Balix Hill, GI/SM-012 - 403m ASL - H 475 962 - OSNI Discoverer 13 - 2 SOTA points            

GI SOTA Trip - Activation #17 - Balix Hill GI/SM-012 - Friday 3rd June 2016

The drive from Owenreagh Hill GI/SM-011 was very short, probably why Jimmy paired these summits together in his planning. I pulled onto a verge at H480956 to park. We dropped a few metres down the road then left onto a green track that contoured around the hill in a mainly northerly direction.

The research from Jimmy advised to count four gates before turning left to climb to the summit. This was all straightforward enough, but the climbing bit was tiring after five consecutive days of doing this stuff! Then again, although our bodies were tired, our stamina was now very good, so we could plod along at a consistent pace (consistent to ourselves, not to each other you understand).

The summit was featureless apart from a fence running over it. Jimmy set up his MFD and got his four 2m FM QSOs without stress. I also had a simple activation, with six contacts on 40m CW. We packed up and descended, about 20 minutes walk back to the car.  We'd worked out earlier that the cut off time to quit SOTAing and get on the road to the ferry port was 1920 BST. We were back at the car just before 2pm. That meant one thing - all systems go for a fourth activation!