From the end of the Moel Gyw GW/NW-053 walk, it was a 20 minute drive to the Ponderosa car park on the A542 Horseshoe Pass road. This was our second time here this year, having activated GW/NW-043 Cyrn-y-Brain back in the winter bonus period. Now it was time for the long undulating walk to Moel y Gamelin GW/NW-042. This starts with a climb to Moel y Faen, 548m ASL, followed by a 70m drop to a coll before the long steady rise to the summit. On the first section of the walk, I made three chaser contacts. Two were very local - Charlie GW0PZO/P on GW/NW-051 Foel Fenlli and Richard GW3CWI/P on GW/NW-053 Moel Gyw, while the other was Martin M1MAJ/P on Gummers How G/LD-050 - pleasing DX on my 230mW handheld!

Upon reaching the small summit cairn on Moel y Gamelin, it was time to unleash the flask of soup, and indeed it was the first point in the day we were in need of warming up. Mushroom today, so not as spicy, but not every corner shop sells mulligatawny! What sounded like a rumble of thunder sounded in the very faint distance, although it could have been a traffic noise. There was also now a constant fine drizzle, so I wasn't going to be hanging around too long. My cheap biro and soggy paper exercise book were about as much use as a chocolate fireguard for log keeping, but fortunately Mike G4BLH was back to work me on my 3rd summit, and offered to take down all me log details for emailing back later. This offer, needless to say, was gratefully accepted. The best DX from this one was G4WUH/M in Gloucester, off the back of the SOTA Beam, and I was only using 1 watt.

We reached the car just after 5pm, and were home just after 7pm. Good job we had been in Wales - the fine drizzle turned to torrential rain as we crossed the border back into G-land, and amateurs on the GB3MN repeater said it had been like that all day over on this side. Back at home, me, Jimmy and Liam were all very tired, but also very hungry. Our bodies just instantly burned anything we put down our throats, and Marianne was fascinated at the spectacle of Liam (6) demolishing an enormous plate of toad-in-the-hole, roast potatoes, cauliflower and gravy at unprecedented speed. Liam was the star of today's walking. It must be one of the longest day's walking he has ever had, but he showed great strength and enthusiasm throughout, and even led Jimmy (who is now a very fast walker) through much of the day. His asthma troubles him far less than previously these days - yet another thing to thank SOTA for!

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 1 watt: