So, with Marianne working a night-shift on the Friday night, and Liam safely stowed away at my mother's house for a stopover, it was left to Jimmy and I to get an early night (2355 BST in my case) ahead of a 0500 BST-not-quite-Gerald-esque get-up. With no soup to prepare, we were on the road shortly after 0530 BST on Saturday 24th May 2008, and heading south down the M6.

We made good time through the Midlands and were pulling in at Warwick Services after little more than two hours driving. Two mugs of tea and two full English breakfasts later, we were mobile again, and nervously anticipating joining the car park otherwise known as the M25. The pace slowed right down to 60mph west of Heathrow, and then returned to the normal 70mph (honest, your honour) after only a few minutes. Jimmy's navigation was customarily faultless as he directed me to leave the M25 at J6, head a short way south on the A22, turn left onto the A25 and left again onto the minor road the leads to Botley Hill about 4km away. Radio stations logged in the car included 558 Spectrum Radio (airing the Zee Radio programme), 106.8 Jack FM (Oxford), 91.8 Hayes FM, 87.7 Redstone FM and 101.6 KMFM West Kent.

       

We pulled into a small lay-by on the right-hand side of the road, opposite the entrance to a farm. Children were playing in the garden of the farmhouse as we walked up the driveway. The friendly farmer confirmed that the trig point, about 150 yards away by the roadside fence, was on private land, but that he was happy for us to visit it and do some radio, provided that we weren't planning to camp there!

That said, I thought that 2m HH + RSS would be ideal, and would avoid unleashing tent pegs which might not look so good in the circumstances. I was pleasantly surprised that there was activity to be found, and we were both able to qualify easily.

First one down. Where next? The original plan was to have a day out doing the A27 SE Five while on holiday. Once it was decided that we would take two cars, I figured I could reasonably add a couple more to that. Once it was agreed that Jimmy and I could set off a day early, the plans extended to nine SE summits, leaving just the two Kent hills for another time. As it turned out, our achievements extended well beyond even this most updated and optimistic ambition.

I decided that we should next head to Crowborough G/SE-007 and tackle this famous town centre summit!  Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 5 watts: