Dropping down the road from Normanby Top G/TW-005 on Thursday 31st October 2013, I was preoccupied with looking for signposts to the Humber Bridge. These were picked up soon enough, and I was on my way to Bishop Wilton Wold G/TW-004.  The Humber Bridge is a magnificent spectacle from all angles, and I enjoyed my second crossing of it. The toll of £1.50 was less than I was anticipating and seemed rather good value. I then needed to recheck my list of directions in my logbook frequently in order to emerge, right on 5.30pm, on the A166 over Garrowby Hill. Within a couple of minutes I was pulling into the layby beside the enclosure which contains the covered reservoirs and the summit trig point.

       

It was now dark, so the first job was to don the Petzl headtorch. It was also cold, and noisy, with a heavy flow of fast moving traffic across the A166 just a few feet away. I identified a sort of sheltered and relatively cosy spot on some flat grass where I could use the fence as a backrest as my operating spot. I then cracked on with getting the 12m antenna set up.  The problem was that the 12m band had all but died. Just five QSOs were made, three on CW and two on SSB. Remarkably, two of the callers were stateside, but the other three were all groundwave contacts within the county of Yorkshire. Furthermore, only one of my five incoming reports gave me a readability of 5! But it was nonetheless five good contacts, another point and another multiplier. Job done. I could now relax and finish my flask of Sainsbury's "Taste the Difference" Seafood Chowder.

All that remained was to take the A166 towards York, the A64 towards Leeds, the M62 towards Manchester, the M60 towards Stockport, the A34 towards Congleton and the A537 back home to Macclesfield. This was a familiar run from the days when I used to get a lot of work as a bass player with bands playing in York, Leeds, Harrogate and Bradford. I arrived home at 8.30pm, with 37 QSOs and 3 multipliers to add to the SOTA 12m Challenge pot.  Many thanks for all calls.