Day 3 - Tuesday 27th July 2010 - Bodmin Moor's summit and an evening contest

       

Although the weather didn't look too promising, the forecast for Wednesday was great - and I had promised Liam a beach day on the first good day. Leaving a significant walk like Brown Willy until (at least) the Thursday could pile pressure on the rest of our South West SOTA ambitions, so I argued the case for tackling Bodmin Moor's highest point on this rather damp Tuesday.

               

Jimmy argued the case for a longer but main road route down the A30 to Bodmin and then A39 to Camelford. It was here that we breakfasted on yummy warm freshly baked steak pasties, before heading down Roughtor Road to the large car park at SX137819.  Here we sat in the car listening to BBC Radio Cornwall and Atlantic FM for a while watching and hoping for the rain to ease. As it petered to a fine drizzle, we decided to go for it, kitted up and dropped down the descending path to the stone bridge. We pressed straight on ahead and up the long and gradual grassy path that bisects Showery Tor and Little Rough Tor, reaching about 375m ASL.

   

The route then dropped diagonally down the other side of Rough Tor, to a gate marked 'Brown Willy Path'. This was the steepest part of the route, but it didn't last for too long, and we summitted soon after in deteriorating weather - heavier rain and strong wind.  There wasn't a great deal of room on the summit, but fortunately the only place with a bit of space to erect antennas coincided with the best available shelter, down below the trig on its North West side. Liam fired up his Nintendo DS, Jimmy the VX-110 and SOTA Beam, and me the FT-817 and 40m dipole.

       

Ironically, for the poor weather activation, where a quick turnaround would have been welcome, I was treated to a bigger pile-up on 40m CW, rattling through 21 QSOs in 21 minutes. Jimmy still hadn't completed his objective and was stranded on three 2m FM contacts, so he took over the 817 and bagged a couple on 40m SSB.

   

After dropping down off Brown Willy, we decided to try to follow Richard G4ERP's route around the south of Rough Tor. Unfortunately, Jimmy's liking for a direct line got the better of him. I wanted to avoid gaining any height and take a wide loop around, but Jimmy insisted on climbing over the shoulder of Rough Tor.

   

This proved to be one of those extremely rare occasions when I was right and he was wrong, for we were soon cut off from where we needed to be by a boulder field. Some slow and careful mild scrambling was required to take us back onto safer moorland terrain, and over to the car park. But all four of us made it safely, and we were soon cranking up the car heater and removing all wet garments we could without infringing on decency laws.

   

It was down to Bodmin for an early evening meal in a shopping mall cafe then straight back to the campsite for a shower and change, ahead of the intended 6m contest night on Kit Hill G/DC-003.  Thanks to all the following stations worked by Jimmy and I: