We reached the top to see that the weather was changing with a storm coming in rapidly from the south. After surveying the whole top, which was most interesting, we hunkered down below some rocks, managing to truss our fishing pole and antenna with the help of some rope.

Geoff's looking happy before the storm as he stays the antenna behind some rocks on Caer Caradoc WB-006
The 15 minute long SOTA operation commenced and we completed 10 contacts with best DX up the Milnthorpe and our friend Colin G4UXH, a distance of 185 Km / 115 miles. Towards our final contacts the hailstorm started, so we hurriedly packed up our comms gear and headed off back down to the hill with too much speed - it would have been fine in the dry but after slipping twice on the lying hailstones I favoured discretion to valour and slowed right down. The hail turn to torrential rain for the last mile back to the car. It was worth the soaking though - this was the last of 23 Welsh Borders Marilyns I had now climbed - the first few were climbed and activated in 2006 when Judy (XYL) and I walked the Mortimer Trail long distance walk from Kington to Ludlow.

The three day operation now complete we headed for Church Stretton where we found a pub.  The barman told us not to sit in the upholstered seats as we looked like a pair of drowned rats! After a swift half pint at 5.00pm the nearby fish and chip cafe opened so we gave them our business, before Geoff drove me to the railway station in time to catch the crowded 17.40pm Cardiff to Manchester Piccadilly train. The connecting train at Manchester to Scarborough was cancelled due to a suicide on the line earlier in the day. This meant when I finally reached York Station at 22.45pm.  It was too late to continue my journey to Malton by train as the last one to Scarborough departed 15 minutes earlier. So along with four other passengers (who were all ladies) a taxi was provided by the rail company to take us to our final destinations....it wasn't such a bad journey after all as the ladies were very chatty and good company.  After getting back home within a few days I was already thinking about a further trip into Wales to climb more Marilyns for Summits On The Air. 

Thursday 24 October 2013

Wales & Borders - October 2013 Trip - Day Two: 1. Bradnor Hill WB-011

Day Two (Thursday) on my sojourn by train down to the Welsh Border area - and an early start in darkness. With six summit activations in England and Wales planned in the day we needed to be up at 5.00am and away before 6.00am so we had maximum use of the daylight. 
We headed north out of Malvern with Geoff driving and yours truly on the maps. Our destination was Kington Golf Course near the Welsh Border where we had an appointment with the "summit" of Bradnor Hill WB-011. The golf course is on access land, so no problem there with us being accused of trespass. Not that there were any golfers - we arrived in the dark and in mist at 07.00 am! We parked at SO 2867 5816 where the dog walkers park. A warning sign there states no vehicle beyond that point. You trek across heathland with gorse in evidence to the highest point on the golf course (391m) where there is a small wooden shed....


Here is Geoff M6PYG (2E0NON) sat in comfort operating on the golf course of Bradnor Hill WB-011. There was a high pressure inversion but no lift conditions and only five stations were worked. We were running 30 watts to a vertical dipole 3m above ground. 

We stayed for 15 minutes and then left to head for our 2nd summit of the day Hergest Ridge WB-008. 

Wales & Borders - October 2013 Trip - Day Two: 2. Hergest Ridge WB-008

Fifteen minutes after leaving Bradnor Hill golf links in Geoff's Subaru we were walking up Offa's Dyke path in mist up to the top of Hergest Ridge.


The 1.8 Km walk from Ridgebourne Road to the summit of Hergest Ridge
Mike Oldfield (Songwriter and Musician) would have appreciated the atmospheric aura we experienced on the 40 minute steady walk up to the stones on the summit.  The mist was coming and going with the temperature inversion taking place around us. This was a most memorable walk just after sunrise, as these photos indicate - our early start was paying us a dividend:

The beauty of the Welsh Borders captured as we made for Hergest Ridge on Offa's Dyke
We looked across the valley towards Bradnor Hill WB-011 a mere 2 Km away
Wild ponies grazing at the Whet Stone 800m from the summit stones

The mist came down and shrouded us on the top - the stones are located at  the highest point
We stayed on the summit for half an hour and completed just six contacts using the usual 2m FM equipment.  Our return to the parking place at the top of Ridgebourne Road (SO 281567) took us 35 minutes and we sped off into Wales to activate Gwaunceste Hill next - SOTA Reference GW/MW-010.