Following our descent of Great Whernside G/NP-008, and checking that young Penelope was content to wait at Tor Dyke for another 5 hours or so, we crossed the road to begin our campaign on Buckden Pike G/NP-009.  We followed the paths on the first section, and a disgruntled Jimmy began to complain. "Where's the bog?" he enquired. "I was looking forward to doing a walk in bog". Some people have very unusual preferences - just check out DDQ's taste in weather. And who was it that likened walking in bog to walking on Axminster carpet? I had heard from several reliable sources that Buckden Pike is very boggy, but Steve G1INK advised me to do it at the end of August when it would be all dried up. That was without reckoning with the evil forces of G0OXV treating our fair and pleasant land to the wettest August on record! Suffice to say, Bogden Pike was NOT all dried up, and Jimmy got his bog!

       

The PROW route to the summit would have been difficult to pick out without the help of the OS Explorer 1:25000 map, but I always carry these, and managed to get up to the first objective, Top Mere Top. Now we started the serious bogtrotting as we made our way along to the Memorial Cross, and to the summit.

At the summit, we set up on the cairn and worked four stations. Then I heard G4RQJ call me. Then the battery ran out. The spare battery needed charging - I have been doing so many activations lately that there has barely been time to recharge in between them! It was 4pm. I had a choice.  Unscrew the FT-817 cover, remove the NiMHs, install the battery tray, stick 8 AAs in, screw in the cover, and work Rob - OR - pack up and descend. In the previous 10 minutes, the temperature had dropped sharply, as I discussed with a D of E instructor up there, and I had a two hour descent in the bog and a 3 hour drive home to follow.  So my decision.....?  Rob, I am very very sorry, I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive etc etc......

       

After descent, we drove back into Kettlewell, and a very nice pint of real ale in one of the local pubs. We were then pegged back incessantly by cars coming the other way on the narrow single-track lane out of the village, and later the mother of all queues at a set of temporary lights that weren't there that morning. Two superb haddock & chips from the chippy in Foulridge refreshed the enthusiasm, helped along by a friendly voice in the form of Mike G4BLH.  Further on in my journey home, I played on the new North Manchester echolink repeater GB3MI, and enjoyed a long QSO with Rod VK5SX in Adelaide 

Callsign today was GX4BJC/P, club callsign of the International Short Wave League.  Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM: