We had selected Cornwall - Holywell Bay near Newquay to be precise - for our family holiday of 2005.  I doubt we will return; the places didn't really live up to their spectacular billing, everywhere we went seemed to attract an unhealthy collection of rude and arrogant tourists (and young locals depressingly), the roads were gridlocked throughout the week as well as the changeover Saturdays, the entertainment was a joke, the beds were damp and the weather was rubbish.  Plus it was far too far to drive, considering we had a contrastingly brilliant holiday in neighbouring Devon last year, which was remarkably well over 100 miles closer to home! However, Jimmy and myself, of course, undertook three SOTA activations during the week, and these were the highlights of the week.  The only other good bits were exploring around Lizard Point (the most southerly point of mainland Britain) and watching the huge waves crashing explosively against the old lifeboat station and some wonderful freshly baked enormous steak Cornish pasties - so on with the SOTA stuff...

We set off on Friday 22nd July 2005 as soon as I had got home from work and loaded the cases and rucksacks into the car.  Birmingham would have been a no-go area at this time on a Friday, so I headed across Cheshire to attack the A49 down through Shropshire.  This proved useful as I was able to work a couple of the early BBQ activations courtesy of Steve GW1INK, and David GW7WAW - congratulations on the debut David.  Roger - bring the date back to late June/early July again next year, and Jimmy, Liam and myself will bring back that decent weather for you!  You should know by now you cannot rely on G0OXV!  After a scare where all the lodges from Bristol to Exeter appeared to be full, we located a hotel between Bridgwater and Taunton with a family room, so a night in the car was avoided. We completed the journey on Saturday 23rd July, and this was straightforward and included my first ever chaser points from the DC region, with self-confessed soft Southern jessies James M0ZZO and Matt 2E0XIS being worked on High Willays G/DC-001. 

Meanwhile, two days later, Marianne awoke me just after 6am BST on Monday 25th July 2005, telling me that Jimmy was already up and getting ready to go.  I joined him for an uncharacteristic pre-activation breakfast of cereal and milk in our static caravan, and we were on the road by 6.45am.  We followed the A30 down to Redruth, and then turned to follow the road to Helston.  As this rose up, there was a left turning signpost "Carnmenellis".  At a sharp bend in the road, a track led off.  We drove up the track and parked on some waste ground. 

We walked up the continuation of the track, which became rough and quickly less distinct.  Soon we were wading through trackless heather and making slow but steady progress towards the highly visible so-near-and-yet-so-far trig point.  The latter did not have a cap in it, so guys were not used. Now it was time to commence battle with the notorious southern VHF vacuum.  In actual fact, it was not too (relatively) bad, with four 2m FM contacts coming in 31 minutes.  This comprised one station "mugged" from a repeater, two stations having a local chat and "broken" into, with one of these then using his phone-a-friend lifeline to provide my 4th and qualifying contact.  These stations were found chatting on 145.225 MHz, which they assured me was the local monitor and chat frequency down here.  Last year, the nominated frequency was 144.725 MHz when I chanced upon it from Kit Hill G/DC-003.

We had just packed up and began our descent when we were called back by shouting.  We turned to see a lady, presumably resident at the adjacent property, and a police officer!  A friendly chat about our activities ensued, and it turned out that the lady had thought she had seen us in the adjacent compound that contained the large transmitter mast!  The officer took my name and address "for the record", and we began our descent for a second time.  We were back at the holiday park by 11.45am BST.  

Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts: