Cross Slieve, GI/AH-011 - 206m ASL - D 236 295 - OSNI Discoverer 5 - 1 SOTA point            

Thursday 2nd December 2021

In an uncanny repetition of navigating to Slieveanorra GI/AH-003 earlier the same morning, I needed to review the parking point.  I got to where I’d placed the satnav waypoint from memory, but it was a gate with clearly no access.  I couldn't work out whether I was at the correct place from my previous activation but that the access situation had change - or if I was just at the wrong spot.  I drove around a bit, but couldn’t find the access road I remembered/recognised.  A bit of research on the http://mountainviews.ie offered an alternative.

I drove around to the east (seaward) side of the hill and approached via a transmitter access road.  The summit was just a couple of fields beyond the mast compound and an easy five minute walk. The third time I’ve activated this summit, and the third different route used!  Five QSOs - two on 40m CW and three on 30m CW.  Fairly unremarkable but I didn’t mind as I needed to get back down to Ballygally.  I wondered if conditions were down or more if the Alexloop is somewhat less potent without the helping hands of a salt water groundplane and a distant horizon!

It was nearly time to go home.  I drove back down to Ballygally, picked up Maz and Liam, then headed down into Larne.  We had lunch in a quirky cafe bar called Steady Eddie's.  The proprietor and chef - Eddie - was a Filipino gentleman who served everything from Far Eastern cuisine to Ulster Fries!  Marianne made a final call in to see her dad, we spent a bit of time wandering around Belfast, and finally caught the overnight boat for the return crossing.