Bredon Hill, G/CE-003 - 299m ASL - SO 958 402 - OS Explorer 190 - 1 SOTA point           

SOTA road trip, Day 6 - Thursday 6th August 2020

After Cleeve Hill G/CE-001, it was a thankfully short drive north through Bishop's Cleeve and then the village of Kemerton.  At the top of the long cul-de-sac lane I parked in one of the few spaces beside the road, making sure I kept the turning area clear.  I had walked Bredon Hill many times before, but this would be the first time I'd done it after dark.

The dark definitely made a difference!  I completely missed the left turn to head past the tower to the summit, only realising this when I noticed some unfamiliar features on the ground!  It wasn't disastrous though, as I'd still been gaining height.  I check the OS mapping and realised I simply needed to bear left along the ramparts of the Iron Age fort.  I was soon at the stone I recognised as marking the summit.

This would prove to be challenging to record a 17m contact on this activation.  The band was closing down quickly.  It would have to be FT8 to stand any chance whatsover.  I only managed one QSO, yet amazingly, this came from Venezuela!  I unleashed the handheld and called CQ on 2m FM, adding the other three contacts required for the activation point, fairly quickly and easily.

Another darkness-induced concentration lapse on the descent resulted in me missing the right turning for the main descent path.  This meant me finding myself at Lalu Farm, so after another consultation with the map, I turned right to head down the footpath to "The Belt", and then back onto the correct path.  Not too much time was lost!  It was midnight by the time I was back in the car, but at least I only had a drive of a few minutes to my accommodation in Tewkesbury.  I wasted no time in getting into bed and off to sleep, ahead of an early start out to Worcestershire Beacon G/WB-009 in the morning.